Operation Sundevil and the Birth of the EFF

In May 1990, officials from several law enforcement agencies gathered in Phoenix, Arizona, to announce a nationwide crackdown on illegal computer activity. This massive operation, carried out by hundreds of Secret Service and FBI agents, was focused on a new type of crime: Hacking. Yet as Isaac Newton said, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and the reaction to Operation Sundevil was the birth of a new power in the cybersphere: the Electronic Frontier Foundation.