"Bruce Sterling - Gurps' Labour Lost" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sterling Bruce)

johnny-come-lately FBI.

As the use of plastic money has spread, and their
long-established role as protectors of the currency has faded in
importance, the Secret Service has moved aggressively into the
realm of electronic crime. Unlike the lordly NSA, CIA, and FBI,
which generally can't be bothered with domestic computer
mischief, the Secret Service is noted for its street-level
enthusiasm.

The third-rank of law enforcement are the local "dedicated
computer crime units." There are very few such groups,
pitifully undermanned. They struggle hard for their funding and
the vital light of publicity. It's difficult to make
white-collar computer crimes seem pressing, to an American
public that lives in terror of armed and violent street-crime.

These local groups are small -- often, one or two officers,
computer hobbyists, who have drifted into electronic
crimebusting because they alone are game to devote time and
effort to bringing law to the electronic frontier. California's
Silicon Valley has three computer-crime units. There are
others in Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Maryland, Texas, Colorado,
and a formerly very active one in Arizona -- all told, though,
perhaps only fifty people nationwide.

The locals do have one great advantage, though. They all know
one another. Though scattered across the country, they are
linked by both public-sector and private-sector professional
societies, and have a commendable subcultural esprit-de-corps.
And in the well-manned Secret Service, they have willing
national-level assistance.



PLAYER TWO: The Telephone Companies.



In the early 80s, after years of bitter federal court battle,
America's telephone monopoly was pulverized. "Ma Bell," the
national phone company, became AT&T, AT&T Industries, and the
regional "Baby Bells," all purportedly independent companies,
who compete with new communications companies and other
long-distance providers. As a class, however, they are all
sorely harassed by fraudsters, phone phreaks, and computer
hackers, and they all maintain computer-security experts. In a
lot of cases these "corporate security divisions" consist of
just one or two guys, who drifted into the work from backgrounds
in traditional security or law enforcement. But, linked by