Late one night, while double-checking a bank's security system, computer security specialist Judy Carmody detects an electronic intrusion from a superhacker who uses the handle Helraze. Using techniques Judy has never seen, Helraze is able to steal millions of dollars from the bank's accounts in minutes. But before Judy can notify the bank's director, Helraze replaces the stolen money and disconnects, leaving no traces of his maneuver: his prank was a test for a much larger crime. Judy's amazement turns to fright as the smartest hackers she knows begin to disappear, and two thugs show up at her apartment trying to kill her. She manages to escape, and with the help of a band of loyal hackers she begins to uncover a sinister conspiracy led by Bob Ingersoll, the shady director of the National Security Agency. To further his aims, Ingersoll manipulates 17-year-old genius Cal Nikonchik, who has invented a powerful new computer code based on the principles of human genetics. Judy must struggle furiously to protect her life and decipher Cal's dangerous innovation before the world sinks into chaos. The characters created by computer security expert Gresh (The Computers of Star Trek, etc.) and two-time World Fantasy Award-winner Weinberg (Dark Love, etc.) can be a bit wooden; the hackers' social incompetence, in particular, is sometimes exaggerated to the brink of parody. Nonetheless, the authors generate an exciting plot that boasts enough authentic high-tech detail to make the criminal possibilities of electronic finance seem very real, and just a few mouse clicks away.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Storywriter Gresh, a computer-security specialist, teams up with science-fiction author Weinberg (Lovecrafts Legacy, 1990, etc.) for a cautionary tale of computer hackers who are saving the next century from greedy, homicidal suits. Whos killing t he great hackers of California? Could it have anything to do with the massive hack-attack that vaporized the deposits in a So-Cal bank? Superhacker Judy Carmody, a roller- blading, highly paid consultant for an Internet security company, isnt given much t ime to ponder it. After coming off an all-nighter at her keyboard, she discovers that a major client, Laguna Bank, has been cleaned out in nanoseconds by an unknown cyber-thief. Hoping to get some much-needed rest under the sun, she narrowly escapes murde r when two well-dressed gunmen kill her surfer-bum condo neighborand blame the crime on her. Judy takes off with her laptop and hacks herself into the perps rental car. Then, as the notorious TerMight (her hacker alter-ego screen name), she jumps into Vil eSpawn, an underground hacker network of hirsute misfits and suburban shut-ins who are both clueless and concernedafter all, they also had their money in the bank. Meanwhile, in a swank and spotless carriage house on the edge of the California desert, Cal vin, a dweebish hacker genius barely out of high school, believes the suavely tailored Robert Ingersoll and his lethal henchmen are government agents merely using Calvin's data-swiping skills to test the Internet security systems. Fortunately, Cal and Ter Might meet cute in cyberspace, discover their mutual enemy, and use their cyber-skills to spin webs around the bad guys. For authors Gresh and Weinberg, the hacker world is an abstract, jargon-filled costume ball that will continue to be exploited by well -dressed computer illiterates until the hackers learn who's naughty and whos nice. Well-worn, breathless Net-scapade of feisty, socially challenged computer adepts. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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