The backlash against hackers starts this morning (Wednesday) in Bow Street magistrates court, where two men face charges arising out of hacks on Prestel.

Robert Schifreen and Steven Gold have been charged under section one of the 1981 Forgery and Counterfeiting Act. The offences they are alleged to have committed involve access to Prestel computers between November last year and February this year.

Schifreen used to be Bug Hunter in Computer and Video Games; Gold put together a column on Micronet. They are now described as a technical author and an accountant respectively.

The forces of reaction seem to be gathering to turn back a tide of hacking. The case of Schifreen and Gold comes hard on the heels of the slightly hysterical response that has arisen in some quarters to the publication of The Hacker's Handbook (issues 104 and 105).

The Act under which the pair are charged focuses on the 'forgery' of computer disks and 'electronic devices' for recording information from Prestel computers and services - the Gateway test facility is mentioned specifically.

This means that the law can be used against anybody trying to delude Prestel into thinking it is talking to an authorised user - it is the protocol that is being 'forged', not anything as simple as a floppy disk.