Since the author also requests remuneration, we would ask these

W >> Winn Schwartau >> Since the author also requests remuneration, we would ask these

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53

It was eminently clear that Tyrone Duncan had no place in this
life for Merrill Rickfield.

"I know enough about him to dislike him, but on a crowded subway
he'd just be another ugly face. Excuse my ignorance . . ." Then
it hit him. Rickfield. His name had been in those papers he had
received so long ago. What had he done, or what was he accused
of doing? Damn, damn, what is it? There were so many. Yes, it
was Rickfield, but what was the tie-in?

"I think you should be there, at the hearings," Tyrone suggested.

"Tomorrow? Are you out of your mind? No way," Scott loudly
protested. "I'm 3000 miles and 8 hours away and it's the middle
of the night here," Scott bitched and moaned. "Besides, I only
have to work one more day and then I get the weekend to
myself . . . aw, shit."

Tyrone ignored Scott's infantile objections. He attributed them
to jet lag and an understandable urge to stay in Sin City for a
couple more days. "Hollister and Adams will be there, and a
whole bunch of white shirts in black hats, and Troubleaux . . ."

"Troubleaux did you say?"

"Yeah, that's what it says here . . ."

"If he's there, then it becomes my concern, too."

"Good, glad you thought of it," joked Tyrone. "If you catch an
early flight, you could be in D.C. by noon." He was right,
thought Scott. The time difference works in your favor in that
direction.

"You know," said Scott, "with what I've found out here, today
alone, maybe. "Jeeeeeesus," Scott said cringing in indecision.

"Hey! Get your ass back here, boy. Pronto." Tyrone's friendly
authority was persuasive. "You know you don't have any choice."
The guilt trip.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

Scott called his office and asked for Doug. He got the voice
mail instead, and debated about calling him at home. Nah, He
thought, I'll just leave a message. This way I'll just get
yelled at once.

"Hi, Doug? Scott here. Change in plans. Heard about EMP-T. I'm
headed to Washington tomorrow. The story here is better than I
thought and dovetails right into why I'm coming back early. I
expect to be in D.C. until next Tuesday, maybe Wednesday. I'll
call when I have a place. Oh, yeah, I learned a limerick here you
might like. The Spook says the kids around here say it all the
time. 'Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go. It
followed her to school one day and a big black dog fucked it.'
That's Amsterdam. Bye."

****************************************************************

Chapter 20

Friday, January 8
Washington, D.C.

The New Senate Office Building is a moderately impressive struc-
ture on the edge of one of the worst sections of Washington.
Visitors find it a perpetual paradox that the power seat of the
Western World is located within a virtual shooting gallery of
drugs and weapons. Scott arrived at the NSOB near the capitol,
just before lunchtime. His press identification got him instant
access to the hearing room and into the privileged locations
where the media congregated. The hearings were in progress and
as solemn as he remembered other hearings broadcast on late night
C-SPAN.

He caught the last words of wisdom from a government employee who
worked for NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technol-
ogy. The agency was formerly known as NBS, National Bureau of
Standards, and no one could adequately explain the change.

The NIST employee droned on about how seriously the government,
and more specifically, his agency cared about privacy and infor-
mation security, and that ". . .the government was doing all it
could to provide the requisite amount of security commensurate
with the perceived risk of disclosure and sensitivity of the
information in question." Scott ran into a couple of fellow
reporters who told him he was lucky to show up late. All morn-
ing, the government paraded witnesses to read prepared statements
about how they were protecting the interests of the Government.

It was an intensive lobbying effort, they told Scott, to shore up
whatever attacks might be made on the government's inefficient
bungling in distinction to its efficient bungling. To a man, the
witnesses assured the Senate committee that they were committed
to guaranteeing privacy of information and unconvincingly assur-
ing them that only appropriate authorized people have access to
sensitive and classified data.

Seven sequential propagandized statements went unchallenged by
the three senior committee members throughout the morning, and
Senator Rickfield went out of his way to thank the speakers for
their time, adding that he was personally convinced the Govern-
ment was indeed doing more than necessary to obviate such con-
cerns.

The underadvertised Senate Select Sub Committee on Privacy and
Technology Protection convened in Hearing Room 3 on the second
floor of the NSOB. About 400 could be accommodated in the huge
light wood paneled room on both the main floor and in the balcony
that wrapped around half of the room. The starkness of the room
was emphasized by the glare of arc and fluorescent lighting.

Scott found an empty seat on a wooden bench directly behind the
tables from which the witnesses would speak to the raised wooden
dais. He noticed that the attendance was extraordinarily low; by
both the public and the press. Probably due to the total lack of
exposure.

As the session broke for lunch, Scott asked why the TV cameras?
He thought this hearing was a deep dark secret. A couple of
fellow journalists agreed, and the only reason they had found out
about the Rickfield hearings was because the CNN producer called
them asking if they knew anything about them. Apparently, Scott
was told, CNN received an anonymous call, urging them to be part
of a blockbuster announcement. When CNN called Rickfield's
office, his staffers told CNN that there was no big deal, and
that they shouldn't waste their time. In the news business, that
kind of statement from a Congressional power broker is a sure
sign that it is worth being there. Just in case. So CNN assigned
a novice producer and a small crew to the first day of the hear-
ings. As promised, the morning session was an exercise in termi-
nal boredom.

The afternoon session was to begin at 1:30, but Senator Rickfield
was nowhere to be found, so the Assistant Chairperson of the
committee, Junior Senator Nancy Deere assumed control. She was a
44 year old grandmother of two from New England who had never
considered entering politics. Nancy Deere was the consummate
wife, supporter and stalwart of her husband Morgan Deere, an up
and coming national politician who had the unique mixture of
honesty, appeal and potential. She had spent full time on the
campaign trail with Morgan as he attempted to make the transition
from state politics to Washington. Morgan Deere was heavily
favored to win after the three term incumbent was named a co-
conspirator in the rigging of a Defense contract. Despite the
pending indictments, the race continued with constant pleadings
by the incumbent that the trumped up charges would shortly be
dismissed. In the first week after the Grand Jury was convened,
the voter polls indicated that Deere led with a 70% support
factor.

Then came the accident. On his way home from a fund raising
dinner, Morgan Deere's limousine was run off an icy winter road
by a drunk driver. Deere's resulting injuries made it impossible
for him to continue the campaign or even be sure that he would
ever be able to regain enough strength to withstand the brutality
of Washington politics.

Within days of the accident, Deere's campaign manager announced
that Nancy Deere would replace her husband. Due to Morgan's
local popularity, and the fact that the state was so small that
everyone knew everyone else's business, and that the incumbent
was going to jail, and that the elections were less than two
weeks away, there was barely a spike in the projections. No one
seemed to care that Nancy Deere had no experience in politics;
they just liked her.

What remained of the campaign was run on her part with impeccable
style. Unlike her opponent who spent vast sums to besmirch her
on television, Nancy's campaign was largely waged on news and
national talk shows. Her husband was popular, as was she, and
the general interest in her as a woman outweighed the interest in
her politics. The state's constituency overwhelmingly endorsed
her with their votes and Senator Nancy Deere, one of the few
woman ever to reach that level as an elected official, was on her
way to Washington.

Nancy Deere found that many of the professional politicians
preferred to ignore her; they were convinced she was bound to be
a one termer once the GOP got someone to run against her. Others
found her to be a genuine pain in the butt. Not due to her
naivete, far from that, she adeptly acclimated to the culture and
the system. Rather, she was a woman and she broke the rules. She
said what she felt; she echoed the sentiments of her constituency
which were largely unpopular politically. Nancy Deere didn't
care what official Washington thought; her state was behind her
with an almost unanimous approval and it was her sworn duty to
represent them honestly and without compromise. She had nothing
to lose by being herself. After more than a year in Washington,
she learned how the massive Washington machinery functioned and
why it crawled with a hurry up and wait engine.

In Rickfield's absence, at 1:40 P.M., Senator Nancy Deere called
the session to order. Her administrative demeanor gave no one
pause to question her authority. Even the other sole Congres-
sional representative on the sub-committee fell into step.
While Senator Stanley Paglusi technically had seniority, he sat
on the committee at Rickfield's request and held no specific
interest in the subject matter they were investigating. He
accepted the seat to mollify Rickfield and to add to his own
political resume.

"Come to order, please," she announced over the ample sound
system. The voluminous hearing room reacted promptly to the
authoritative command that issued forth from the petite auburn
haired Nancy Deere who would have been just as comfortable auc-
tioning donated goods at her church. She noticed that unlike the
morning session, the afternoon session was packed. The press pool
was nearly full and several people were forced to stand. What
had changed, she asked herself.

After the procedural formalities were completed, she again
thanked those who had spoken to the committee in the morning, and
then promised an equally informative afternoon. Nancy, as she
liked to be called on all but the most formal of occasions intro-
duced the committee's first afternoon witness.

"Our next speaker is Ted Hammacher, a recognized expert on the
subject of computer and information security. During 17 years
with the Government, Mr. Hammacher worked with the Defense Inves-
tigatory Agency and the National Security Agency as a DoD liai-
son. He is currently a security consultant to industry and the
government and is the author of hundreds of articles on the
subject." As was required, Nancy Deere outlined Hammacher's
qualifications as an expert, and then invited him to give his
opening statement.

The television in Rickfield's office was tuned to C-SPAN which
was broadcasting the hearings as he spoke into the phone.

"Only a couple more and then I'm off to spend my days in the
company of luscious maidens on the island of my choice," he
bragged into the phone. The Senator listened intently to the
response. "Yes, I am aware of that, but it doesn't change the
fact that I'm calling it quits. I cannot, I will not, continue
this charade." He listened quietly for several minutes before
interjecting.

"Listen, General, we've both made enough money to keep us in
style for the rest of our lives, and I will not jeopardize that
for anything. Got it?" Again he listened. "I don't know about
you, but I do not relish the idea of doing ten to twenty regard-
less of how much of a country club the prison is. It is still a
prison." He listened further.

"That's it, I've had it! Don't make me use that file to impli-
cate you, the guys over at State and our Import . . .hey!" Rick-
field turned to Ken Boyers. "Who started the afternoon session?"
He pointed at the TV.

"It looks like Senator Deere," Ken said.

"Deere? Where does that goddamned bitch get off . . ?" He remem-
bered the phone. "General? I have to go, I've got a suffragette
usurping a little power, and I have to put her back in her place.
You understand. But, on that other matter, I'm out. Done. Fini-
to. Do what you want, but keep me the fuck out of it." Rick-
field hung up abruptly and stared at the broadcast. "Some house-
broken homemaker is not going to make me look bad. Goddamn it,
Ken," Rickfield said as he stood up quickly. "Let's get back out
there."

"Thank you, Senator Deere, and committee members. I am honored
to have a chance to speak to you here today. As a preface to my
remarks, I think that a brief history of security and privacy
from a government perspective may be in order. One of the reasons
we are here today is due to a succession of events that since the
introduction of the computer have shaped an ad hoc anarchism, a
laissez-faire attitude toward privacy and security. Rather than
a comprehensive national policy, despite the valiant efforts of a
few able Congressmen, the United States of America has allowed
itself to be lulled into technical complacency and indifference.
Therefore, I will, if the committee agrees, provide a brief
chronological record."

"I for one would be most interested," said Senator Deere. "It
appeared that this morning our speakers assumed we were more
knowledgeable that we are. Any clarifications will be most
welcome." The crowd agreed silently. Much of the history was
cloaked in secrecy.

The distinguished Ted Hammacher was an accomplished orator,
utilizing the best that Washington diplomatic-speak could muster.
At 50 years old, his short cropped white hair capped a proper
military bearing even though he had maintained a civilian status
throughout his Pentagon associations. "Thank you madam
chairman." He glanced down at the well organized folder and
turned a page.

"Concerns of privacy can be traced back thousands of years with
perhaps the Egyptian pyramids as the first classic example of a
brute force approach towards privacy. The first recorded at-
tempts at disguising the contents of a written message were in
Roman times when Julius Caesar encoded messages to his generals
in the field. The Romans used a simple substitution cipher where
one letter in the alphabet is used in place of another. The
cryptograms found in the Sunday paper use the same techniques.
Any method by which a the contents of a message is scrambled is
known as encryption."

The CNN producer maintained the sole camera shot and his atten-
tion on Ted Hammacher. He missed Senator Rickfield and his aid
reappear on the dais. Rickfield's eyes penetrated Nancy Deere
who imperceptibly acknowledged his return. "You should not over-
step your bounds," Rickfield leaned over and said to her. "You
have five years to go. Stunts like this will not make your time
any easier."

"Senator," she said to Rickfield as Hammacher spoke. "You are
obviously not familiar with the procedures of Senate panel proto-
col. I was merely trying to assist the progress of the hearings
in your absence, I assure you." Her coolness infuriated Rick-
field.

"Well, then, thank you," he sneered. "But, now, I am back. I
will appreciate no further procedural interference." He sat up
brusquely indicating that his was the last word on the subject.
Unaware of the political sidebar in progress, Hammacher contin-
ued.

"Ciphers were evolved over the centuries until they reached a
temporary plateau during World War II. The Germans used the most
sophisticated message encoding or encryption device ever devised.
Suitably called the Enigma, their encryption scheme was nearly
uncrackable until the Allies captured one of the devices, and
then under the leadership of Alan Turing, a method was found to
regularly decipher intercepted German High Command orders. Many
historians consider this effort as being instrumental in bringing
about an end to the war.

"In the years immediately following World War II, the only per-
ceived need for secrecy was by the military and the emerging
intelligence services, namely the OSS as it became the modern
CIA, the British MI-5 and MI-6 and of course our opponents on the
other side. In an effort to maintain a technological leadership
position, the National Security Agency funded various projects to
develop encryption schemes that would adequately protect govern-
ment information and communications for the foreseeable future.

"The first such requests were issued in 1972 but it wasn't until
1974 that the National Bureau of Standards accepted an IBM pro-
posal for an encryption process known as Lucifer. With the
assistance of the NSA who is responsible for cryptography, the
Data Encryption Standard was approved in November of 1976. There
was an accompanying furor over the DES, some saying that the NSA
intentionally weakened it to insure that they could still decrypt
any messages using the approved algorithm.

"In 1982 a financial group, FIMAS endorsed a DES based method to
authenticate Electronic Funds Transfer, or EFT. Banks move
upwards of a trillion dollars daily, and in an effort to insure
that all monies are moved accurately and to their intended desti-
nations, the technique of Message Authentication Coding was
introduced. For still unknown reasons it was decided that en-
crypting the contents of the messages, or transfers, was unneces-
sary. Thus, financial transactions are still carried out with
no protection from eavesdropping."

"Excuse me, Mr. Hammacher, I want to understand this," interrupt-
ed Senator Deere. "Are you saying that, since 1976, we have had
the ability to camouflage the nation's financial networks, yet as
of today, they are still unprotected?" Rickfield looked over at
Nancy in disgust but the single camera missed it.

"Yes, ma'am, that's exactly the case," replied Hammacher.

"What does that mean to us? The Government? Or the average citi-
zen?"

"In my opinion it borders on insanity. It means that for the
price of a bit of electronic equipment, anyone can tap into the
details of the financial dealings of banks, the government and
every citizen in this country."

Senator Deere visibly gulped. "Thank you, please continue."

"In 1984, President Reagan signed National Security Decision
Directive 145. NSDD-145 established that defense contractors and
other organizations that handle sensitive or classified informa-
tion must adhere to certain security and privacy guidelines. A
number of advisory groups were established, and to a minimal
extent, the recommendations have been implemented, but I must
emphasize, to a minimal extent."

"Can you be a little more specific, Mr. Hammacher?" Asked Senator
Deere.

"No ma'am, I can't. A great deal of these efforts are classified
and by divulging who is not currently in compliance would be a
security violation in itself. It would be fair to say, though,
that the majority of those organizations targeted for additional
security measures fall far short of the government's intentions
and desires. I am sorry I cannot be more specific."

"I understand completely. Once again," Nancy said to Hammacher,
"I am sorry to interrupt."

"Not at all, Senator." Hammacher sipped from his water glass.
"As you can see, the interest in security was primarily from the
government, and more specifically the defense community. In
1981, the Department of Defense chartered the DoD Computer Secu-
rity Center which has since become the National Computer Security
Center operating under the auspices of the National Security
Agency. In 1983 they published a series of guidelines to be used
in the creation or evaluation of computer security. Officially
titled the Trusted Computer Security Evaluation Criteria, it is
popularly known as the Orange Book. It has had some minor
updates since then, but by and large it is an outdated document
designed for older computer architectures.

"The point to be made here is that while the government had an
ostensible interest and concern about the security of computers,
especially those under their control, there was virtually no
overt significance placed upon the security of private industry's
computers. Worse yet, it was not until 1987 that any proposed
criteria were developed for networked computers. So, as the
world tied itself together with millions of computers and net-
works, the Government was not concerned enough to address the
issue. Even today, there are no secure network criteria that are
universally accepted."

"Mr. Hammacher." Senator Rickfield spoke up for the first time.
"You appear to have a most demeaning tone with respect to the
United States Government's ability to manage itself. I for one
remain unconvinced that we are as derelict as you suggest.
Therefore, I would ask that you stick to the subject at hand, the
facts, and leave your personal opinions at home."

Nancy Deere as well as much of the audience listened in awe as
Rickfield slashed out at Hammacher who was in the process of
building an argument. Common courtesy demanded that he be per-
mitted to finish his statement, even if his conclusions were
unpopular or erroneous.

Hammacher did not seem fazed. "Sir, I am recounting the facts,
and only the facts. My personal opinions would only be further
damning, so I agree, that I will refrain." He turned a page in
his notebook and continued.

"Several laws were passed, most notably Public Law 100-235, the
Computer Security Act of 1987. This weak law called for enhanced
cooperation between the NSA and NIST in the administration of
security for the sensitive but unclassified world of the Govern-
ment and the private sector. Interestingly enough, in mid 1990
it was announced, that after a protracted battle between the two
security agencies, the NCSC would shut down and merge its efforts
with its giant super secret parent, the NSA. President Bush
signed the Directive effectively replacing Reagan's NSDD-145.
Because the budgeting and appropriations for both NSA and the
former NCSC are classified, there is no way to accurately gauge
the effectiveness of this move. It may still be some time before
we understand the ramifications of the new Executive Order.

"To date every state has some kind of statute designed to punish
computer crime, but prosecutions that involve the crossing of
state lines in the commission of a crime are far and few between.
Only 1% of all computer criminals are prosecuted and less than 5%
of those result in convictions. In short, the United States has
done little or nothing to forge an appropriate defense against
computer crime, despite the political gerrymandering and agency
shuffling over the last decade. That concludes my opening re-
marks." Hammacher sat back in his chair and finished the water.
He turned to his lawyer and whispered something Scott couldn't
hear.

"Ah, Mr. Hammacher, before you continue, I would like ask a few
questions. Do you mind?" Senator Nancy Deere was being her
usual gracious self.

"Not at all, Senator."

"You said earlier that the NSA endorsed a cryptographic system
that they themselves could crack. Could you elaborate?" Senator
Nancy Deere's ability to grasp an issue at the roots was uncanny.

"I'd be pleased to. First of all, it is only one opinion that
the NSA can crack DES; it has never been proven or disproven.
When DES was first introduced some theoreticians felt that NSA
had compromised the original integrity of IBM's Lucifer encryp-
tion project. I am not qualified to comment either way, but the
reduction of the key length, and the functional feedback mecha-
nisms were less stringent than the original. If this is true,
then we have to ask ourselves, why? Why would the NSA want a
weaker system?"