security men, and federal agents roust two Texancomputer-hackers from their beds at dawn, and then deliberatelyconfiscate thousands of dollars' worth of computer equipment,including the hackers' common household telephones? Why was anunpublished book called G.U.R.P.S. Cyberpunk seized by the USSecret Service and declared "a manual for computer crime?"These weird events were not parodies or fantasies; no, this wasreal.

The first order of business in untangling this bizarre drama isto understand the players -- who come in entire teams.

Dramatis Personae

PLAYER ONE: The Law Enforcement Agencies.

America's defense against the threat of computer crime is aconfusing hodgepodge of state, municipal, and federal agencies.Ranked first, by size and power, are the Central IntelligenceAgency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA), and theFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), large, potent andsecretive organizations who, luckily, play almost no role in theJackson story.

The second rank of such agencies include the Internal RevenueService (IRS), the National Aeronatics and Space Administration(NASA), the Justice Department, the Department of Labor, andvarious branches of the defense establishment, especially theAir Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI). Premieramong these groups, however, is the highly-motivated US SecretService (USSS), best-known to Britons as the suited,mirrorshades-toting, heavily-armed bodyguards of the Presidentof the United States.

Guarding high-ranking federal officials and foreign dignitariesis a hazardous, challenging and eminently necessary task, whichhas won USSS a high public profile. But Abraham Lincoln createdthis oldest of federal law enforcement agencies in order to foilcounterfeiting. Due to the historical tribulations of theTreasury Department (of which USSS is a part), the Secret