| Article: 2021
From: roberts@decus.arc.ab.ca (Rob Slade, Ed. DECrypt & ComNet, VARUG rep,
604-984-4067)
Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews
Subject: "Second Contact" by Resnick
Date: 24 Dec 1993 05:48:30 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Sender: daemon@cs.utexas.edu
BK2NDCNT.RVW 931014
Tor Books
49 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10010
"Second Contact", Resnick, 1990, U$3.95/C$4.95
The jacket blurb states that this book is a treat for anyone who likes
"computers, science fiction, or just a plain good read." The "good
read" part is going to depend on personal preference: the science
fiction part seems to be almost a side issue. The computer
enthusiasts will be presented alternately with ideas and giggles.
The book is set seventy-five years into the future. Neither politics
nor technology appears to have advanced very far and, with a
publication date just before the "Seven Days That Shook the World" (as
CNN would have it), the major national security concern of the US is
still "Russian spies". (Interestingly, the book lists the US, Russia,
China and Brazil as spacefaring nations, while the cover shows a clear
shot of a "NASA/ESA" logo on a rocket-like device.) Computers equipped
with voice recognition still cannot deal with more than one speaker.
At one point a computer retailer tells one character that if the modem
(what happened to ISDN?) she is trying isn't fast enough, they have
one that will transmit at "38,400 baud." (If the author isn't just
confusing baud and "bits per second" this indicates some improvement
over "voice grade" lines, but hardly enough for the seemingly ubiquitous
"vidphones" unless trellis coding has gotten *really* sophisticated.)
None of the data security or communication issues raised are terribly
sophisticated. The author has apparently never heard of telnet
capabilities or the like. As usual in fictional accounts, the "hacker"
is not only skilled with computers, but is a phone phreak as well.
Two of the security topics are of some interest. One is the account
of files being secured by "moving". The concept of "security by
obscurity" is justifiably condemned, but it is true that leaving
"standard" accounts open or having "standard" directory and file
structures is, to a certain extent, a potential security loophole.
The next logical step, beyond putting files in a non-standard
location, is to keep moving the files. Unfortunately, there must be a
way to retrieve the files, so somewhere there must be a pointer to them.
The other point regards database security. At one stage of the plot,
the heroes are trying to track the identity of an individual who is
"classified to the max." By using the database inference problem,
they are able to pinpoint his location. The example is somewhat
simplistic, but involves generating a number of queries and discarding
the ones the computer does *not* reject as classified.
The topic of alien contact, suggested by the title, is really of
relatively minor importance. A computer security whimsy in sf clothing.
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BK2NDCNT.RVW 931014
Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the Digest
======================
DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters
Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733
DECUS Symposium '94, Vancouver, BC, Mar 1-3, 1994, contact: rulag@decus.ca
"Never worry about a book corrupting a child....Worry if your children
are not getting ideas from books." - Richard Peck
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