CyberStorm: An Apocalyptic Thriller

by Matthew Mather

“The Internet is in cyberspace, but we”—he paused for effect—“are in meatspace, get it?”

“My point is that these days people barely trust a twenty-seven-year-old to cook their burger, never mind land on the moon. Everything needs to be vetted by a million committees, and we’re afraid of practically everything. We’re just not willing to accept risk anymore, and it’s killing this country.”

You know why they don’t just fingerprint everyone?” “Seems like a good idea to me,” laughed Chuck. “Because once they have your fingerprints,” continued Rory, ignoring Chuck, “you instantly become a suspect in every crime. They’ll run your fingerprints against everything they find at a crime. You go from being a free citizen to being a criminal suspect.” “And fingerprints are just one way of identifying you,” added Damon. “Location, your face on a camera, things you buy—all your personal information creates a digital fingerprint.”

If you wanted to see into the future, you just had to look to the past.

“They want it to be secure from hackers,” replied Damon, “but they don’t want consumers to be secure from them. They hardwire back doors to update and modify software remotely—it’s a fundamental security risk they purposely create. The Stuxnet cyberweapon exploited it.”