The Phoenix Project was a
Bulletin Board System (
BBS) ran by hacker
Loyd Blankenship with help from
Erik Bloodaxe from mid 1988 to March 1, 1990. The board was owned by
Loyd (a member of the hacking group
Legion of Doom) and he hosted it at his home in Austin, TX. It became one of the most infamous BBS's because of its involvement in
the E911 Case and the resulting
Steve Jackson Games raid.
In February 1990 a stolen document describing the basic operation of the telephone 911 system was published in the online hacker magazine Phrack. A copy of the magazine with the stolen document was made available on the Phoenix Project. Although it was also available on many other BBS's the Secret Service began investigating Loyd and Erik. The Phoenix Project was targeted because of it's standing in the underground hacking world and Loyd's prior hacking arrest.
After getting a search warrant on February 28th, Secret Service agents raided Loyd's house and workplace (Steve Jackson Games) on March 1st, 1990. Equipment, documents, and computers were taken including the BBS which effectively took it offline. Steve Jackson Games also had computer equipment taken though it turned out their computers did not contain any incriminating evidence on it. Steve Jackson attempted to get their computer equipment back, but after continuously being rebuked by the Secret Service he filed suit. Steve Jackson eventually won Steve Jackson Games v The United States Secret Service and received damages as the judge found the Secret Service to have acted outside of statutory seizure provisions. Loyd on the other hand, never received his Phoenix Project BBS computer back from the Secret Service.