The Termination Node - Hardcover

Weinberg, Robert E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0345412451 ISBN 13: 9780345412454

Publisher: Del Rey, 1999

Synopsis

You step up to the ATM machine, type in your PIN number. A pause. Then the screen reveals the last thing you would have expected--that someone has electronically drained your account. You've been left with a balance of zero.

It can happen. In a world online, no one is safe, nothing is private, no transaction is secure. This frighteningly plausible scenario is unveiled in The Termination Node, an electrifying new novel coauthored by top internet security specialist Lois H. Gresh. Grounded in fact and substantiated by astounding expertise, The Termination Node will blast you awake, revealing the sheer vulnerability we all face, today and in the future. Gresh has seen it all, and she baits our unease with informed--and shocking--possibilities.

Judy Carmody is a total hacker, a free-wheeling California freelancer who, at twenty-something, is the best in the business of Internet security. But even Judy has never seen anything like the cyber-heist that instantly vaporizes the assets of a major bank. Penetrating all state-of-the-art defenses in the dead of night, someone is using a mysterious new code to empty accounts. And they're getting away with it, leaving no trace. The masterminds have thought of everything--including the elimination of every hacker who might be able to stop them.

Forced into hiding, Judy disappears into the bizarre underground of California hacker culture. As she desperately hurries to crack the deadly code, she uncovers secrets that reach the highest levels of power--secrets that jeopardize the security and privacy of every citizen. For today, computers are everywhere.

Totally terrifying, completely original, The Termination Node is a spellbinding novel revealing dangers you never thought possible. Until now.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"An early warning of 21st century crime and terrorism . . . An intelligent book . . . Refreshing and frightening . . . Gresh and Weinberg have done their homework . . . The technology they describe will inevitably arrive."
--Dr. Howard Frank
Former Director, Information Technology Office
Department of Defense Advance Research Projects Agency

"An all too real world . . . where a new breed of cyber-predators prowl the global net in search of victims . . . Gresh and Weinberg entertain and terrify us."
--James Buchanan, Gannett Professor,
Rochester Institute of Technology
Teacher and writer on the philosophical
and ethical dimensions of the information age

About the Author

As a computer specialist, Lois H. Gresh designs tests for security loopholes. As a project engineer, she handles failures of hardware circuitry, microcode, and operating systems. As a programmer, she designs and codes corporate Web sites and systems using C, Java, JavaScript, VRML 2.0, and various multimedia tools. She's written assembly language on numerous platforms, including routines to test the instruction set of a new CPU chip. She designed and coded Cobol/Fortran/JCL applications for federal and state welfare programs and for the U.S. Department of Defense. She has first-hand knowledge of high-level corporate takeovers in the computer industry, as well as the culture and business operations of companies in Silicon Valley and southern California.

A prolific author, Robert Weinberg has worked extensively in the suspense, horror, and science-fiction fields. His short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies including Dark Love, Phobias, and David Copperfield's Tales of the Impossible. He has been nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Balrog Awards, and is a two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award. His work has been translated into Japanese, French, Polish, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Romanian, and German. Robert lives near Chicago.

About this edition

• Publisher: Del Rey
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0345412451
• ISBN 13: 9780345412454
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312