"S. Andrew Swann - Zimmerman's Algorithm" - читать интересную книгу автора (Swann S Andrew)

he came out with a can of ginger ale. He stood by the small sink and thought about possible leaks. Not his
people, but maybe Doctor Zimmerman's. He'd had a few of the technical types set up the transportation of
the Daedalus, since they had the expertise in the computer. That was most likely the weak link.
"Issue two; Y2K Mark Two," called the TV host, interrupting Volynskji's thoughts. He watched the TV
with some renewed interest.
"Everyone who owns a computer has been aware of the much ballyhooed millennium bug, known to the
digital intelligentsia simply as 'Y2K.' However the attempted theft of a Daedalus supercomputer has
brought to light what may be the true threat of the 21 st centuryтАФdigital terror."
The scene on the television was replaced by stock footage of people surfing the Internet. It showed
scenes in typical offices, a library, and one of the popular Internet coffee houses. The host continued in a
voice-over. "ItemтАФA Tangled Web. The Internet, especially the World Wide Web, has undergone
phenomenal growth. Internet connectivity is now a standard part of all computer operating systems and
estimates are that nearly 90% of all computers in the U.S. spend some time connected to this data
superhighway. But this information superhighway is a two-way street, while these computers are searching
for data elsewhere, other partiesтАФpossibly with nefarious motivesтАФcan access those same computers.
According to experts, the security on most computers is inadequate to deal with an intentionally malicious
attack."
Volynskji nodded and wondered if this blustering Washington pundit had any idea what the words
"digital terror" might actually mean.
"ItemтАФWall Street Meltdown," the TV continued. The voice-over talked over scenes of the trading
floor in New York City. "Two months ago there was a panic as the Dow plummeted five hundred points in
a single afternoon. Economists were quick to blame a crisis mentality on Wall Street that reflected no true
economic factors. In the past few weeks, investigators at the Securities and Exchange Commission placed
the blame for the downfall at the feet of an old demonтАФprogram trading. Despite safeguards placed in the
eighties to stop an automatic sell-off if the market suffered a too-steep decline, this drop was the result of
computersтАФnot peopleтАФengaged in a flurry of selling. This was a repeat of the last program sell-off
disaster, but this time with a new, underreported, and sinister twist. Several pension funds, along with two
major brokerages, were infected with a computer virus. A virus that seemed otherwise benign, but whose
presence prevented the programmed brakes from taking hold during the five-hundred-point drop." The
scene returned to the roundtable and the host turned to his left. "Mort, I ask you, shades of things to come,
orтАФ"
Volynskji turned off the television.
 1.03
Mon. Feb. 23

THE days Gideon spent at the hospital blended into a single, painful blur. Long stretches of
second-guessing his walk into the Secret Service's trap, broken only by the physical discomfort of the
nurses changing dressings on his leg, and draining the wound in his shoulder. Antibiotics and painkillers kept
him semiconscious.
After the first few days they moved him into a room with a television, but most of the time he was too
groggy to follow what was happening on it.
His memory of the news was a disjointed series of reports on his progress. Watching reporters talk
about him was an alien sensation, like thinking of himself in the third person.
On the news, Gideon graduated from critical to guarded to stable. Though he, himself, couldn't identify
any changes.
The one image that penetrated the haze of antibiotics was his brother's televised funeral. The broadcast
caught him completely unaware. He was too out of it to realize what day it was, and it was several minutes
in before he realized what he was watching.
On the TV he saw the flag-draped casket; officers in dress blues; Chief Conroy and Mayor Harris
alongside the Director of the FBI; a series of speakers talking about heroic sacrifices. . .