tie, and a formidable gift of gab, did the talking.
Before some thirty of his former peers, gathered upstairs
over styrofoam coffee and canned Coke in the hotel's Mark
Twain Suite, Bloodaxe sternly announced some home truths
of modern computer security.
Most so-called "computer security experts" --
(Comsec's competitors) -- are overpriced con artists!
They charge gullible corporations thousands of dollars a
day, just to advise that management lock its doors at
night and use paper shredders. Comsec Corp, on the
other hand (with occasional consultant work from Messrs.
"Pain Hertz" and "Prime Suspect") boasts America's most
formidable pool of genuine expertise at actually breaking
into computers.
Comsec, Bloodaxe continued smoothly, was not in the
business of turning-in any former hacking compatriots.
Just in case anybody here was, you know, worrying... On
the other hand, any fool rash enough to challenge a
Comsec-secured system had better be prepared for a serious
hacker-to-hacker dust-up.
"Why would any company trust *you*?" someone asked
languidly.
Malefactor, a muscular young Texan with close-cropped
hair and the build of a linebacker, pointed out that, once
hired, Comsec would be allowed inside the employer's
computer system, and would have no reason at all to "break
in." Besides, Comsec agents were to be licensed and
bonded.
Bloodaxe insisted passionately that LoD were through
with hacking for good. There was simply no future in it.
The time had come for LoD to move on, and corporate
consultation was their new frontier. (The career options
of committed computer intruders are, when you come right
down to it, remarkably slim.) "We don't want to be
flippin' burgers or sellin' life insurance when we're
thirty," Bloodaxe drawled. "And wonderin' when Tim Foley
is gonna come kickin' in the door!" (Special Agent
Timothy M. Foley of the US Secret Service has fully
earned his reputation as the most formidable anti-hacker
cop in America.)
Bloodaxe sighed wistfully. "When I look back at
my life... I can see I've essentially been in school for
eleven years, teaching myself to be a computer security
consultant."
