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BREAKING AND ENTERING

decided was the home of the mysterious Triludan. Just after 10 p.m. the police knocked on the door; it was opened by a young man, 6'4" tall with thick black hair. His name was Robert Schifreen and yes, he was Triludan the Warrior — as well as Hex and Hexmaniac, two other hacker aliases that had appeared on Prestel. He was arrested and his equipment confiscated. The police were civil and polite: they allowed the suspect to bring his bottle of antihistamine tablets with him. The brand name was Triludan.

Schifreen was taken to Holborn police station to spend the night in the cells. He was charged and released on bail the next day.

At the same time Schifreen was arrested, another raid was taking place in Sheffield at the home of Schifreen's friend and companion, Steve Gold. Gold had also continued to hack Prestel. Along with Schifreen, he had been the most excited by the chance to play with the system. Gold remembers the knock on the door as coming at eight minutes past 10 p.m. When he answered, he found four policemen and three British Telecom investigators, who read him his rights and promptly took him down to the local police station where he spent an uncomfortable night. At 9 a.m. he was driven to London to be charged.

Because at the time there were no laws in Britain addressing computer hacking, the two were charged with forgery — specifically, forging passwords. Five specimen charges were listed in the warrant for Schifreen, four for Gold. The charges involved a total loss of £11 to the Prestel users whose IDs had been hacked. What became known as the Gold and Schifreen case was Britain's first attempt to prosecute for computer hacking.

The case was tried before a jury some twelve months later. At the beginning of the trial the judge told counsel: 'This isn't murder, but it's a very important case. It will set a very important precedent.' After nine days the two were found guilty. Schifreen was fined £750 with £1,000 costs, Gold £600 with £1,000 costs.

The duo appealed against the verdict. After another twelve months the case was heard by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Lane, who ruled that copying an electronic password was not covered by the Forgery Act, and overturned the jury's verdict. The prosecution then appealed that decision, and after yet another twelve month delay, the House

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