Since the author also requests remuneration, we would ask these

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

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"HERF?" laughed Phil.

"HERF," said Marv defensively. "High Energy Radiated Fields.
Pick a frequency, add an antenna, point and shoot. Poof! Your
computer's history."

"You're kidding me . . ."

"No joke. We and the Soviets did it for years; Cold War Games,"
said Kennedy. "Pretty hush-hush stuff. We have hand held
electric guns that will stop a car cold at a thousand yards."

"Phasers?" asked Chambers.

"Sort of, Quinton," chimed in Phil.

"Foster's plan also called for moles to be placed within strate-
gic organizations, civilian and government." Marv continued.
"They were to design and release malicious software from inside
the company. Powerful technique if you can find enough bodies
for the dirty work."

"Again, according to Foster, Homosoto said that there was never a
manpower problem," Marv said. "He's confident that an Arab group
is involved somewhere. The MacDonald's accident was caused by
Arabs who . . ."

"And we still can't get shit out of the one who we're holding.
The only one that's left. Troubleaux was shot by an
Arab . . .the FBI is working hard on that angle. They've given
themselves extraordinary covers." Phil was always on top of those
things that might have a political cause and/or effect. "How
extensive an operation was this?"

Marvin Jacobs ruffled through some notes in his files. "It's hard
to be sure. If Homosoto followed all of Foster's plan, I would
guess 3 - 5,000 people, with a cost of between $100 - $300 Mil-
lion. But mind you, that's an uneducated guesstimate."

Quinton Chambers dropped his pen on the table. "Are you telling
us that one man is bringing the United States virtually to its
knees for a couple of hundred million?" Marv reluctantly nodded.
"Gentlemen, this is incredible, more than incredible . . .does
the President know?"

Even Phil Musgrave was antsy with the answer to that question.
"Not in any detail, but he is very concerned. As for the cost,
terrorism has never been considered expensive."

"Well thank you Ron Ziegler, for that piece of information,"
scowled Chambers. "So if we know all of this, why don't we pick
'em all up and get this over with and everything working again?"

"Foster claims he doesn't know who anyone other than Homosoto is.
He was kept in the dark. That is certainly not inconsistent with
the way Homosoto is known to do business - very compartmental-
ized. He didn't do the recruitment, he said, and all communica-
tions were done over the computer . . .no faces, no names. If it
wasn't for Mason, we wouldn't even know that Foster is the Spook.
I consider us very lucky on that point alone."

"What are we going to do? What can we do?" Royce and Chambers
both sounded and looked more concerned than the others. Their
agencies were on the front line and the most visible to the
public.

"For the government we can take some mandatory precautions. For
the private sector, probably nothing . . ."

"Unless." Phil said quietly.

"Unless what?" All heads turned to Phil Musgrave.

"Unless the President invokes martial law to protect the country
and takes control of the computers until we can respond." Phil
often thought out loud, even with his extremist possibilities.

"Good idea!" said Jacobs quickly.

"You think that public will buy that?" asked Chambers.

"No, but they may have no choice."

* * * * *

Tuesday, January 26

PRESIDENT DECLARES WAR ON COMPUTERS
By Scott Mason

Support for the President's Sunday night call to arms has been
virtually unanimous by industry leaders.

According to James Worthington, Director of Computing Services at
First National Life, "We take the threat to our computers very
seriously. Without the reliable operation of our MIS systems,
our customers cannot be serviced and the company will suffer
tremendous losses. Rates will undoubtedly rise unless we protect
ourselves."

Similar sentiments were echoed by most industry leaders. IBM
announced it would be closing all of its computer centers for
between two and four weeks to effect a complete cleansing of all
systems and products. A spokesperson for IBM said, "If our
computers are threatened, we will take all necessary steps to
protect our investment and the confidence of our customers. IBM
prefers a short term disruption in normal services to a long term
failure."

Well placed persons within the government concur that the NSA,
who is responsible for guiding the country through the current
computer crisis, is ideally suited for managing the situation.
Even agencies who have in the past been critical of the super-
secret NSA are praising their preliminary efforts and recommenda-
tions to deal with the emergency.

In a several page document issued by the NSA, a series of safe-
guards is outlined to protect computers against many of the
threats they now face. In addition, the NSA has asked all long
distance carriers to, effective immediately, deny service to any
digital communications until further notice. Despite high marks
for the NSA in other areas, many of their defensive recommenda-
tions have not been so well received.

"We are actually receiving more help from the public BBS's and
local hacker groups in finding and eradicating the viruses than
from the NSA or ECCO," said the Arnold Fullerman, Vice President
of Computer Services at Prudential.

AT&T is also critical of the government's efforts. "The Presi-
dential Order gives the NSA virtual control over the use of our
long distance services. Without the ability to transmit digital
data packets, we can expect a severely negative impact on our
first quarter earnings . . ." While neither AT&T nor the other
long distance carriers indicated they would defy the executive
decree, they did say that their attorneys were investigating the
legality of the mandate.

The NSA, though, was quick to respond to criticism. "All the NSA
and its policies are trying to achieve is a massive reduction in
the rate of propagation of the Homosoto Viruses, eliminate fur-
ther infection, so we can isolate and immunize as many computers
as possible. This will be a short term situation only." De-
tractors vocally dispute that argument.

AT&T, Northern TelCom and most telephone manufacturers are taking
additional steps in protecting one of Homosoto's key targets:
Public and Private Branch Exchanges, PBX's, or phone switches.
They have all developed additional security recommendations for
customers to keep Phone Phreaks from utilizing the circuits
without authorization. Telephone fraud alone reached an estimat-
ed $14 Billion last year, with the courts upholding that custom-
ers whose phones were misused are still liable for all bills.
Large companies have responded by not paying the bills and with
lawsuits.

The NSA is further recommending federal legislation to mitigate
the effects of future computer attacks. They propose that com-
puter security be required by law.

"We feel that it would be prudent to ask the private sector to
comply with minimum security levels. The C2 level is easy to
reach, and will deter all but the most dedicated assaults. It is
our belief that as all cars are manufactured with safety items
such as seat belts, all computer should be manufactured with
security and information integrity mechanisms in place. C2 level
will meet 99% of the public's needs." A spokesman for ECCO, one
of the emergency computer organizations working with the NSA
explained that such security levels available outside of the
highest government levels range from D Level, the weakest, to A
Level, the strongest.

It is estimated that compliance with such recommendations will
add no more than $50 to the cost of each computer.

The types of organizations that the NSA recommend secure its
computers by law is extensive, and is meeting with some vocal
opposition:

Companies with more than 6 computers connected in a network or
that use remote communications.

Companies which store information about other people or organiza-
tions.

All Credit Card merchants.

Companies that do business with local, state or federal agencies.

The entire Federal Government, regardless of data classification.

All publicly funded organizations including schools, universi-
ties, museums, libraries, research, trade bureaus etc.

Public Access Data Bases and Bulletin Boards.

"It is crazy to believe that 45 million computers could comply
with a law like that in under 2 years," said Harry Everett, a
Washington D.C. based security consultant. "In 1987 Congress
passed a law saying that the government had to protect 'sensitive
but unclassified data' to a minimum C2 level by 1992. Look where
we are now! Not even close, and now they expect to secure 100
times that many in one tenth the time? No way."

Another critic said, "C2? What a joke. Europe is going by ITSEC
and they laugh at the Orange Book. If you're going to make
security a law, at least do it right."

NSA also had words for those computers which do not fall under
the umbrella of the proposed legislation. Everyone is strongly
urged to practice safe computing.

* * * * *

Tuesday, January 26
St. Louis, Missouri

"I'm sorry sir, we can't find you in the computer," the harried
young woman said from behind the counter.

"Here's my boarding pass," he said shoving the small cardboard
pass into her face. "And here's a paid for ticket. I want to get
on my flight."

"Sir, there seems to be a complication," she nervously said as
she saw at least another hundred angry people behind the irate
customer.

"What kind of complication?" he demanded.

"It seems that you're not the only one with a ticket for Seat 11-
D on this flight."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Sir, it seems that the flight has been accidentally overbooked,
by about 300 people."

"Well, I have a ticket and a boarding pass . . ."

"So do they, sir."

Delta and American and Northwest and USAir were all experiencing
problems at every gate their airlines serviced. So was every
other airline that used the National Reservation Service or
Saber. Some flights though, were not so busy.

"What kind of load we have tonight, Sally?" asked Captain David
Clark. The American red-eye from LAX to Kennedy was often a
party flight, with music and entertainment people swapping cities
and visiting ex-wives and children on the opposite coast.

"Light," she replied over the galley intercom from the middle of
the 400 seat DC-10.

"How light?"

"Crew of eleven. Two passengers."

By midnight, the entire air traffic system was in total chaos.
Empty airplanes sat idly in major hubs awaiting passengers that
never came. Pilots and flight crews waiting for instructions as
take-offs from airports all but ceased. Overbooking was so
rampant that police were called into dozens of airports to re-
store order. Fist fights broke out and despite pleas for calm
from the police and the airlines, over 200 were arrested on
charges of disorderly conduct, assault and resisting arrest.
Tens of thousands of passengers had confirming tickets for
flights that didn't exist or had left hours before.

Arriving passengers at the international airports, LAX, Kennedy,
San Francisco, Miami were stranded with no flights, no hotels and
luggage often destined for parts unknown. Welcome to the United
States.

The FAA had no choice but to shut down the entire air transporta-
tion system at 2:22 A.M.

* * * * *

Wednesday, January 27
National Security Agency
Fort Meade, Maryland

"Did you get the President to sign it?"

"No problem. Public opinion swung our way after yesterday."

"And now?"

"Essentially, every long and short distance phone company works
for the Federal Government.."

"Tell me how it works."

"We have lines installed from the 114 Signal Transfer Points in
every phone district to a pair of Cray-YMP's at the Fort. Every
single AT&T long distance phone call goes through these switches
and is labeled by an IAM with where the call came from and where
it's going. What we're looking for is the high usage digital
lines. Including fax lines. So the phone company is kind
enough to send us a list of every call. We get about seven
million an hour."

"We can handle that?"

"We have enough to handle ten times that."

"I forget about the international monitors. That's millions more
calls a day we listen to."

"Yessir. The computers go through every call and make a list of
digital calls. Then we get a list of all billing records and
start crunching. We compare the high usage digital lines with
the phone numbers from the bills and look for patterns. We look
to see if it's a private or business line, part of a private PBX,
hours and days of usage, then who owns the line. Obviously we
eliminate a great many from legitimate businesses. After inten-
sive analysis and profile comparison, we got a a few thousand
candidates. What we decided to look for was two things.

"First, we listen to the lines to make sure it's a computer. If
it is, we get a look at the transmissions. If they are encrypt-
ed, they get a red flag and onto the Hit List."

"The President bought this?"

"We told him we'd only need the records for a short time, and
then we would dispose of them. He agreed."

"What a sucker. Good work."

* * * * *

Friday, February 12
New York City Times

Computer License Law Possible?
by Scott Mason

Senator Mark Bowman's proposed legislation is causing one of the
most stirring debates on Capital Hill since the divisive decision
to free Kuwait militarily.

The so-called "Computer License Law" is expected to create as
much division in the streets and homes of America as it is polit-
ically.

The bill calls for every computer in the country to be registered
with the Data Registration Agency, a working component of the
Commerce Dept. The proposed 'nominal fees' are intended to
insure that the technology to protect computer systems keeps up
with other computer technology.

Critics, though, are extremely vocal in their opposition to a
bill that they say sends a strong message to the American people:
We don't trust you. The FYI, Freeflow of Your Information says
that passage of the Computer License Law will give the federal
government the unrestricted ability and right to invade our
privacy. Dr. Sean Kirschner, the chief ACLU counsel, is consid-
ering a lawsuit against the United States if the bill passes.
Kirschner maintains that " . . .if the License Law goes into
effect, the streets will be full of Computers Cops handing out
tickets if your computer doesn't have a license. The enforcement
clauses of the bill essentially give the police the right to
listen to your computer. That is a simple invasion of privacy,
and we will not permit a precedent to be set. We lost too much
freedom under Reagan."

Proponents of the bill insist that the low fee, perhaps only $10
per year per computer, is intended to finance efforts at keeping
security technology apace with computer technology. "We have
learned our lesson the hard way, and we now need to address the
problem head on before it bites us again." They cite the example
of England, where televisions have been licensed for years, with
the fees dedicated to supporting the arts and maintaining broad-
casting facilities.

"Does not apply," says Dr. Kirschner. "With a television, there
isn't an issue of privacy. A computer is like an electronic
diary, and that privacy must be respected at all costs."

"And," he adds, "that's England, not the U.S.. They don't have
freedom of the press, either."

Kirschner vowed a highly visible fight if Congress " . . .dares
to pass that vulgar law . . ."

* * * * *

Monday, February 15
Scarsdale, New York

"ECCO reports are coming in."

"At this hour?" Scott said sleepily.

"You want or no?" Tyrone Duncan answered with irritation.

"Yeah, yeah, I want," Scott grumbled. "What time is it?"

"Four A.M. Why?"

"I won't make the morning . . ."

"I'm giving you six hours lead. Quit bitching."

"O.K., O.K., what is it?"

"Don't sound so grateful."

"Where the hell are you?" Scott asked sounding slightly more
awake.

"At the office."

"At four?"

"You're pushing your luck . . ."

"I'm ready."

"It looks like your NEMO friends were right. There are bunches
of viruses. You can use this. ECCO received reports of a quar-
ter million computers going haywire yesterday. There's gotta be
ten times that number that haven't been reported."

"Whose?"

"Everybody for Christ's sake. American Gen, Compton Industries,
First Life, Banks, and, this is almost funny, the entire town of
Fallsworth, Idaho."

"Excuse me?"

* * * * *

Thursday, February 25

TOWN DISAPPEARS
By Scott Mason

The town of Fallsworth, Idaho is facing a unique problem. It is
out of business.

Fallsworth, Idaho, population 433, has a computer population of
611.

But no one in the entire incorporation of Fallsworth has ever
bought or paid for a single piece of software or hardware.

Three years ago, the town counsel approved a plan to make this
small potato farming community the most computerized township in
the United States, and it seems that they succeeded. Apparently
the city hall of Fallsworth was contacted by representatives of
Apple Computer. Would they like to be part of an experiment?

Apple Computer provided every home and business in the Fallsworth
area with a computer and the necessary equipment to tie all of
the computers together into one town-wide network. The city was
a pilot program for the Electronic City of the future. The
residents of Fallsworth were trained to use the computers and
Apple and associated companies provided the township beta copies
of software to try out, play with and comment on.

Fallsworth, Idaho was truly the networked city.

Lily Williams and members of the other 172 households in Falls-
worth typed out their grocery lists on their computer, matching
them to known inventories and pricing from Malcolm Druckers'
General Store. When the orders arrived at the Drucker computer,
the goods just had to be loaded in the pick up truck. Druckers'
business increased 124% after the network was installed.

Doctors Stephenson, Viola and Freemont, the three town doctors
modem'ed prescriptions to Baker Pharmacy so the pills were ready
by the time their patients arrived.

Mack's Messengers had cellular modems and portable computers
installed in their delivery trucks. They were so efficient, they
expanded their business into nearby Darbywell, Idaho, population,
5,010.

Today, Fallsworth, Idaho doesn't use its computers. They lie
dormant. A town without life. They forgot how to live and work
and play and function without their computers. Who are the
slaves?

The viruses of Lotus, of dGraph. The viruses of Freedom struck,
and no one in the entire town had registration cards. The soft-
ware crisis has left Fallsworth and a hundred other small test
sites for big software firms out in the digital void.

Apple Computer promised to look into the matter but said that
customers who have paid for their products come first . . .

* * * * *

Friday, March 5
FBI Building, Federal Square

Tyrone Duncan was as busy as he had ever been, attempting to
coordinate the FBI's efforts in tracking down any of the increas-
ing number of computer criminals. And there were a lot of them at
the moment. The first Copy-Cat computer assaults were coming to
light, making it all that much more difficult to isolate the
Foster Plan activities from those other non-coordinated inci-
dents.

Tyrone, as did his counterparts in regional FBI offices nation-
wide, created teams of agents who concentrated on specific areas
of Homosoto's assault as described by the Spook. Some special-
ized in tracing missing electronic funds, some in working with
the phone company through the NSA. More than any other goal, the
FBI wanted desperately to locate as many of the invisible agents
that the Spook, Miles Foster, had told Homosoto to use. Tyrone
doubted they would catch anywhere near the 3000 or more he was
told that were out there, but at this point any success was
welcome.

FBI agents toiled and interviewed and researched sixteen and
eighteen hours a day, seven days a week. There hadn't been such
a blanket approval of overtime since the Kennedy assassination.
The FBI followed up the leads generated by the computers at the
NSA. Who and where were the likely associates of Homosoto and
Foster?

His phone rang - the private line that bypasses his secretary-
startling Tyrone from the deep thought in which he was immersed.
On a Saturday. As the voice on the other end of the phone ut-
tered its first sound, Tyrone knew that it was Bob Burnson.
Apparently he was in his office today as well.

"Afternoon, Bob," Tyrone said vacantly.

"Gotcha at a bad time?" Burnson asked.

"No, no. Just going over something that may prove interesting."

"Go ahead, make my day," joked Burnson.

"I know you don't want to know . . ."

"Then don't tell me . . ."

"But Mason's hackers are coming through for us."

"Jeez, Ty," whined Bob. "Do you have to . . ."

"Do you know anybody else that is capable of moving freely in
those circles? It's not exactly our specialty," reprimanded
Tyrone.

"In theory it's great," Bob reluctantly agreed, "but there are so
damn many exposures. They can mislead us, they're not profes-
sionals, and worst of all, we don't even know who they are, to
perform a background check."

"Bob, you go over to the other side . . . playing desk man on
me?"

"Ty, I told you a while ago, I could only hang so far out before
the branches started shaking."

"Then you don't know anything." Tyrone said in negotiation.
Keep Bob officially uninformed and unofficially informed. "You
don't know that NEMO has helped to identify four of the black-
mailers and a handful of the Freedom Freaks. You don't know that
we have gotten more reliable information from Mason's kids than
from ECCO, CERT, NIST and NSA combined. They're up in the clouds
with theory and conjecture and what-iffing themselves silly.
NEMO is in the streets. A remote control informer if you like."

"What else don't I know?"

"You don't know that NEMO has been giving us security holes in
some of our systems. You don't know that Mason's and other
hackers have been working on the Freedom viruses."

"Some systems? Why not all?"

"They still want to keep a few trapdoors for themselves."

"See what I mean!" exclaimed Burnson. "They can't be trusted."

"They are not on our payroll. Besides, it's them or no one,"
Tyrone calmly said. "They really would like to keep the real-bad
guys off of the playing field, as they put it."

"And keep the spoils for their own use."

"It's a trade-off I thought was worthwhile."

"I don't happen to agree, and neither does the Director's
office."

"I thought you didn't know . . ."

"Word gets around. We have to cap this one, Ty. It's too hot.
This is so far from policy I think we could be shot."

"You know nothing. Nothing."

But Burnson and the FBI and the White House all knew they wanted
Foster. Tyrone instinctively knew as did Scott, that Miles
Foster was the Spook. Other than meager unsubstantiated circum-
stantial evidence, though, there was still no convincing legal
connection between Miles Foster and the Spook. Not enough of
one, anyway.

Miles Foster had done an extraordinary job of insulating himself
and his identity from his army.

There had to be another way.

* * * * *

Monday, March 8
New York City Times

Lawsuit Cites Virus
by Scott Mason

Will stockholders of corporations soon require that all Corporate
assets be appropriately protected? Including those contained in
the computers? Many people see a strong possibility of a swell
of Wall Street investor demands to secure the computers of pub-
licly held companies. The SEC is planning on issuing a set of
preliminary regulations for firms under its aegis.

Last week, a group of 10,000 Alytech, Inc. stockholders filed the
first class action suit along this vein. They are suing the
current board of directors for " . . .willful dereliction of
fiduciary responsibility in the adequate security and protection
of corporate information, data, communications and data process-
ing and communications equipment." The suit continues to say
that the company, under the Directors' leadership and guidance
knew and understood the threat to their computers, yet did noth-
ing to correct the situation.