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Sent from: magdalen@teleport.com (tiffany lee brown) March 7, 1996 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Bob Hardy (516) 751-2600 HACKER PROSECUTION RESULTS IN EXPOSED "SECRETS" 2600 Magazine, a publication put out by computer hackers since 1984, has released information on the United States Secret Service in response to that organization's continued prosecution of one of its writers. The information is accessible over the Internet through the World Wide Web. "For the past year, the Secret Service has been engaged in a ruthless attack on Ed Cummings (known in the hacker world as Bernie S.), one of our most technically adept and knowledgeable writers," says 2600 Publisher Emmanuel Goldstein. "They have succeeded in imprisoning him with some of the nation's most ruthless criminals for the mere possession of hardware, software, and reading material." Cummings has never been accused of committing illegal acts with these items. Rather, the Secret Service has prosecuted him for having items which "could be used" for illegal activity. It has been proven on numerous occasions that there are many legitimate purposes for such items and that possession of controversial reading material is by no means an indication of criminal activity. Nevertheless, the Secret Service has managed to keep Cummings locked away with no bail for nearly a year as if he were a mastermind of terrorism. 2600 Magazine is making available to the public the same documents that the Secret Service claims as proof that Ed Cummings is a danger to society. This information includes the whereabouts of Secret Service offices, their phone numbers, the radio frequencies used by the agency, as well as photographs and codenames used for everything from the President of the United States to buildings, agencies, and objects. "We find it ironic that all of this information will now be accessible to millions of people around the world," Goldstein says, "all because the Secret Service thought one person having it was a threat." The information, though never before as widely accessible as this, has always been easy for anyone to obtain. There are no laws against its possession. However, the adamance of the Secret Service's contentions were enough to taint the credibility of Ed Cummings in the eyes of the court. In addition to information about the Secret Service themselves, the site contains full documentation on other cases that have involved mistreatment by the Secret Service, including one in which the victim won a lawsuit. Information on other cases can be submitted to the site by emailing secrets@2600.com. Says Goldstein, "We don't consider the launching of this site to be an act of retribution. Rather, it is an affirmation of our freedom and a demonstration of our willingness to protect it." The World Wide Web site can be reached at: http://www.2600.com