ain clothes. So do the telco security
experts who commonly accompany the Secret Service on raids (and who
make no particular effort to identify themselves as mere employees of
telephone companies).

A typical hacker raid goes something like this. First, police storm in
rapidly, through every entrance, with overwhelming force, in the
assumption that this tactic will keep casualties to a minimum. Second,
possible suspects are immediately removed from the vicinity of any and
all computer systems, so that they will have no chance to purge or
destroy computer evidence. Suspects are herded into a room without
computers, commonly the living room, and kept under guard--not ARMED
guard, for the guns are swiftly holstered, but under guard
nevertheless. They are presented with the search warrant and warned
that anything they say may be held against them. Commonly they have a
great deal to say, especially if they are unsuspecting parents.

Somewhere in the house is the "hot spot"--a computer tied to a phone
line (possibly several computers and several phones). Commonly it's a
teenager's bedroom, but it can be anywhere in the house; there may be
several such rooms. This "hot spot" is put in charge of a two-agent
team, the "finder" and the "recorder." The "finder" is
computer-trained, commonly the case agent who has actually obtained the
search warrant from a judge. He or she understands what is being
sought, and actually carries out the seizures: unplugs machines, opens
drawers, desks, files, floppy-disk containers, etc. The "recorder"
photographs all the equipment, just as it stands--especially the tangle
of wired connections in the back, which can otherwise be a real
nightmare to restore. The recorder will also commonly photograph every
room in the house, lest some wily criminal claim that the police had
robbed him during the search. Some recorders carry videocams or tape
recorders; however, it's more common for the recorder to simply take
written notes. Objects are described and numbered as the finder seizes
them, generally on standard preprinted police inventory forms.

Even Secret Service agents were not, and are not, expert computer
users. They have not made, and do not make, judgements on the fly
about potential threats posed by various forms of equipment. They may
exercise discretion; they may leave Dad his computer, for instance, but
they don't HAVE to. Standard computer-crime search warrants, which
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