They log back into his account but his files are all still there. In 1983 hackers are almost all harmless pranksters, folks who keep their distance from the guys who break the law. 1983 the IBM Personal Computer enters the stage powered by Bill Gates' MS-DOS operating system. Within the next two years essentially all microcomputer operating systems except MS-DOS and those offered by Apple will be dead, and a thousand Silicon Valley fortunes shipwrecked. The Amiga hangs on by a thread.
Prices plunge, and soon all self-respecting hackers own their own computers.
Sneaking around college labs at night fades from the scene. The Hacker Quarterly and the Legion of Doom hacker gang forms. Congress passes the Comprehensive Crime Control Act giving the US Secret Service jurisdiction over computer fraud. Fred Cohen, at Carnegie Melon University writes his PhD thesis on the brand new, never heard of thing called computer viruses. It was to be the year, thought millions of Orwell fans, that the government would finally get its hands on enough high technology to become Big Brother.