Craig Neidorf
More info
- Alias
- Knight Lightning
- Known for
- Phrack, the 1990 E911 case
The Phrack co-founder who was prosecuted over a document the phone company itself would sell you for thirteen dollars.
As Knight Lightning, Neidorf launched the e-zine Phrack with Taran King in 1985. In 1989 it ran an edited internal BellSouth document about the 911 emergency system, lifted from the company's network by a member of the Legion of Doom.
In the 1990 hacker raids Neidorf was charged with wire fraud and interstate transport of stolen property, with prosecutors valuing the document at roughly $79,000. The trial fell apart on its fourth day, when the defence showed that equivalent material could be ordered from Bell for pocket change. Neidorf was cleared but left with six-figure legal bills, and his case was one of the reasons the EFF was founded that year.