Significance of Case
The case was notable for being the first prosecution of hackers under Australian federal computer crime legislation that had come into law in June 1989. It was also the first time in the world police had gained a conviction using evidence obtained by the remote tapping of a computer. For six weeks before the raid, members of the AFP computer crime section had been capturing the online activity of the ringleader, Phoenix, in suburban Melbourne, from the police Telephone Intercept Branch in Canberra, 650 km away. His conversations with Electron and Nom, which were intercepted continuously for eight weeks before the raid, formed the basis of the evidence against both of Phoenix's co-offenders, as they freely discussed the targets of their hacking and bragged of their exploits.
Electron pleaded guilty to 14 offences and in June 1993 was given a suspended six-month jail sentence and 300 hours' community service.
Read more about this topic: Electron (computer Hacker)
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