"Ian Watson - Caucus Winter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watson Ian)

Anybody wanting to hack into a bank will be in there in a trice. Conventional
crypto-keys and the best protective software firewalls: forget 'em.

Motorola in Phoenix were coming close to a quantum computer. Likewise, several
companies in Silicon Valley. Nokia here in Finland. Fujitsu in Japan. And
especially Matsushima at its research center based in Cambridge, England, which
was to be my next port of call. The race for the Holy Grail was cantering toward
the finishing post, and the U.S. Treasury was distinctly worried.

No matter what initial price tag quantum computers bore, or how stringently
end-user licenses were required, such machines would be a dream for hackers and
criminals and for hostile foreign governments. We would need entirely new
encryption methods based on quantum principles -- rooted in such things as
Outi's algorithm, her rules for carrying out quantum calculation tasks.

Only since arriving in Tampere had I learned that people from the NCSC had
arranged to visit Nokia -- without bothering to liaise with the Secret Service.
Did Outi realize that the National Computer Security Center is part of the
National Security Agency? What would spooks from Fort Meade make of the pinko
punk? Also planning a visit were the U.S. Air Force (in the persons of the
Electronic Security Command from San Antonio). The USAF had not liaised with the
Secret Service; nor probably with the NSA.

What a lack of interagency communication. And perhaps a case of too little, too
late? Anyway, I knew now that Nokia was not going to win. The victors were most
likely to be Motorola, although Cambridge was a definite dark horse.

By one o'clock in the morning, I definitely had to go back to my hotel to rest
my head on a pillow. Marko tried to divert me toward further local
entertainment.

He lived at home with his parents, very close by. Right now his parents were
away on a holiday in the sun, in Morocco, sensible people.

"I shall drive you in our car," he offered -- his gesture seemed to embrace Outi
as well, and maybe Risto. He hiccuped. "Pardon me. I shall drive to our hut in
the forest. For a sauna and sausages. It's only a few kilometers. And," he vowed
grandly, offering the ultimate inducement, "I shall cut a hole in the ice of the
lake for you."

Oh yes. At one in the morning, at minus five, I lusted to boil myself and then
jump into a frozen lake. Who knows but I might have agreed if I had drunk more
ammonium chloride.

"Don't you have severe drunk-driving laws here, Marko?"
He shrugged massively.

Outi took pity, and escorted me homeward toward the Ilves Hotel in my multiple
sweaters.