It involved raids in approximately fifteen different cities and resulted in three arrests and the confiscation of computers, the contents of electronic bulletin board systems (BBSes), and floppy disks.
[2][3] The name comes from the Sun Devil Stadium of Arizona State University, near the local Secret Service headquarters from where the investigation and raids were coordinated.
A small elite, highly technical segment of phreakers were more interested in information about the inner workings of the telecommunication system than in making free phone calls.
New laws were created to allow federal prosecutors to charge individuals accused of phreaking, hacking, wire, and credit card fraud.
Evidence gained from Operation Sundevil allowed law enforcement to convince the United States Congress of the need for additional funding, training, and overall expansion.
These held a variety of data, including software, phreaking and hacking tools, tens of thousands of credit card details, and a plethora of illegal copyrighted material.
The Assistant Director of the US Secret Service, Garry M. Jenkins, commented in a press release that, "the Secret Service is sending a clear message to those computer hackers who have decided to violate the laws of this nation in the mistaken belief that they can successfully avoid detection by hiding behind the relative anonymity of their computer terminals.
[8] In response to the arrests, the Electronic Frontier Foundation was founded by Mitchell Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development Corporation, and John Perry Barlow, an author.