Why aren’t computer cops in much, much better rapport with the computer community through computer networks? … Computer cops ought to publicly walk the beat in cyberspace a lot more. Stop hiding your light under a bushel. What is your problem, exactly? Are you afraid somebody might find out that you exist? This is an amazing oversight and a total no-brainer on your part, to be the cops in an information society and not be willing to get online big time and really push your information.
Predictor: Sterling, Bruce
Prediction, in context:In May 1995, Wired magazine ran an article that was excerpted from a transcript of a speech Bruce Sterling delivered at the High Technology Crime Investigation Association conference in November 1994. Sterling says: ”How come there’s no publicly accessible World Wide Web page with mug shots of wanted computer-crime fugitives? Even the U.S. Postal Service has got this much together, and they don’t even have modems. Why don’t the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service have public-relations stations in cyberspace? For that matter, why doesn’t the High Technology Crime Investigation Association have its own Internet site? All the computer businesses have Internet sites now, unless they’re totally out of it. Why aren’t computer cops in much, much better rapport with the computer community through computer networks? You don’t have to grant live interviews with every journalist in sight if you don’t want to – I understand that can create a big mess sometimes. But just put some data up in public, for heaven’s sake. Crime statistics. Wanted posters. Security advice. Antivirus programs, whatever. Stuff that will help the cyberspace community you are supposed to be protecting and serving. I know there are people in computer-law enforcement who are ready and willing and able to do this. But they can’t make it happen because of too much bureaucracy and, frankly, too much useless hermetic secrecy. Computer cops ought to publicly walk the beat in cyberspace a lot more. Stop hiding your light under a bushel. What is your problem, exactly? Are you afraid somebody might find out that you exist? This is an amazing oversight and a total no-brainer on your part, to be the cops in an information society and not be willing to get online big time and really push your information.”
Biography:Bruce Sterling, a writer, consultant and science fiction enthusiast, wrote or co-wrote “Schismatrix,” “The Hacker Crackdown” and “The Difference Engine” and edited “Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology.” In the 1990s, he wrote tech articles for Fortune, Harper’s, Details, Whole Earth Review and Wired, where he was a contributing writer from its founding. He published the nonfiction book “Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years” in 2002. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: November 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Crime/Fraud/Terrorism
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Good Cop, Bad Hacker: Bruce Sterling has a ‘Frank Chat’ with Some Cops
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.05/sterling_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney