Terminal Compromise Part 154

Hollywood Freeway Halts Computer Causes 14 Hour Traffic Jam Los Angeles Times

A Day In The Life: Without Computers by Scott Mason.

As bad as a reformed smoker, but without the well earned battle scars, I have been, upon occasion, known to lightly ridicule those who profess the necessity of computers to enjoy modern life. I have been known as well to spout statistics; statistics that show the average homemaker today spends more time homemaking than her ancestor 100 or 200 years ago. I have questioned the logic of laziness that causes us to pull out a calculator rather than figure 10% of any given number.

I have been proven wrong.

Last Sat.u.r.day I really noticed the effects of the Foster Plan more than any time since it began. I must confess that even though I have written about hackers and computer crime, it is axiomatically true that you don't notice it till it's gone.

Allow me to make my point.

Have you recently tried to send a fax? The digital phone lines have been scrupulously pruned, and therefore busy most of the time.

The check out lines at the supermarket have cob webs growing over the bar code price scanner. The system that I used when I was a kid, as a delivery boy for Murray and Mary Meyers Meat Market, seems to be back in vogue; enter the cost of the item in the cash register and check for mistakes when the receipt is produced.

I haven't found one store in my neighborhood that still takes credit cards. Have you noticed the near disdain you receive when you try to pay with a credit card? Its real and perceived value has been flushed right down the toilet.

Not that they don't trust my well known face and name, but my credit cards are as suspect as are everybody's. Even check cashing is scarce. Seems like the best currency is that old time stand-by, cash. If you can make it to the bank. The ATM at my corner has been rented out to a flower peddler.

All of this is happening in reasonably affluent Westchester County. And in impoverished East Los Angeles and in Detroit and Miami and Boston and Atlanta and Dallas as well as a thousand Oshkosh's. America is painfully learning what life is like without automation.

OSO Puts Up Foster Defense Costs Effort At Saving Face Miami Herald

Hackers Hacked Off Accuse Government of Complicity Atlanta Const.i.tution

Microwaves Go Haywire Timers Tick Too Long Newsday

1 Million School Computers Sit Idle Software Companies Slow to Respond Newsweek

Federal Computer Tax Bill Up For Vote John and Jane Doe Scream 'No'!

San Diego Union

Cable Shopping Network Off Air 6 Months Clearwater Sun

Bankruptcies Soar 600% Money Magazine

Banking At Home Programs On Hold Unreliable Communications Blamed Computers In Banking

Slow Vacation Travel Closes Resorts But Disneyland Still Happiest Place on Earth San Diego Tribune

Hacker Heroes By Scott Mason

I have occasionally wreaked verbal havoc upon the hacker communi- ty as a whole, lumping together the good and the bad. The per- formance of hackers in recent months has contributed as much to the defense of the computers of this country as has the govern- ment itself.

An estimated one million computer users categorize themselves or are categorized as hackers. After the h.o.m.osoto bomb was dropped on America, a spontaneous underground ad hoc hacker effort began to help protect the very systems that many of them has been violating only the day before. The thousands of bulletin boards that normally display new methods of attacking computers, invad- ing government networks, stealing telephone service, phreaking computers and causing electronic disruptions, are now competing for recognition.

Newspapers interested in providing the most up to date informa- tion on fighting h.o.m.osoto's estimated 8000 viruses, and methods of making existing computers more secure have been using hacker BBS's as sources.

Foster Defense Coming to An End Foster won't take stand New York City Times

AIDS Patients Sue CDC For Releasing Names Actors, Politicians and Leaders on Lists Time Magazine

FBI Arrests 15 Fosterites Largest Single Net Yet Miami Herald

Congress Pa.s.ses Strongest Computer Bill Yet Washington Post

American Express Declares Bankruptcy United Press International

No New Pa.s.sports For Travelers 3 Month Department Hiatus Till System Repaired Boston Globe

138 Foreign Nationals Deported h.o.m.osoto Complicity Cited San Francisco Chronicle

National Identification Cards Debated George Washington Law Review

Ex Foster Girl Friend Key Prosecution Witness by Scott Mason

A long time girl friend of h.o.m.osoto a.s.sociate Miles Foster testi- fied against her former lover in the Federal Prosecutor's treason case against him today. Stephanie Perkins, an admitted high cla.s.s call girl, testified that she had been hired to provide services to Mr. Foster on an 'as-needed' basis.

Over a period of four years, Ms. Perkins says she was paid over $1 Million by a '. . .man named Alex . . .' and that she was paid in cash at a drop in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

She stated that her arranged ralationship with Mr. Foster 'was not entirely unpleasant,' but she would have picked someone 'less egotistical and less consumed with himself.'

"I was supposed to report his activities to Alex, and I saw a lot of the conversations on the computer."

"Did Foster work for h.o.m.osoto?"

"Yes."

"What did he do?"

"Built viruses, tried to hurt computers."

"Did you get paid to have s.e.x with Mr. Foster?"

"Yes."

"How many times?"

"A few hundred, I guess."

"So you liked him?"

"He was all right, I guess. He thought I liked him."

"Why is that?"

"It was my job to make him think so."

"Why?"

"So I could watch him."

"What do you do for a living now?"