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CYBERWAR!

latest version of BIND, closing the security hole through which it had entered. The computer would now be safe from any future attacks, but Max, the benevolent meddler, would still be able to reenter the system at will. Max was at once fixing the problem and exploiting it; he was a black hat and a white hat at the same time.

The whole attack would take just a couple of minutes each time. One moment, the computer would be controlled by the system administrators; then, grappling hook, download script, rootkit, and it was in Max's pocket.

Max was still programming when the FBI got back to him and asked for a full report on the BIND hole. But the feds had had their chance; Max's code would speak for him now. He took a moment to crack a couple of college machines to use as a staging ground, then, on May 21, a Tuesday, he dialed the Internet through a stolen Verio account . . . and launched.

The results were instant and highly satisfying. Max's grappling-hook code was designed to signal its success to his computer over the Verio dial-up, so he could watch the attack spread. Hacked machines around the country reported back to him, an Xterm window popping up on his screen for each one. Brooks Air Force Base—now property of Max Vision. McChord, Tinker, Offutt, Scott, Maxwell, Kirtland, Keesler, Robins. His code wormed into Air Force servers, Army computers, a machine in the office of a cabinet secretary. Each machine now had a back door that Max could use any time he wanted.

Max was notching up military conquests like points in a video game. When his code swept into the Navy's Internet space, it found so many unpatched BIND servers that the stream of pop-ups turned into a torrent. His own computer struggled under the strain, then crashed.

After some fine-tuning, he relaunched. For five days he was absorbed in his growing dominion over cyberspace. He ignored e-mail from the