Terminal Compromise by Winn Schwartau (my reading book .txt) 📖

IBM. We must defend the

small business as surely as we must defend our international

competitiveness of industrial leaders.

“The wealth of this country was once in steel mills, in auto

plants, in manufacturing. The products built by the United

States were second to none. Made in the U.S.A. was a proud

label, one that carried a premium worldwide. Our technological

leadership has never been in question and has been the envy of

the world for over 200 years. Franklin, Fulton and Edison. The

Wright Brothers, Westinghouse, Ford. As a nation the Manhattan

Project reaffirmed our leadership. Then Yaeger and the speed of

sound. The transistor. DNA decoded. The microchip. The Moon.

The computer.

“Yet there was a subtle shift occurring that escaped all but the

most vigilant. We were making less things, our concentration on

manufacturing was slowly shifting to an emphasis on technology.

Communications, computers. Information processing. No longer

are cities built around smokestacks spewing forth the byproducts

of the manufacturing process. Instead, industrial parks sprout

in garden-like settings that encourage mental creativity.

Fifteen percent of the American workforce no longer drive to the

office. They commute via their computers at home.

“The excitement of the breakneck pace of technology masked the

danger in which we were placing ourselves. Without realizing it,

a bulk of this nation’s tangible wealth was being moved to the

contents of a computer’s memory. We took those first steps

toward computerization hesitantly; we didn’t trust the computer.

It was unfamiliar, foreign, alien. But when we embraced the

computer, we unquestioningly entrusted it with out most precious

secrets.

“Unlike the factory though, with the fence, the gates, the dogs,

the alarms and the night guards, we left our computers unprotect-

ed. Growing bigger and faster computers took precedence over

protecting their contents.

“We were warned, many times. But, as I said earlier, neither

your government nor its constituency heeded the warnings with

enough diligence. Protection of government information became a

back-burner issue, a political hot cake, that in budget crunches,

was easy to overlook. Overclassification of information became

the case of the ‘The Spy Who Cried Wolf.’ The classification

system has been abused and clearly does not serve us well. At my

direction it will receive a thorough overhaul.

“Personal privacy has been ignored. Your government is in pos-

session of huge amounts of data and yet there is no effort at

protecting the non-classified privacy of individuals in our

computers.

“The private sector faces another dilemma. The unresponsiveness

of the Federal Government to the protection of its own informa-

tion did not set a good example for industry, and their comput-

ers, too, remained vulnerable.

The President paused from reading his speech to pour a glass of

ice water.

“Nothing can stop the fact that the United States is under at-

tack. Nothing can change the fact that the attack cannot be

turned away. And nothing can change the fact that America will

suffer significant disruptions and inconvenience for some time.

But we can minimize the damage. We can prepare for the inevita-

ble obstacles we will face.

“The poison that Mr. Homosoto put into the American information

society is the equivalent of electronic biological warfare. He

has senselessly and vengefully struck out against the United

States in a manner that I describe as an act of war.

“In order to deal with this real threat to the security of the

United States of America, I have taken several steps that are

designed to assist in weathering the storm.

“First, I am assigning the Director of the National Security

Agency to coordinate all efforts at defending against and mini-

mizing the effects of the current crisis. The NSA has the expe-

rience and resources, and the support of this President to manage

an operation of this complexity and importance. In addition,

representatives from GCHQ in the United Kingdom and other ITSEC

members from Germany, France and Holland will coordinate European

defensive strategies.

“Second, I am activating the following four groups to assist the

NSA in their efforts. ECCO, the Emergency Computer Crisis Organ-

ization, has acted as an advisor to law enforcement agencies

across the country and has been instrumental in providing the

technical support to the FBI and the Secret Service in their

computer crime investigations.

“CERT, the Computer Emergency Response Team was created by the

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as an outgrowth of the

1988 INTERNET Worm incident. Carnegie Mellon University where

CERT is headquartered has donated the facilities and staff of

their Software Engineering Institute to deal with the invasion of

our computers.

“The Defense Data Network Security Coordination Center was based

at the Stanford Research Institute by the Defense Communications

Agency to coordinate attacks against non-classified computer

systems.

“Lastly, CIAC, the Computer Incident Advisory Capability manages

computer crises for the Department of Energy at Lawrence Liver-

more Laboratories.

“These are the organizations and the people who will guide us

through the coming adversities. It is they who are responsible

to insure that America never again finds itself so vulnerable.

So open to attack. So helpless in our technological Achilles

Heel.

“The organizations I mentioned, and the government itself have

not yet been tested in a crisis of significant magnitude. This

is their maiden voyage, so to speak, and it is incumbent on us,

the American people, to make their job as easy as we can by

offering our complete cooperation.

“And, tonight, that is what I am asking of you. Your assistance.

Your government cannot do it alone. Nor can small localized

individual efforts expect to be successful against an army of

invaders so large. We must team together, act as one, for the

good of the entire country. From the big business with 100,000

computers to the millions of men, women and children with a home

computer; from the small businessman to the schools, we need to

come together against the common enemy: the invasion of our

privacy and way of life.

“Americans come together in a crisis, and my fellow Americans, we

face a crisis. Let me tell you what my advisors tell me. They

tell me without taking immediate drastic steps to prevent further

destruction of America’s information infrastructure, we face a

depression as great as the one of the 1930’s.

“They tell me that every computer in the country, most in Canada,

a significant number in England and other countries, can expect

to be attacked in some manner within two years. That represents

over 70 million casualties!

“The international financial and monetary system will come to a

halt and collapse. Financial trading as we know it will cease

and wild speculative fluctuations will dominate the world curren-

cy markets. America is already feeling the change since the ATM

networks were removed from service.

“As we have seen, the transportation facilities of this country,

and indeed the world, are totally dependent on computers and

therefore vulnerable. That is why today we take so seriously the

threats against the airlines. There is no choice but success.

Together, the American people must stand up to this threat and

not succumb to its effects.

“While your government has the resources to develop solutions to

the problems, it has not been within our power to mandate their

use in the private sector.

“We will need unity as never before, for the battleground is in

our homes, our schools, our streets and our businesses. The

children of this great country will have as much opportunity to

contribute as their parents will, and as the leaders of business

will. As we all will and all must.

“In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, the very structure of our

country is in imminent danger of collapse, and it is up to us,

indeed it is within our power, to survive. The sacrifices we

will be called upon to make may be great, but the alternative is

unacceptable.

“Indeed, this is a time where the American spirit is called upon

to shine, and shine brightly. Thank you, and God Bless the

United States of America.”

* Sunday, January 24 Scarsdale, New York

“One fuckuva speech,” Tyrone Duncan said to Scott Mason who was

downing the last of a Coors Light. “You should be proud of

yourself.” They had watched the President’s speech on Scott’s

large screen TV.

“Ahhhh,” grunted Scott. “It’s almost anti-climatic.”

“How the hell can you say that?” Tyrone objected. “Isn’t this

what you’ve been trying to do? Get people to focus on the prob-

lem? Christ, you can’t do much more than a Presidential speech.”

“Oh, yeah,” agreed Scott cynically. “Everyone knows, but not a

damn thing’s gonna be done about it. Nothing. I don’t care what

the President says, nothing’s going to change.”

“You have become one cynical bastard. Even Congress is behind