"Bruce Sterling - CyberView '91" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sterling Bruce)

Bruce Sterling

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Literary Freeware -- Not For Commercial Use



They called it "CyberView '91." Actually, it was another
"SummerCon" -- the traditional summer gathering of the American
hacker underground. The organizer, 21 year old "Knight
Lightning," had recently beaten a Computer Fraud and Abuse rap
that might have put him in jail for thirty years. A little
discretion seemed in order.

The convention hotel, a seedy but accommodating motor-inn
outside the airport in St Louis, had hosted SummerCons before.
Changing the name had been a good idea. If the staff were alert,
and actually recognized that these were the same kids back
again, things might get hairy.

The SummerCon '88 hotel was definitely out of bounds. The US
Secret Service had set up shop in an informant's room that year,
and videotaped the drunken antics of the now globally notorious
"Legion of Doom" through a one-way mirror. The running of
SummerCon '88 had constituted a major count of criminal
conspiracy against young Knight Lightning, during his 1990
federal trial.

That hotel inspired sour memories. Besides, people already got
plenty nervous playing "hunt the fed" at SummerCon gigs.
SummerCons generally featured at least one active federal
informant. Hackers and phone phreaks like to talk a lot. They
talk about phones and computers -- and about each other.

For insiders, the world of computer hacking is a lot like
Mexico. There's no middle class. There's a million little kids
screwing around with their modems, trying to snitch
long-distance phone-codes, trying to swipe pirated software --
the "kodez kidz" and "warez doodz." They're peons, "rodents."
Then there's a few earnest wannabes, up-and-comers, pupils. Not
many. Less of 'em every year, lately.

And then there's the heavy dudes. The players. The Legion of
Doom are definitely heavy. Germany's Chaos Computer Club are
very heavy, and already back out on parole after their dire
flirtation with the KGB. The Masters of Destruction in New York
are a pain in the ass to their rivals in the underground, but ya