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

lock to small

rural communities. Our banks had to reconstruct millions upon

millions of transactions in the best possible attempt at recon-

ciliation. The defensive readiness of our military was in ques-

tion for some time before the Pentagon was satisfied that they

had cleansed their computers.

The questions that arise are clearly ones to which there are no

satisfying responses. Should ‘everyman’ have unrestrained access

to tools that can obviously be used for offensive and threatening

purposes? Is there a level of responsibility associated with

computer usage? If so, how is it gauged? Should the businessman

be subject to additional regulations to insure security and

privacy? Are additional laws needed to protect the privacy of

the average citizen? What guarantees do people have that infor-

mation about them is only used for its authorized purpose?

Should ‘everyman’ have the ability to pry into anyone’s personal

life, stored on hundreds of computers?

One prominent group calling themselves FYI, Freeflow of Your

Information, represented by the ACLU, represents one distinct

viewpoint that we are likely to hear much of in the coming

months. They maintain that no matter what, if any, restrictive

mandates are placed on computer users, both are an invasion of

privacy and violation of free speech have occurred. “You can’t

regulate a pencil,” has become their informal motto emblazoned

across t-shirts on campuses everywhere.

While neither group has taken any overt legal action, FYI is

formidably equipped to launch a prolonged court battle. Accord-

ing to spokesmen for FYI, “the courts are going to have to decide

whether electronic free speech is covered by the First Amendment

of the Constitution. If they find that it is not, there will be

a popular uprising that will shake the foundation of this coun-

try. A constitutional crisis of the first order.”

With threats of that sort, it is no wonder that most advocates of

protective and security measures for computers are careful to

avoid a direct confrontation with the FYI.

Foster Treason Trials Begin

Jury Selection to Take 3 Months

Associated Press

Unemployment Soars to 9.2%

Worst Increase Since 1930

Wall Street Journal

SONY’s Threat

Soon Own New York

New York Post

Homosoto Hackers Prove Elusive

FBI says, “I doubt we’ll catch many of them.”

ISPN

Hard Disk Manufacturers Claim 1 Year Backlog

Extraordinary Demand To Replace Dead Disks

San Jose Citizen Register

Security Companies Reap Rewards

Fixing Problems Can Be Profitable

Entrepreneur

Auto Sales Down 34%

Automotive Week

92% Distrust Computers

Neilson Ratings Service

Compaq Introduces ‘Tamper Free’ Computers

Info World

IBM Announces ‘Trusted’ Computers

PC Week

Dow Jones Slides 1120 Points

Wall Street Journal

Senator Nancy Investigates Gov’t Security Apathy

Washington Times

Hollywood Freeway Halts

Computer Causes 14 Hour Traffic Jam

Los Angeles Times * A Day In The Life: Without Computers by Scott Mason.

As bad as a reformed smoker, but without the well earned battle

scars, I have been, upon occasion, known to lightly ridicule

those who profess the necessity of computers to enjoy modern

life. I have been known as well to spout statistics; statistics

that show the average homemaker today spends more time homemaking

than her ancestor 100 or 200 years ago. I have questioned the

logic of laziness that causes us to pull out a calculator rather

than figure 10% of any given number.

I have been proven wrong.

Last Saturday I really noticed the effects of the Foster Plan

more than any time since it began. I must confess that even

though I have written about hackers and computer crime, it is

axiomatically true that you don’t notice it till it’s gone.

Allow me to make my point.

Have you recently tried to send a fax? The digital phone lines

have been scrupulously pruned, and therefore busy most of the

time.

The check out lines at the supermarket have cob webs growing over

the bar code price scanner. The system that I used when I was a

kid, as a delivery boy for Murray and Mary Meyers Meat Market,

seems to be back in vogue; enter the cost of the item in the cash

register and check for mistakes when the receipt is produced.

I haven’t found one store in my neighborhood that still takes

credit cards. Have you noticed the near disdain you receive when

you try to pay with a credit card? Its real and perceived value

has been flushed right down the toilet.

Not that they don’t trust my well known face and name, but my

credit cards are as suspect as are everybody’s. Even check

cashing is scarce. Seems like the best currency is that old time

stand-by, cash. If you can make it to the bank. The ATM at my

corner has been rented out to a flower peddler.

All of this is happening in reasonably affluent Westchester

County. And in impoverished East Los Angeles and in Detroit and

Miami and Boston and Atlanta and Dallas as well as a thousand

Oshkosh’s. America is painfully learning what life is like

without automation.

*

OSO Puts Up Foster Defense Costs

Effort At Saving Face

Miami Herald

Hackers Hacked Off

Accuse Government of Complicity

Atlanta Constitution

Microwaves Go Haywire

Timers Tick Too Long

Newsday

1 Million School Computers Sit Idle

Software Companies Slow to Respond

Newsweek

Federal Computer Tax Bill Up For Vote

John and Jane Doe Scream ‘No’!

San Diego Union

Cable Shopping Network Off Air 6 Months

Clearwater Sun

Bankruptcies Soar 600%

Money Magazine

Banking At Home Programs On Hold

Unreliable Communications Blamed

Computers In Banking

Slow Vacation Travel Closes Resorts

But Disneyland Still Happiest Place on Earth

San Diego Tribune * Hacker Heroes By Scott Mason

I have occasionally wreaked verbal havoc upon the hacker communi-

ty as a whole, lumping together the good and the bad. The per-

formance of hackers in recent months has contributed as much to

the defense of the computers of this country as has the govern-

ment itself.

An estimated one million computer users categorize themselves or

are categorized as hackers. After the Homosoto bomb was dropped

on America, a spontaneous underground ad hoc hacker effort began

to help protect the very systems that many of them has been

violating only the day before. The thousands of bulletin boards

that normally display new methods of attacking computers, invad-

ing government networks, stealing telephone service, phreaking

computers and causing electronic disruptions, are now competing

for recognition.

Newspapers interested in providing the most up to date informa-

tion on fighting Homosoto’s estimated 8000 viruses, and methods

of making existing computers more secure have been using hacker

BBS’s as sources.

*

Foster Defense Coming to An End

Foster won’t take stand

New York City Times

AIDS Patients Sue CDC For Releasing Names

Actors, Politicians and Leaders on Lists

Time Magazine

FBI Arrests 15 Fosterites

Largest Single Net Yet

Miami Herald

Congress Passes Strongest Computer Bill Yet

Washington Post

American Express Declares Bankruptcy

United Press International

No New Passports For Travelers

3 Month Department Hiatus Till System Repaired

Boston Globe

138 Foreign Nationals Deported

Homosoto Complicity Cited

San Francisco Chronicle

National Identification Cards Debated

George Washington Law Review * Ex Foster Girl Friend Key Prosecution Witness by Scott Mason

A long time girl friend of Homosoto associate Miles Foster testi-

fied against her former lover in the Federal Prosecutor’s treason

case against him today. Stephanie Perkins, an admitted high

class call girl, testified that she had been hired to provide

services to Mr. Foster on an ‘as-needed’ basis.

Over a period of four years, Ms. Perkins says she was paid over

$1 Million by a ‘. . .man named Alex . . .’ and that she was paid

in cash at a drop in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

She stated that her arranged ralationship with Mr. Foster ‘was

not entirely unpleasant,’ but she would have picked someone

‘less egotistical and less consumed with himself.’

“I was supposed to report his activities to Alex, and I saw a lot

of the conversations on the computer.”

“Did Foster work for Homosoto?”

“Yes.”

“What did he do?”

“Built viruses, tried to hurt computers.”

“Did you get paid to have sex with Mr. Foster?”

“Yes.”

“How many times?”

“A few hundred, I guess.”

“So you liked him?”

“He was all right, I guess. He thought I liked him.”

“Why is that?”

“It was my job to make him think so.”

“Why?”

“So I could watch him.”

“What do you do for a living now?”

“I’m retired.” *

Prosecution Witnesses Nail Foster

Defense Listens to Plea Bargain Offer

Newsday

50% Of Americans Blame