Underground: Hacking, madness and obsession on the electronic frontierDreyfus, Suelette
Science
Underground: Hacking, madness and obsession on the electronic frontier
Dreyfus, Suelette
Computer crimes -- Australia; Computer hackers -- Australia -- Biography; Computer security -- Australia
The debate flew forward, changing and growing, and expanding beyond
Britain's borders. In Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post asked,
`Is [this] case evidence of a new social phenomenon, with immature and
susceptible minds being damaged through prolonged exposure to personal
computers?' The paper described public fear that Wandii's case would
result in `the green light for an army of computer-literate hooligans
to pillage the world's databases at will, pleading insanity when
caught'.11
By April Fool's Day 1991, more than two weeks after the end of the
court case, Wandii had his own syndrome named after him, courtesy of
The Guardian.
And while Wandii, his mother and his team of lawyers celebrated their
victory quietly, the media reported that the Scotland Yard detectives
commiserated over their defeat, which was considerably more serious
than simply losing the Wandii case. The Computer Crimes Unit was being
`reorganised'. Two experienced officers from the five-man unit were
being moved out of the group. The official line was that the
`rotations' were normal Scotland Yard procedure. The unofficial word
was that the Wandii case had been a fiasco, wasting time and money,
and the debacle was not to be repeated.
In the north, a dark cloud gathered over Pad and Gandalf as their
judgment day approached. The Wandii case verdict might have been cause
for celebration among some in the computer underground, but it brought
little joy for the other two 8lgm hackers.
For Pad and Gandalf, who had already pleaded guilty, Wandii's
acquittal was a disaster.
On 12 May 1993, two months after Wandii's acquittal, Boris Kayser
stood up at the Bar table to put forward Electron's case at the
Australian hacker's plea and sentencing hearing. As he began to speak,
a hush fell over the Victorian County Court.
A tall, burly man with a booming voice, an imperious courtroom
demeanour and his traditional black robes flowing behind him in an
echo of his often emphatic gesticulations, Kayser was larger than
life. A master showman, he knew how to play an audience of courtroom
journalists sitting behind him as much as to the judge in front of
him.
Electron had already stood in the dock and pleaded guilty to fourteen
charges, as agreed with the DPP's office. In typical style, Kayser had
interrupted the long process of the court clerk reading out each
charge and asking whether Electron would plead guilty or not guilty.
With an impatient wave of his hand, Kayser asked the judge to dispense
with such formalities since his client would plead guilty to all the
agreed charges at once. The interjection was more of an announcement
than a question.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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