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Operation Sundevil was a 1990 nationwide United States Secret Service crackdown on "illegal computer hacking activities." It involved raids in approximately fifteen different cities and resulted in three arrests and the confiscation of computers, the contents of electronic bulletin board systems (BBSes), and floppy disks. It was revealed in a press release on May 9, 1990. The arrests and subsequent court cases resulted in the creation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The operation is now seen as largely a public-relations stunt. Operation Sundevil has also been viewed as one of the preliminary attacks on the Legion of Doom and similar hacking groups. The raid on Steve Jackson Games, which led to the court case ''Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service'', is often attributed to Operation Sundevil, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation states that it is unrelated and cites this attribution as a media error. The name comes from the Sundevil football stadium of Arizona State University, near the local Secret Service headquarters from where the investigation and raids were coordinated. ==Background== Prior to 1990, people who manipulated telecommunication systems, known as phreakers, were generally not prosecuted within the United States. The majority of phreakers used software to obtain calling card numbers and built simple tone devices in order to make free telephone calls. A small elite, highly technical segment of phreakers were more interested in information about the inner workings of the telecommunication system than in making free phone calls. Phone companies complained of financial losses from phreaking activities.〔 The switch from analog to digital equipment began to expose more of the inner workings of telephone companies as hackers began to explore the inner workings, switches and trunks. Due to a lack of laws and expertise on the part of American law enforcement, few cases against hackers were prosecuted until Operation Sundevil.〔 However, starting in 1989, the US Secret Service (USS), which had been given authority from Congress to deal with access device fraud as an extension of wire fraud investigations under Title 18 (§ 1029), began to investigate. Over the course of the 18-month-long investigation, the USS gathered alleged evidence of rampant credit card and calling card fraud over state lines. Operation Sundevil allowed multiple Federal law enforcement agencies, particularly the Secret Service and the FBI, to gain valuable expertise on fighting this new form of criminal activity as well as expanding the agencies' budgets. New laws were created to allow federal prosecutors to charge individuals accused of phreaking, hacking, wire, and credit card fraud. Evidence gained from Operation Sundevil allowed law enforcement to convince the United States Congress of the need for additional funding, training, and overall expansion.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Operation Sundevil」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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