Mike Wilkerson | America's First Hacker: Before It Was Illegal | Part 1 of 2

Mike Wilkerson | America's First Hacker: Before It Was Illegal | Part 1 of 2

From VERITAS by Mel Hostalrich

March 26, 2026

About this episode

Mike Wilkerson discusses his experiences as America's first hacker and the legal implications of his actions.

In 1985, an eighteen-year-old kid in a sleeping bag in a Kirkland, Washington apartment heard a knock at the door and felt something most people never feel when the police show up: <strong>relief</strong>. By that morning, Mike Wilkerson had already been inside over a hundred computer systems without authorization: <strong>Microsoft, Boeing, Pacific Bell's national telephone switching infrastructure</strong>. Not with brute force. Not with malicious code. With a telephone, a voice, and an ability to convince people to give him access they had absolutely no business giving. He was prosecuted under a law written specifically to catch him by the same prosecutor assigned to his case. That law became the blueprint for the 1986 federal <strong>Computer Fraud and Abuse Act</strong>, the foundation of every computer crime prosecution in America that followed. And according to that prosecutor, confirmed in writing, Mike Wilkerson was the <strong>first hacker in the United States to serve actual jail time for computer intrusion</strong>. Not Kevin Mitnick. Not Phiber Optik. Not anyone most people have heard of. Mike came first…

More episodes of VERITAS

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the VERITAS podcast page.