Craig Neidorf (Knight Lightning)

Craig Neidorf, known online as Knight Lightning, co-founded the electronic magazine Phrack with Taran King in November 1985, while a teenager in Missouri. Phrack became the leading publication of the phreaking and hacking underground.

The E911 case

In February 1989 Phrack issue 24 published an edited BellSouth document describing the administration of the E911 emergency system, obtained by Robert Riggs of the Legion of Doom. In 1990 Neidorf was indicted for wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property; prosecutors valued the document at nearly US$80,000. At trial in July 1990 the defense showed that substantially the same information was sold publicly by Bellcore for about US$13, and the government dropped the case mid-trial.

Aftermath

The prosecution, alongside the Operation Sundevil raids, prompted the formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which assisted the defense. Neidorf later attended law school and worked in intellectual-property law. Bruce Sterling's The Hacker Crackdown covers the case in detail.

Timeline

• 1985-11-17Phrack issue 1 is released, co-founded by Neidorf and Taran King.
• 1989-02Phrack 24 publishes the edited BellSouth E911 document.
• 1990-02Indicted in Chicago over the E911 document.
• 1990-07-27Prosecution drops the case mid-trial after the document is shown to be publicly available.