Hacker Homecoming

Having paid the price for his computer trespasses, a digital Robin Hood called Phiber Optik is out of jail and back online

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Phiber says he had no interest in anything so venal. He adheres to a self- styled "hacker ethic," which justifies any computer intrusion as long as the motive is pure. In his mind, he was studying the phone system as an architecture student would the floor plan for a cathedral: as a thing of beauty. Still, when Secret Service agents began investigating telephone- company complaints, they found his digital footprints everywhere. During one six-month period, according to Secret Service logs, he broke into AT&T computers in Chicago and Portland, Maine, 69 times.

In the summer of 1992 Phiber and four MOD members were indicted for their computer trespasses. Phiber was the last to plead guilty, insisting to the end that he had done nothing wrong. The judge gave Phiber the longest sentence of the bunch -- a year in federal prison -- to send a message to other hackers that computer crime doesn't pay.

Or does it? Phiber is now a bigger star than ever. Most of the major TV networks and national press turned up last week to witness his triumphant return. After 10 months in a minimum-security prison -- and away from his computers -- he looks relatively healthy and relaxed. He's now employed as a computer technician at ECHO, a New York-based online salon. It hardly ever crashes.

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