Terminal Compromise - Winn Schwartau (fiction book recommendations TXT) 📗

TARGET DEFINI-

TIONS, COMPUTER SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION DYNAMICS, DATA PROPAGATION

PROBABILITIES. OUR CALCULATIONS INCLUDED MULTI-DIMENSIONAL

INTERACTIONS OF INFECTION SIMULTANEITY. EVERY POSSIBILITY AND

HOW TO CAUSE THE MOST DAMAGE.

It’s a good thing I kind of understand the technical gobbledy-

gook.

OH, IN ENGLISH? WE STUDIED WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU ENDLESSLY THROW

THOUSANDS OF COMPUTER VIRUSES AT THE UNITED STATES.

I got that. So what does happen?

YOU’RE FUCKED FOR LIFE. ONE VIRUS IS A PAIN IN THE ASS. 1000 IS

FATAL.

You have a way with words.

GOD GIVEN GIFT. I GUESS YOU COULD CALL US A THINK TANK FOR

COMPUTER WARFARE.

So what happens next Mr. Spook?

PATRONIZING, NOW, NOW, NOW. LET’S SEE HERE (FLIP, FLIP) SATUR-

DAY, JANUARY 23, NO, THAT WAS THE STOCK EXCHANGE, NO DECEMBER

11, THE PHONE COMPANY AND FEDERAL EXPRESS . . .

Cocky son of a bitch aren’t you?

AH YES! HERE IT IS. MONDAY, JANUARY 25. SCOTT, YOU’RE MY

FRIEND, SO LET ME GIVE YOU A TIP. DON’T TRY TAKING AN AIRPLANE

FOR THE NEXT FEW WEEKS.

Why not?

THE NATIONAL RESERVATION SERVICE COMPUTERS ARE GOING TO BE VERY,

VERY SICK.

*

“Yeah,” the deep sleepy voice growled in Scott’s ear.

“Ty, wake up.”

“Wha?”

“Tyrone, get up!” Scott’s excited voice caught Tryone’s notice.

“Scott,” he yawned. “What’s the matter?”

“Are you awake?”

“Don’t worry, I had to get up to answer the phone.” Then in a

more muffled voice Scott heard Tyrone say, “no, it’s all right

dear. Go back to sleep, I’ll take it in the den.” Tyrone got

back on the phone and barked, “hold on.”

Scott paced across his junked up home office, sidestepping some

items, stepping on others, until Tyrone came back on the line.

“Shit, man,” were Tyrone’s first words. “You have any idea what

time it is?”

“Hey, I’m sorry,” Scott said mocking Tyrone’s complaint. “I’ll

write you a letter tomorrow and lick a stamp and let the Post

Office take it from there . . .”

“You made your point. What is it?”

“The airlines are going to be hit next. Homosoto’s next target.”

“How the hell would you know that?”

“I’ve been talking to Foster. He told me.”

“Foster told you what?”

“It’s a huge attack, an incredibly large computer attack. He

worked for Homosoto. But the point is, the airlines. They’re

next. Worse than the radar computer problems.”

“Can I get right back to you?”

Waiting for Ty’s call, Scott wrote an article for the following

morning’s paper and submitted it from home to the office comput-

er.

* COMPUTER TERRORISM An Exclusive Interview With The Man Who Invaded America By Scott Mason

The man who claims to be the technical genius behind the recent

wave of Computer Crimes has agreed to tell his story exclusively

to the New York City Times.

Only known as the Spook, a hacker’s handle which represents both

an alter-ego and anonymity, he says that he was hired by Taki

Homosoto, late chairman of OSO Industries to design and prepare a

massive assault against the computer systems of the United

States.

The incredible claims made by the Spook appear to be grounded in

fact and his first statements alone were astounding. Please

note, these are exact quotes from a computer conversation with

the Spook.

“There will be thousands of viruses. Thousands of them. I have

to imagine by now that every program in America is infected with

ten different viruses. There is only one way to stop them all.

Never turn on your computers.

“You see, most virus programmers are searching for immediate

gratification. They write one and want it to spread real quick

and then see it blow up. So most amateur virus builders are

disappointed in the results because they don’t have patience.

But we, I had patience.

“To maximize the effects of viruses, you have to give them time.

Time to spread, to infect. Many of the viruses that you will

experience are years old. The older viruses are much cruder than

those made recently. We learned over time to build better vi-

ruses. Our old ones have been dormant for so long, their conta-

gion is complete and they will be just as effective.

“We have built and installed the greatest viruses of all time.

Every PC will probably be dead in months if not weeks, unless you

take my advice. There are also VAX viruses, VMS viruses, SUN

viruses, we even built some for Cray supercomputers, but we don’t

expect much damage from them.”

The Spook’s next comments were just as startling.

“The blackmail operation was a sham, but a terrific success. It

wasn’t for the money. No one ever collected any money, did they?

It was pure psychological warfare. Making people distrust their

computers, distrust one another because the computer makes them

look like liars. That was the goal. The money was a diversion-

ary tactic.

“Part of any attack is the need to soften the enemy and terrorism

is the best way to get quick results. By the time the first

viruses came along, whoa! I bet half the MIS directors in the

country don’t know whether they’re coming or going.”

According to the Spook, he designed the attack with several

armies to be used for different purposes.

One for Propaganda, one for Infiltration and Infection, one for

Engineering, one for Communications, and another for Distribution

and another for Manufacturing. At the pinnacle was Homosoto

acting as Command and Control.

“I didn’t actually infect any computers myself. We had teams of

Groundhogs all too happy to do that for us.”

According to security experts, Homosoto apparently employed a

complex set of military stratagem in the execution of his attack.

It has yet to be determined if the Spook will be of any help in

minimizing the effects of the First Computer War.

Scott finally went to bed. Tyrone never called him back.

* Thursday, January 21 New York City

The cavernous streets of New York on a cloud covered moonless

night harbor an eerie aura, reminiscent of the fog laden alleys

near the London docks on the Thames in the days of Jack the

Ripper. A constant misty rain gave the city an even more de-

pressing pallor than winter normally brought to the Big Apple.

In other words, the weather was perfect.

On the corner of 52nd. and 3rd., in the shadow of the Citibank

tower, Dennis Melbourne stuck a magnetic strip ID card into a

Cirrus 24 Hour Bank Teller Machine. As the machine sucked in the

card, the small screen asked for the personal identification

number, the PIN, associated with that particular card. Dennis

entered the requested four digit PIN, 1501. The teller whirred

and asked Dennis which transaction he would like.

He selected:

Checking Balance.

A few seconds later $4,356.20 appeared. Good, Dennis thought.

He then selected:

Withdrawal – Checking

Dennis entered, $2,000.00 and the machine display told him that

his request exceeded the daily withdrawal limit. Normal, he

thought, as he entered an 8 digit sequence: 00330101. The super-

visor control override.

The teller hummed and thought for a moment, and then $20 bills

began tumbling out of the “Take Cash” drawer. One hundred of

them.

The teller asked, “Another Transaction?” and Dennis chose ‘No’.

He retrieved the magnetic card from the machine and the receipt

of this transaction before grabbing a cab to a subway entrance on

59th. and Lexington Ave. The ID card he used was only designed

to be used once, so Dennis saw to it that the card was cut and

disposed of in a subterranean men’s room toilet.

Dennis Melbourne traveled throughout New York all night long,

emptying Cirrus cash machines of their available funds. And the

next night, and the next. He netted $246,300 in three days. All

told, Cirrus customers in thirty-six states were robbed by Dennis

Melbourne and his scores of accomplices of nearly $10 Million

before the banks discovered how it was being done.

The Cirrus network and it’s thousands of Automatic Tellers were

immediately closed. For the first time in years, America had no

access to instant cash.

Bank lines grew to obscene lengths and the waiting for simple

transactions was interminable. Almost one half of personal

banking had been done by ATM computer, and now human tellers had

to deal with throngs of customers who had little idea of how to

bank with a live person.

Retail sales figures for the week after the ATM machines were

closed showed a significant decline of 3.2%. The Commerce De-

partment was demanding action by Treasury who pressured the FBI

and everybody looked to the White House for leadership. The

economic impact of immediate cash restriction had been virtually

instantaneous; after all the U.S. is a culture