Part 65 (2/2)
”Sir, why, it's almost Christmas, and it wasn't her fault”
”And no bonus Make sure they never work near banks, or coain! Got that?” Everyone nodded in shock
”Al?” McMillan shouted ”Buy back our stock, quietly When the market hears this we're in for a dump No one will believe us e respond, and it will take us a day to get out an answer”
”How ure it out Just keep it calree- ably
”Where the hell are the lawyers? I want that pinko-faggot news- paper stopped by tonight” McMillan's rage presaged a very, very bad day at First State
”And someone, someone, find me that shi+t hole worm Sidneys I want him in my office in 30 seconds Now,” he violently thrust his aret the hell out of here until you have soood news”
Friday, December 4
RUN ON FIRST STATE AS IT STALLS ON OWN BAILOUT by Scott Mason
Since yesterday afternoon, First State Savings and Loan has been in asset-salvation mode Upon reports that computer hackers have had access to First State's coe their contents at will, the stock atively by a sell-off In the first 15 , First State's stock plummeted from 48 1/2 to 26 1/4, a reduction of one half its value Subsequently, the stockAt the noon bell, the stock had risen modestly to 31 It is assu their own stock in an attempt to bolster market confidence
However, at 2:00PM, First State contacted banking officials in New York and Washi+ngton, as well as the SEC, to announce that a rush of worried depositors had drained the bank of it's available hard currency reserves, and would close until the followingwhen cash transfers would permit the bank to continue pay were reported in excess of 3 Billion, and First State has acknowledged that any and all monies would be available to those who desired it In a press release issued by First State at 1:00 PM they said, ”A minor coe to the coation has deterination of a local paper or was based upon unfounded hearsay The bank's attorneys are reviewing their options”
The combination of the two announcements only further depressed First State stock It stood at 18 7/8 when the SEC blocked further trading
This is Scott Mason, who reported the news as he saw it Accu- rately
Chapter 15
Sunday, Deceton, DC
Miles Foster was busy at one of the several coton, DC condo It was necessary, on a daily basis, to stay in contact with a vast group of people ere executing portions of his ly so in fact Spread over 3 continents he rened h He broke theroups, and none of theanization, nor did they have any idea of their ultimate objective
Each of his computer criminals was recruited by Alex; that's the only name that Miles knew Alex Miles had drawn up a list of minimum qualifications for his 'staff' He forwarded theuessed, passed them on to the ubiquitous yet invisible Alex That obviously wasn't his real name, but suitable for conversation
Miles had developed a profile of the various talents he required
One group needed to have excellent progra systeuage It is the O/S that allows the computer to execute its commands Unless the computer understands the O/S, the computer is deaf dumb and blind As a child learns to coe to permit it to function It is still essentially stupid, that is, it can't do anything on its oithout instructions, but it can understand theiven
In order to violate a coe of the coraet a computer to perform the desired task There are, as in any field, tricks of the trade
Through experience, a progras it e of the features of the Operating System, inal designers of the O/S, a corammer is able to extract additional perforh, such knowledge allows the ra System to perform specific jobs and to circumvent any security measures that may be present For example, in most of the 85,000,000 or so DOS coe that when you ERASE a file, you really don't erase it You merely erase the NAME of the file If a secretary was told to dispose of document from a file cabinet, and she only re in the file drawers, she would cer- tainly have reason to worry for her job Such is an example of one of the countless security holes that per omissions, several software companies were formed that allowed users to retrieve 'erased'