The Hacker Crackdown

The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier is a work of nonfiction by Bruce Sterling first published in 1992.
The book discusses watershed events in the hacker subculture in the early 1990s. The most notable topic covered is Operation Sundevil and the events surrounding the 1987–1990 war on the Legion of Doom network: the Steve Jackson Games, [Inc. v. United States Secret Service#Raid|raid] on Steve Jackson Games, the trial of "Knight Lightning", and the subsequent formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The book also profiles the likes of "Emmanuel Goldstein", the former assistant attorney general of Arizona Gail Thackeray, Federal [Law Enforcement Training Center|FLETC] instructor Carlton Fitzpatrick, Mitch Kapor, and John Perry Barlow.
In 1994, Sterling released the book for the Internet with a new afterword.

Critical reception

, who voiced an unabridged podcast of the book, said it "inspired me politically, artistically and socially".