"Look Out, He's Got a Computer!" (July, 1984)
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Fear of computers is one thing. Almost everyone has experienced this to some
extent, though some of course are able to handle it far better than others. But
misunderstanding of computers is a great deal more damaging and far less
recognized among the mainstream.

What's the difference? The two are definitely related, there's no denying that.
But they are far from identical. One of the most outstanding differences lies
in the fact that people who claim to be "afraid" of computers (whether it's
because of their efficiency, rapid growth, or whatever) tend to keep away from
the things. But people who misunderstand computers are the ones who are running
and regulating them.

Last month it was reported that Tom Tcimpidis, who operates a computer
bulletinboard system from his home in the Los Angeles area, had his equipment
seized by the Los Angeles Police Department. Why? Somebody somewhere had called
up his system and left an AT&T credit card number posted. Pacific Telephone
found out and decided to flex its muscles. Officials involved in the case
insist that the system operator be held responsible but it's impossible to
ascertain why. The man who approved the search warrant, Superior Court Judge
Robert Fratianne, was quoted in Info World as saying, "As far as I can see, for
someone to commit a computer crime, they have to have the knowledge, the
equipment, and the access to an illegal [bulletin] board." Does anyone know
what he's talking about? What in the world is an illegal board? What kind of
equipment is he talking about? The only equipment here is a home computer! In
another article, one of the officials claims that he knows all about this kind
of thing, because he saw War Games, the film where a kid tries to start a
nuclear war. Perhaps he didn't see the same film as the rest of the world, but
in any event, seeing War Games, whether you understand it or not, doesn't make
you an automatic expert on anything having to do with computers! This is what
is known as aggressive ignorance.

Another fun thing that happened last month was the TRW escapade. The nation was
shocked to find out that the TRW computer, which houses credit information on a
large number of people, might have been broken into. Nobody knew what had even
happened! Did someone raid the system and destroy or change info? Did the feds
bust another BBS for posting "illegal" info? Were real criminals involved this
time? Did a large bill get sent to an innocent corporation? According to all of
the articles that have been written, not one of the above happened, but they
all could have happened. So where is the story?! Are they saying that the worst
thing that happened here was the posting of this nifty information somewhere?
Well, that's not even interesting since any employee that uses the system could
tell someone else about it at any moment.

Again, what we are seeing here is a failure to appreciate the full implications
of such a thing. There is a story in this whole TRW thing. But it's not in the
possibility that some hacker somewhere figured out a password. The story lies
in the existence of the TRW database itself. Why was this completely
downplayed? Because an article about kids breaking into a computer makes for
good, sensationalist reading. It doesn't matter if most of the information is
totally wrong; the people will read it. Nobody wants to read about how we're
losing whatever freedom we have left, not to a machine, but to the people
running the machine. It's depressing to hear about your entire life story being
written to disk somewhere and to know that there's not a thing you can do about
it. But, like it or not, this is exactly what's happening.

It's quite possible that TRW has a file on you that can be checked and appended
by people all over the place. It's also entirely possible that some of that
information is wrong. And it's a fact that TRW itself claims no responsibility
for the accuracy of this info. But even if all of the information is right, how
do you feel about being categorized?

On the back pages of our issue this month, we've devoted some space to the way
TRW operates and the information that can be found. We didn't print this so
that everybody could figure out a way to break into their system, although we'll
certainly be accused of this by our critics. We're publishing these facts so
that as many people as possible can become aware of the wide availability of
increasingly personal tidbits and how this can affect us for the rest of our
lives. We're doing this so that people can realize how easy it is for items to
be altered and for assumptions to be made by people reading this data. Look at
the sample printout and see if its thoroughness surprises you. Try to imagine
how thorough it could become in 10 years with improvements in technology and
continued erosions of personal freedom. The FBI recently came very close to
expanding its files on criminals. They wanted to include "known associates of
criminals." Next would have come "known associates of known associates," etc.
They lost the battle for the moment, but you can count on seeing another drive
for this increased surveillance real soon.

What many are not realizing is that this constitutes true "misuse" of
computers. What kind of a society are we heading toward that wants to keep
close personal data on everybody? Regardless of whether or not one is on the
right side of the law, nobody wants everything about them to be known. We all
have our secrets and more systems like TRW will make those secrets increasingly
hard to keep. But according to today's papers, the biggest problem with
computers is the hackers.

People who do little more than type some numbers onto a terminal and do a
little bit of thinking are referred to alternately as computer geniuses and
computer bandits by the media. And nearly every story written about such things
is full of astronomical lapses, misinformation, corporate sympathy, and the
obligatory Donn Parker quotes. The Washington Post recently did a three-part
story on "computer crime," which said absolutely nothing new. It could have
been manufactured by a computer program!

Meanwhile, legislators are tripping over themselves trying to get laws passed
to control these computer people before they take over the world. The intensity
with which the FBI has chased hackers in the past year or so indicates the
power they think those with computers either have or are capable of achieving.
And most of this fuss is being made over people simply accessing other systems.
What in the world is going to be the reaction when people finally start to use
the computers, to calculate and design?

A new bill has been proposed to outlaw computer crime. Isn't that wonderful? Do
you know what they consider a computer crime? Personal use of a computer in the
workplace. This means that if an office worker were to open a file and write a
note to himself reminding him to stop at the store later on, he'd be committing
a felony. Plans are also in the works for bills that would add penalties to
crimes that were committed with the help of computers. In other words, stealing
is stealing, but stealing with a computer is stealing and a half.

The hysteria continues. The United States government is doing everything in its
power to prevent the Soviets from obtaining computers that are practically a
dime a dozen here. What good could this possibly achieve in the long run? And
why pick on the computer? It's not a weapon in itself, but merely a tool. A
vital tool, yes, but still a tool.

It's clear that computer people are in for an era of harassment from the
authorities, who haven't been this riled up since Prohibition. And everyone
else will be getting it from the computer abusers, who insist on tracking
everything that moves. We can survive by staying awake. But we'd better start
working on it.