Computers: Triumph of a Hacker Sleuth

How a Minnesota teen-ager cracked a sex-offense case

Peggy Leppik will never forget the day in 1983 when she opened the front door of her house in suburban Golden Valley, Minn., and found three Minneapolis police detectives waiting outside. Someone with a home computer and modem had tapped into the computer of a Minneapolis bank by telephone, and police had traced the calls to her 14-year-old son Peter. "My heart stopped," she says. "But I was confident from the beginning that he hadn't done anything malicious. I have lots of faith and trust in Peter." No charges were filed against Leppik, and his mother's faith was dramatically rewarded last...

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