The incident Friday offered a glimpse into a cat-and-mouse game
being played out in malls and train stations and on computer net-
works across the nation by hackers and federal agents who track
them as part of an effort to crack down on computer and telephone
fraud.
It's a game in which computer hackers, many of whom take pride in
their ability to snoop through private records, now are complain-
ing that their privacy rights are being violated by law enforce-
ment officers who track them.
The Secret Service, which Congress has directed to go after com-
puter hackers who use phone lines to break into computer systems
for free long-distance phone service or other information, ack-
nowledges that its agents often track groups of young hackers who
gather to discuss their passion.
Special Agent David Adams, an agency spokesman, would neither
confirm nor deny agency involvement in the Pentagon City in-
cident, which involved a group called the 2600 Meeting, named
after a New York-based magazine for hackers.
"We don't make any comments on ongoing investigations," said
Adams, who said the agency believes that hackers across the coun-
try are responsible for computer and telephone fraud costing more
than $1 billion annually.
"We're not targeting any group," said Adams, who said that in ad-
dition to following suspected hackers, the agency searches for
them by working computer networks
