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memorandum by detailing the planting of computer bombs. 'Only after going to some length describing these allegations does the prosecution state, in passing, that the defendants were not implicated in these crimes [Foundation italics].'

Despite the protests, Riggs was sentenced to twenty-one months and his two colleagues - Grant and Frank Dearden (The Leftist) - to fourteen months each. They also had to make restitutional payments of $233,000 in respect of the value of the 'access devices' found in their possession. The access devices were the IDs and passwords that they had collected from BellSouth during their various raids.

There was no question the Atlanta Three were hackers - and had, without doubt, broken into BellSouth. But the valuation of the 'access devices' - computer codes, telephone card numbers - was highly questionable. As the Foundation asked, how can a value be assessed before it's been used?

But in the new climate engendered by the crackdown everything to do with hacking was suspect. Every self-proclaimed hacker acquired a Secret Service dossier, irrespective of his activities; every hacker with a handle qualified for a bust; every busted hacker was suspected of belonging to the Legion of Doom; and the mere mention of the word Cyberpunk was guaranteed to bring down the full force of the law.

Under the circumstances, Steve Jackson had drawn a full house. Not only did he employ a known hacker - Loyd Blankenship, who had a handle and was a member of LoD as well - he was also engaged in producing a 'hacker handbook' called Cyberpunk.

During the raid on Steve Jackson Games, the Secret Service had confiscated much of the company's computer equipment. Without the equipment the company could barely function. It took months, and the assistance of a Foundation-supplied lawyer specializing in civil liberties issues, before the Feds returned the equipment - some of it, according to Steve, damaged, with valuable data missing.

The Secret Service held on to the equipment as potential evidence for a 'crime' that was never committed. For, while GURPS Cyberpunk does contain information on dumpster diving and social engineering, it is ultimately a game. It is no more a 'handbook on hacking' than, say, this book is. (The game was finally published later that year, without causing any noticeable increase in hacking crimes.)

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