Lawsuit Filed Against Secret Service: Action is Taken on Behalf of D.C.
2600 Meeting (Spring, 1993)
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The Secret Service may have thought that harassing a motley crew of hackers in
a shopping mall would have resulted in nothing more than the intended goal of
sending them scurrying back to their underground hideouts, fearfully awaiting a
knock at the door. But when the Washington D.C. 2600 meeting was detained,
searched, and ejected from Pentagon City mall by mall security officials,
seemingly acting on behalf of the Secret Service, we knew exactly where to go:
to the press and the lawyers.

Since the incident, articles have appeared in the trade journal Communications
Daily, the Washington City Paper, even a front-page story in the Washington
Post. This is in addition to an uncountable number of pieces throughout the
Internet and over bulletin boards. This was certainly more attention than
anyone at the Secret Service could have anticipated.

Unfortunately for them, they were not even allowed to slink away, red-faced at
their botched job. Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, whose
membership applications were seized at the November meeting, were the first to
express interest in our predicament. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the
American Civil Liberties Union would soon follow in offering their legal
counsel.

CPSR filed two Freedom of Information Act requests with the Secret Service on
behalf of several meeting-goers who were interested in possible legal action
against the perpetrators of the "raid." The Secret Service returned the
requests, saying that they had no information on any of the meeting-goers. This
immediately raised suspicion, as the mall security personnel collected everyone
s name and phone number at the November meeting. Presumably this information
was on file somewhere. Also, one of the meeting-goers had been visited by the
Secret Service about two years ago, completely unrelated to anything
computer-oriented. Presumably a file was created on him at that time, and yet
the Secret Service said they had no information on anyone involved. Thirdly,
one of the meeting-goers was visited by the Secret Service subsequent to the
meeting. During this visit, one of the agents made reference to his name being
on "the mall list." It seems highly unlikely that the Secret Service had
absolutely no information on any of the people on whose behalf CPSR filed FOIA
requests.

Acting on these strong suspicions, on February 4th, CPSR filed suit against the
Secret Service for failing to provide information requested under the Freedom
of Information Act. The SS has thirty days to respond.

All of this is mainly a preliminary game of legal hide-and-seek to establish
what role, if any, the Secret Service and other government agencies might have
played in the November 2600 raid. Once everyone involved stops contradicting
each other and a clearer image forms of who was behind the harassment, we can
begin to consider other possible legal avenues to send the Powers That Be a
strong message about what to expect when trying to intimidate a group of
hackers.

Stay tuned.