Where does fact meet fantasy in a history of the information age, FANCY BEAR GOES PHISHING by SCOTT J SHAPIRO and in a fantasy novel of magical systems, MAGICIAN AND FOOL by SUSAN WANDS

Fancy Bear Goes Phishing:The Dark History of the Information Age in Five Extraordinary Hacks by Scott J. Shapiro (Macmillan) confirmed my suspicions that the online world is more chaotic and dangerous than I expected. What happened to computer science, once a visionary frontier of knowledge? In the beginning academia and the defense industry fostered the new area.  The idea was thinking machines would enable human advancement and make our nation safer. With unique access to talent and technology, computer science departments were galvanized for an exciting future. So where did the hackers come in?

Author Shapiro (Professor of Law and Philosophy at Yale and Director of the Yale Center for Law and Philosophy, as well as Yale’s Cyber Security Lab) explains how “hacker” was once a complimentary term, meaning a rare creative thinker able to write code to make something new. Elite mathematicians competed to develop his new “baby.” Yet in this Eden of pure intention, a graduate student, like other gifted young men testing their abilities and the capability of the net, invented the “Morris Worm.” His intent was never to harm. At trial, his friend testified how elated they were at the discovery. The creator of the first “worm” was shocked to be found guilty of a “malicious” crime.

Skills grew quickly, not only at public institutions but in the anonymous underworlds at home and abroad.

The objective became less about pure science than an almost alchemical search to make “gold.” The U.S. industry’s innovative software and computers were considered a “gold standard” for talented hackers from poor countries. A group of young Bulgarians, who collected around a fan magazine, made “worms” and “viruses” to penetrate the West. Was this malicious? Yes, though Shapiro explains that piracy became normal in poor countries, where no one bought software and most computers were shared. The editor of the fan magazine, a scientist in a university, at first thought the “aesthetics of self producing computer programs could be elegant, fruits of some esoteric black art.” But then one of his subscribers became the most dangerous virus writer in the world.

Fancy Bear Goes Phishing chronicles the origins of the internet’s vulnerability in five hacks of different kinds. After the Worm came Dark Avenger, a virus that destroyed computers in the 1990s. There was the hack in 2005 of Paris Hilton’s mobile-phone data, a feat that freaked-out celebrities and CEO’s alike. Then in 20016 the more serious hack of the Democratic National Committee and Fancy Bear‘s leak of Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign emails. Interestingly, while Hilary has been held responsible for “lax security,” Shapiro shows why that wasn’t the issue.

After reading this book, which I found wise and wryly amusing, I better understand the Darwinian nature of the internet. I also am less skeptical of the incessant fear stoked by my antivirus company. I am surprised by the strange zeitgeist of hacking. To my mind, it resembles mythology. Consider the Arthurian legend and change it for this time. Once we had an enlightened ideal of communication, our internet “grail,” Clinton and the technocrats provided a reign of prosperity before the fall into darkness of Mordred and the cruel barbarians. Are we perhaps in a technological Dark Ages characterized by ignorance and exploitation in our overloaded consciousness?

Few doubt that the promise of the web has been darkened by invisible forces scheming to steal our identities. We even have a monster, a golem AI, capable of profiting from human failings? Myths often have an eternal quality. I recall a visceral painting of Prometheus chained to a rock, after stealing fire from the Gods, while a bird of prey attacks his liver. The image has new meaning with the infernal attacks of advertising that must be continually deleted. The grad student who created the “worm” might be our Oedipus at the crossroads of civilization, who unwittingly kills his father (the grad student’s real father was a university computer scientist) and becomes both a king and a criminal

Science was to counter such as idiocy as myths and legends. In fact, Alchemy, the forerunner of chemistry was considered a “hermetic” (sealed and airtight) system to harness the forces of nature and become its master. The status of computer hacking in international law is similarly irrational. (would that it was contained). According to Shapiro, espionage is basically legal, interfering in the internal affairs of another country is not. Yet, he asks, when does cyber-espionage tip into cyber-crime or even cyber-warfare? 

Have we exited the world of facts and entered a kind of mythic logic? Might makes right…program your javelin?  

 

 Magician and Fool by Susan Wands (Spark Press) is a fantasy novel based on cultural figures in a Victorian era (1837-1901) of science and invention. Magic was also a field of exploration for educated young men who wanted to harness the forces of nature through hidden knowledge. This esoteric knowledge was thought to be hidden in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs shipped from excavated sites and museums. (Britain controlled Egypt and considered these priceless treasures their property, regardless of how Egyptians might feel about losing their patrimony.)

Susan Wands’ Arcana Oracle Series, centers around the “coming of age” of Pamela Coleman Smith, the artist who created a famous tarot deck.  Her compelling designs are on view at The Whitney Museum of Art’s permanent collection, as are her very moving prints of ocean waves with female spirits. I liked this work, so I was willing to make that leap to “second sight” and enjoy the book. The novel’s alternative reality is both plausible and entertaining.