Loyd Blankenship

Loyd Blankenship (born 1965), better known by his pseudonym The Mentor, is an American computer hacker and writer.

He has been active since the 1970s, when he was a member of the hacker groups Extasyy Elite and Legion of Doom.

He is the author of The Conscience of a Hacker (also known as The Hacker Manifesto); the essay was written after he was arrested and was published in the ezine Phrack.

Since the essay's publication in 1986, it has been the subject of numerous panels and T-shirts.

Blankenship was hired by Steve Jackson Games in 1989.

He authored the cyberpunk role-playing sourcebook GURPS Cyberpunk, the manuscript of which was seized in a 1990 raid of Steve Jackson Games headquarters by the U.S. Secret Service.

The raid resulted in the subsequent legal case Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service.