THROUGH THE WIRE Commentary and News Concerning the Other World by Michael A. Banks Copyright (c), 1990, 1991, Michael A. Banks Well, I was going to talk about the United States Government and telecomputing this time out, but I've decided to cut that in favor of expanding info and commentary on international telecomputing. (There's not much happening in that area at the moment; you've read everything there is to know in the news magazines, or caught it on TV or radio news.) I'll still cover online elitism, and give you the reading list--all as promised. And I'll give you something to think about regarding online security. First, let's take a look at what's happening with international telecomputing, on two levels. International Telecomputing, Level One: "The Walls Come Tumbling Down" If you're over 35 or so, you probably felt the same awe and sense of history as I did when you saw the Berlin Wall and all it symbolized come crashing down earlier this year. After all, we grew up with that symbol of what was known as the Communist menace and--far, far worse--of the sad legacy handed Eastern Europe in the wake of World War II. (My God--remember when those emergency broadcasting system tests used to be followed by "Had this been an attack ... "?) (In footnote to "the Communist menace," you may assume that I concur with Dr. Jerry Pournelle's statement on returning from Russia in April: "I have seen the fourth world, and it doesn't work.") Now, in less than a year, we've seen four decades of oppression slough away like the rotting husk of a fallen fruit, revealing the seeds of a new world. Even Mother Russia is loosening her hold (though not too much) on satellite nations, and there are echoes of freedom in South and Central America. What does this have to do with being online? Well, I've stated often enough that the online world tends to mirror the "real" world. This is no less than true where the growing freedom of long-oppressed (politically or otherwise) nations are concerned. Now that the political walls blocking free trade and communication in many parts of the world are coming down, so are the barriers to telecomputing. For example, U.S. Sprint has commenced setting up a quality data communications service for the U.S.S.R. The Moscow-based service, which should be up and running by the end of the year, will see the installation of state-of-the-art data communications switching equipment, making it easier for Soviet citizens to telecommunicate with the rest of the world. The service will be a joint venture with Russia, called "Telenet USSR" (although the name could change, since Telenet has been renamed "SprintNet" here in the U.S., in the wake of its acquisition by U.S. Sprint). But in this instance, the online world has been and is anticipating as well as mirroring real-world events. Telenet USSR is not the first Soviet data link with the Western world. The famed Washington/Moscow "Hot Line" has been a data link for quite a few years. Nor is it the first commercial link: an existing data communications center in Moscow routes commercial telecomputing traffic via SprintNet/Telenet through Vienna, Austria (a similar link can be made via Helsinki, Finland, though that route cannot handle heavy traffic). Other links with Russia are made circuitously via Tymnet and, it has been rumored, over Internet. Still another link, the cleverly titled San Francisco/Moscow Teleport (SFMT), leases time on a comsat to link Moscow to packet-switching networks in the U.S. via San Francisco. (And now, users on the majority of American online services can, for a fee of perhaps five bucks for 150 words, send E-mail to Russia via SFMT, courtesy of DASnet, an inter-service E-mail carrier. DASnet ties in to almost all major online services. For more info phone 415-559-7434 voice and speak with Anna Lange.) Those links will be much in the public eye over the next 12 to 18 months, but they are only half the story where the "opening" of Communist and Third-World nations are concerned. A public, international BBS opened in Estonia (one of the Soviet Baltic states) in mid-1989, and DELPHI and CompuServe have forged data links with South and Central American countries. (Text from sessions on some of DELPHI's links--actually, local versions of the DELPHI online service--are shown on these pages. If you read Spanish, enjoy!) In these developments, the online world anticipated developments in the real world, as stated a few paragraphs back. And, there are some developments online that are unique to the online world. For example, on ConnectEd (an online university operated in conjunction with New York's New School for Social Research), you'll find a service that provides essays from Soviet writers and commentators on all manner of topics. (Freely written, I might add, and with a surprising undercurrent of Russian patriotism.) (For information about ConnectEd, telephone 212-548-0435 voice and ask for Paul Levinson.) International Telecomputing, Level Two: Commercial Expansion On a less sensationalistic plane, the three largest commercial online services in the U.S. are expanding into Europe and Japan in a big way--shrinking the global tent city (a term I prefer to "global village," because we all go home after those international interactions ... ) still more. Here's a summary: CompuServe in Europe. CompuServe is offering limited (and expensive) service in Europe via the CompuServe Forum. (The service is lower in cost than previous means of accessing CompuServe via Europe, however.) A special TOP menu has been created for European subscribers, and there are plans for various CompuServe computer forums to add sections for European users. Additional plans call for "CompuServe software" (whether this is front-end software or the service itself is not known) to be offered in several European languages. CompuServe already has access from Japan via a joint venture that offers CompuServe access or a mirror of same, called "Nifty- SERVE." DELPHI Introduced in Japan. General Videotex Corporation (GVC), parent company of DELPHI, has created a partnership with Japan's ASCII Corporation to distribute DELPHI services in Japan. ASCII Corp., which operates one of the three largest online services in Japan and publishes books and magazines on computing, among other topics, is creating a "regional" version of DELPHI called ASCII NET in Japan. According to GVC, the ASCII NET Japan will "supplement DELPHI's current regional partners in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Miami, Florida; Kansas City, Missouri; and Boston, Massachusetts." GVC and ASCII Corp. expect to sign up more than 5,000 members during the first year of distribution. Presumably, there will be an extra-charge gateway service between ASCII NET and DELPHI, as is the case with DELPHI in the U.S. and DELPHI/Argentina. There is talk of sub-licenses to Singapore and/or Taiwan. GEnie in Europe. GEnie is now officially online in Europe. The service can be dialed up directly in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland via networks operated by distributors of General Electric Information Services (GEIS), GEnie's parent company. Unlike CompuServe's European service, GEnie is making almost all the features that are available to North American subscribers available to European callers. This augments international access from Japan, and will presumably be expanded to include other European countries (including the U.K.) in the near future. BIX Clones. In footnote, it's worth mentioning that clones of BIX exist in Japan and the U.K. These are totally without connection (data links or business connection) with BIX (which is an online service sponsored by Byte Magazine). In Japan, the service is called "Nikki-MIX" and runs the same basic UNIX software as BIX, but with Kanji (written graphic character) capability. In the U.K., the clone is called CIX; I don't know whether it uses the same operating system, but the structure is close enough. (You'll find screens from some Japanese services on accompanying pages.) Online Elite? Back on the topic of new-found telecom riches, it is worth noting that not everyone in Russia or in Central or South America has access to international telecom services--just as not everyone in newly "free" nations has access to the tools of capitalism (money and contacts.) For example, any Soviet citizen can walk into the Moscow data communications center and dial up Europe or America--in theory. In practice, however, access is limited to those who have a need to telecompute (certain scientists would constitute one such group), and perhaps to the more privileged or those with the proper contacts. And in countries with little "hard currency," there is a definite upper limit to how much international telecomputing activity can go on in any event. It's all on a "need to telecompute" basis. But, before you jump to conclusions about totalitarian telecomputing and elitism in Communist-controlled or third-world nations, consider the fact that telecomputing is new in Russia, and computer literacy is not widespread. The same is true in Central and South American nations. And in most of the countries to which I've alluded here, the economic situation is such that only a minority of those who are computer literate have the wherewithal to obtain the prerequisite hardware and software. Then consider the fact that telecomputing in the U.S. (and in Japan and the U.K.) is not something to which everyone has access; though the cost of telecomputing in both money and knowledge has dropped, the online world is still populated largely by elitists--either the techno-elite or a subset of the financially elite. Those who are online otherwise remain a minority. That's going to change, however, as telecomputing becomes more and more a "legitimate" product/service. And telecomputing will indeed become legitimate. The majority will adopt it over the next decade, in the same manner as we adopted cable TV, VCRs, FAX machines, and telephones. Why? Because, like those other technologies, telecomputing is information exchange ... and with information exchange comes freedom--not to mention the desire to have access to everything. (For more on the online elite, see the accompanying sidebar.) All in all, it looks as if telecomputing outside the Western world is merely a decade or so behind us--and catching up fast. Things to Come All this talk about what's happening with international telecomputing has me thinking about what the future holds. So I've put together some of my thoughts on what's likely to be happening in the global online world (mainly involving its interfaces with the real world) over the next few years. Note that these are not straight predictions (that's a con game), but extrapolations to which we can assign fairly high probabilities. Too, I've deleted a couple of them since I began writing this last month--because they came true, two or three years before the time I'd assigned to them. 1990 - 1991 Soviet special-interest groups spring up on various online services. A few American BBS freaks dial into Eesti BBS #1 in Tallin, Estonia and copy off message bases and files, which are then uploaded to various online services and BBSs in the U.S. Similar material snakes its way westward via Internet. Eesti BBS #1 is joined by other non-commercial Baltic and Eastern European BBSs. 1992 - 1993 CompuServe is the first computer network to offer TASS, the official Soviet news service, online; the surcharged service is provided to CompuServe on a one-year exclusive basis for an undisclosed sum. As topics covered by Russia's American-distributed Soviet Life magazine continue to mirror those in various American cultural and news magazines, the magazine runs a special feature on Soviet hackers, focusing on underground BBSs in Baltic nations and in Leningrad and Moscow. The tone is one of mild rebuke. More and more Russian citizens sign on to American online services under the auspices of various institutions like the Soviet Academy of Sciences. A few Eastern Europeans and residents of former Soviet states begin showing up on American online services, some as individual citizens but more under the auspices of governmental agencies. Russian and Eastern European hackers begin working the new packet network and other links to the West, and show up on Internet as well as various commercial online services and private BBSs. They are particularly ingenious in their techniques, which require that they use relatively ancient and unprotected telephone technology to gateway into more sophisticated systems in the Western world. They quickly discover that they are easily tracked and nailed, and their successors devise still more ingenious techniques to cover their trails. 1993 - 1995 A cosortium consisting of General Electric, the now British- owned BT Tymnet, and unnamed investors vies with the combined forces of IBM and AT&T to win the right to provide commercial data communications links with Leningrad and Moscow via X.400 communications links through Austria and Germany. (This will offer links mainly with western Europe, with limited availability to North America and Asia.) GEnie, via its GEIS international X.25 service, offers limited service to residents of Moscow and Leningrad, as well as to various former Soviet states. The links are into Western Europe, with packet-switching networks like U.S. Sprint and GE/BT Tymnet as record carriers. With the increasing availability of hard currency in Russia, a relatively large number (scores) of individual Russian citizens open accounts on American and British commercial online services. These will be professionals, intent on establishing information businesses and/or enhancing their own professional activities with information from the West. (Behind the scenes, an arm of the Russian internal security service--your guess--notices the information interchange and begins monitoring it, with no expressed or real intent.) Online Security Speaking of hackers (and I was, a few dozen lines back) I've another bomb (well, a grenade in this case) to drop, along the lines of the unknown threat Wall Street and the money-heads mentioned in my first column. This time it has to with computer data security. You all know what hackers are, how they break into systems and steal data for fun and/or profit, etc. This, thanks to the mainstream news media, which portrays them in a somewhat glamorous vein, like modern-day counterparts of corsairs in historical novels. The threat to data posed by real hackers has been missed, in large part, because the media prefers to focus on hackers who get caught, and on soi-disant computer security experts who emphasize the sensationalistic and speak knowingly of viruses. (Compare John xxxxx getting literally hours of air time and gallons of ink in the national media with FLU_SHOT+ author Ross Greenberg getting maybe ninety seconds on CNN. The disparity comes from Ross' providing a level-headed, step-by-step approach to virus protection. No blood-and-guts there ... but I digress-- as I shall whenever I can take a shot at media airheadedness. After all, is not the implied purpose of the news media to inform rather than entertain? Or am I inferring too much and is the avowed purpose of the media to not only sway but dictate public opinions, topple governments, and the like?) That's not the only threat to data and privacy that's been missed. An equally dangerous threat, that of accidental data sharing or disclosure, has been mentioned not once in any book or article on computer security. And what constitutes accidental data sharing? Easy: Someone mistakenly includes your E-mail address in a distribution list, or sends E-mail intended for someone else to you because your online ID is similar to that of the intended addressee. I've had it happen several times on one system in particular. I've received corporate-confidential information that conceivably could have been sold to a certain mega-corporation's competitors (something, I hasten to add, I didn't do; my ethics run counter to accepted Yuppie and pirate practices. If they didn't, I wouldn't be scrambling to make car payments.) I've received even more sensitive information. All because someone didn't pay attention to what he or she was typing. (Where this happened is your guess; I'm now on 31 networks with 36 IDs.) The hell of it is, it's something that's easily fixed. And, no, I won't warn the service of it. Not at the moment, anyway. Why? I mentioned ethics a few lines back; in addition to what I said there, I have ethics that say "No" to professional rape. To keep it short, I won't give away my knowledge and expertise to a large corporation when said corporation is paying kilobucks to employees and "consultants" who are supposed to catch this stuff. But, be warned; a typo, a tired person sending E-mail, or someone who's inattentive or untrained--any of these can result in sensitive data being given to those who shouldn't have it. (Hm ... there's a story in this, perhaps. Let's see ... Big Bucks Corp. is losing big bucks because of a data leak. The data leak is an accident, but it means Someone's job, so Someone covers his ass by inventing a hacker. Hm ... could be particularly interesting if it were a national security leak ...) The Reading List (at last!) Okay, here's the skinny: Whether you're new to this stuff or not, buy and read any of the books on this list that you haven't read (yes--even mine), with the exception of those branded as technical if you're not of a technical bent. I've intentionally left out some books that you've probably already read. The bottom line: Each of these is worth ordering if you can't find it in your favorite bookstore. Communications and Networking for the IBM PC and Compatibles, by Larry Jordan and Bruce Churchill (good if you want to learn the tech-hardware end of things; Brady Books/Simon & Schuster) The Cuckoo's Egg, by Clifford Stoll (you know--the bestseller; Bantam Books) The Hacker, by Chet Day (interesting horror novel involving hackers--ignore the reviews and judge for yourself; Pocket Books) The Matrix, by John S. Quarterman (non-fiction, explains computer networks around the world; Digital Press) The Modem Reference, 2nd edition by Michael A. Banks (Brady Books/Simon & Schuster; has everything you need to know about buying and using a modem, getting online, what's online, etc.) Synners, by Pat Cadigan (a novel, from Bantam/Spectra) True Names, by Vernor Vinge (a collection of short stories that also contains the novelette, "True Names," which is required reading; currently in print in a Baen Books edition) Understanding Data Communications (good reference for tech- heads; pick it up at your local Radio Shack store) That's a start. I'll add books to this list under an In Print header next edition and each time thereafter. # That's it for now. Next edition: the much-overrated compu- sex phenomenon, copyright theft (a bit of a scandal revealed), more international stuff, and whatever looks interesting. In the meantime, have fun! # SIDEBAR The Online Elite Revisited Some leftover comments on online elitism ... . I spoke earlier in this issue (and in the previous issue) about an "online elite." We networkers in the Western world are an elite (which I'll attempt to prove by example in a couple paragraphs). But we'll become less so over the next three years as the cost of going online--in cash and knowledge--continue to drop and modem communication becomes as "legitimate" in the marketplace as VCRs and pizzas. In the meantime, a lot of people are smearing us with the same brush as the ubiquitous "rich man" and "Illuminati." The "lot of people" are those who hear about what goes online but aren't online. I've seen this happen time and again. Basically, those who aren't online are afraid they're missing something (they are), and that they're being barred from information and contacts (they aren't). I first grappled with this issue a couple of years ago, when I was asked by some people in a national writers' organization of which I'm a member (okay, it was the Science Fiction Writers of America, aka SFWA) to try to quell a flap over someone not online misunderstanding what "goes on" online. The best I could do (and it was and is legitimate) was to explain that the public, private, and semi-private exchange of information about which the offline person was paranoid was in its net effect nothing more than what went on via "street mail" letters, voice telephone conversations, and in-person chats. It wasn't accepted then, and it's not being accepted now. In my capacity as Online Committee chairperson for SFWA, I set up a panel at a recent SFWA event, at which one or two offline people in the audience made accusations of conspiracies and power-plays and information control on the part of those online. If such exist (attempts at these things exist, anyway), it is no more than goes on in the physical world, albeit faster at times. But we'll never convince those offline of that. So the offline "lots of people" brand those online as an elite group, simply because they have access to communications channels knowledge (and gossip) faster. Interestingly enough, it has been my experience that those offliners who cry "Elitists!" are those who are most able but least likely gain access to online services. Which is to say, they're the kind of people who either misunderstand things, and/or like to have problems. (I'm not certain this is true in the latter instance, but in general it is.) On the other side of the coin, I should re-emphasize that the people you and I meet online who are not in the U.S., where telecom costs are low, are an elite group, indeed. For it costs much in money and knowledge to get online if you're living in Tokyo or Buenos Aires. It's not unlike (to haul out the realtime metaphor again) foreigners visiting or moving to the U.S.--you will rarely, if ever, meet someone from another country who was without money or power or special knowledge or training, or some special ability that enabled him or her to get here. Thus, we don't really meet the "common man" via a virtual visit to other countries--not yet, anyway. But, what the heck--being part of an elite group isn't all bad. (, as we say online.) # Michael A. Banks is the author of 21 published non-fiction books and science fiction novels (including the definitive work on personal computer communications, The Modem Reference, published by Brady Books/Simon & Schuster). He's also published more than 1,000 magazine articles and short stories, lively technical documents, and "... a few catchy slogans." He can be found online "almost anywhere," but if you want to reach him fast, try E-mail to KZIN on DELPHI, to MIKE.BANKS on GEnie, to BANKS2 on AOL, or to mike_banks on BIX. # BOOKS BY MICHAEL A. BANKS "If a technical thing is troubling you, just wait a bit. Michael Banks is probably writing a book that will make it clear." --The Associated Press Do you use DeskMate 3? Are you getting the most out of the program? To find out, get a copy of GETTING THE MOST OUT OF DESKMATE 3, by Michael A. Banks, published by Brady Books/Simon & Schuster, and available in your local Tandy/Radio Shack or Waldenbooks store now. Or, phone 800-624- 0023 to order direct. (The all-new 2nd edition is now available!) "GETTING THE MOST OUT OF DESKMATE 3 is more than a guide to DeskMate; it's an enhancement..."--Waldenbooks Computer NewsLink Interested in modem communications? Check out THE MODEM REFERENCE, also by Michael A. Banks and published by Brady Books/Simon & Schuster. Recommended by Jerry Pournelle in Byte, The New York times, The Smithsonian Magazine, various computer magazines, etc. (Excerpts from this book accompany this file.) THE MODEM REFERENCE is available at your local B. Dalton's, Waldenbooks, or other bookstore, either in stock or by order. Or, phone 800-624-0023 to order direct. (1st edition currently available; all-new 2nd edition available in January, 1991!) "I definitely recommend it." --Jerry Pournelle, BYTE Magazine Want the lowdown on getting more out of your word processor? Read the only book on word processing written by writers, for writers: WORD PROCESSING SECRETS FOR WRITERS, by Michael A. Banks & Ansen Dibel (Writer's Digest Books). WORD PROCESSING SECRETS FOR WRITERS is available at your local B. Dalton's, Waldenbooks, or other bookstore, either in stock or by order. Or, phone 800- 543-4644 (800-551-0884 in Ohio) to order direct. Other books by Michael A. Banks UNDERSTANDING FAX & E-MAIL (Howard W. Sams & Co.) THE ODYSSEUS SOLUTION (w/Dean Lambe; SF novel; Baen Books) JOE MAUSER: MERCENARY FROM TOMORROW (w/Mack Reynolds; SF novel; Baen Books) SWEET DREAMS, SWEET PRICES (w/Mack Reynolds; SF novel; Baen Books) COUNTDOWN: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO MODEL ROCKETRY (TAB Books) THE ROCKET BOOK (w/Robert Cannon; Prentice Hall Press) SECOND STAGE: ADVANCED MODEL ROCKETRY (Kalmbach Books) For more information, contact: Michael A. Banks P.O. Box 312 Milford, OH 45150