2600 circle and stalwart of the New York hackers' group "Masters of
Deception," Phiber Optik was a splendid exemplar of the computer
intruder as committed dissident. The eighteen-year-old Optik, a
high-school dropout and part-time computer repairman, was young, smart,
and ruthlessly obsessive, a sharp-dressing, sharp-talking digital dude
who was utterly and airily contemptuous of anyone's rules but his own.
By late 1991, Phiber Optik had appeared in Harper's, Esquire, The New
York Times, in countless public debates and conventions, even on a
television show hosted by Geraldo Rivera.

Treated with gingerly respect by Barlow and other Well mavens, Phiber
Optik swiftly became a Well celebrity. Strangely, despite his thorny
attitude and utter single-mindedness, Phiber Optik seemed to arouse
strong protective instincts in most of the people who met him. He was
great copy for journalists, always fearlessly ready to swagger, and,
better yet, to actually DEMONSTRATE some off-the-wall digital stunt.
He was a born media darling.

Even cops seemed to recognize that there was something peculiarly
unworldly and uncriminal about this particular troublemaker. He was so
bold, so flagrant, so young, and so obviously doomed, that even those
who strongly disapproved of his actions grew anxious for his welfare,
and began to flutter about him as if he were an endangered seal pup.

In January 24, 1990 (nine days after the Martin Luther King Day Crash),
Phiber Optik, Acid Phreak, and a third NYC scofflaw named Scorpion were
raided by the Secret Service. Their computers went out the door, along
with the usual blizzard of papers, notebooks, compact disks, answering
machines, Sony Walkmans, etc. Both Acid Phreak and Phiber Optik were
accused of having caused the Crash.

The mills of justice ground slowly. The case eventually fell into the
hands of the New York State Police. Phiber had lost his machinery in
the raid, but there were no charges filed against him for over a year.
His predicament was extensively publicized on the Well, where it caused
much resentment for police tactics. It's one thing to merely hear
about a hacker raided or busted; it's another to see the police
attacking someone you've come to know personally, and who has explained
his motives at length. Through the Harper's debate on the Well, it had
become clear to the Wellbeings that Phiber Optik was not in fact going
to "hurt anything." In their own salad days, man