BEER (possible spoilers) -- PROMIS 3

[Thomas Eckhardt]

Outside the passages I have quoted at length there seem to be no direct 
references to PROMIS in BE (I have not yet finished my second reading 
but done a lot of selective browsing). Still, some of the elements of 
the PROMIS epic turn up elsewhere in BE as well. In the following I will 
have a closer look at two of these corresponding themes/motifs: the 
Russian mob and the computer backdoor.

As we have seen, Windust does not attach too much importance to the 
information that "'(...) the Russian mob have been selling [PROMIS] to 
the rugriders, (...)'"(BE 104)

I have pointed out the significance of this detail: The "rugriders" 
means Al Qaeda. Michael Ruppert, Pynchon's source for the "Elbit chip", 
quotes the Washington Times:

--"[Promis] would give bin Laden the ability to monitor U.S. efforts to 
track him down, federal law-enforcement officials say. It also gives him 
access to databases on specific targets of his choosing and the ability 
to monitor electronic-banking transactions, easing money-laundering 
operations for himself or others, according to sources."--

Michael C. Ruppert, "Bin Laden'€™s Magic Carpet"
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/magic_carpet.html

(By the way, I don't buy for a second that Al Qaeda, if it indeed had 
been sold the software by the Russians, would have been able to do with 
PROMIS what the FBI, the CIA, the NSA etc. have allegedly done with it. 
But perhaps I just do not know enough about the professional standards 
of the Al Qaeda Hackers' School.)

9/11 has not yet happened and Windust may therefore be forgiven for 
giving the Mossad's use of PROMIS priority over Al Qaeda's. For us, and 
the author, this is a piece of perhaps significant background to 9/11.

And Windust knows a lot about "the Russian mob:"

"'You've heard of the Civil Hackers' School in Moscow?' (...) 'According 
to some of my colleagues it was created by the KGB, it's still an arm of 
Russian espionage, its mission statement includes destroying America 
through cyberwarfare. Your new best friends Misha and Grisha are recent 
graduates, it seems.' (...) 'These days the Russian mob and the 
government share many interests.'" (BE 264)

The Civil Hackers' School is real, the mission statement probably not so 
much. A quick search yielded:

http://seclists.org/isn/2000/Dec/111

On page 371 Misha and Grisha not very convincingly deny having attended 
the Civil Hackers' School.

Consider also Maxine addressing Igor:

"'Especially if it's KGB business and you and your posse are embedded 
assets.' A silence she has to categorize as amused. 'They don't say KGB 
anymore, they say FSB, they say SVU. Since Putin, KGB means old guys in 
government.'"

(According to Wiki's list of intelligence services around the world, FSB 
is the Federal Security Service and SVR the foreign intelligence 
service. SVU is unknown.)

In other words, there is a strong possibility that Igor, Misha and 
Grisha, who for all intents and purposes represent the Russian mob, are 
linked to the Russian intelligence services.

To smoothly lead over to the second PROMIS related point I want to 
address, on page 372 and 373 (which contains several very interesting 
things) Grisha and Misha meet Justin and out themselves as fans of 
DeepArcher:

"'You guys have been down there? Since how long?' Justin not alarmed so 
much as curious. 'Since 11 September maybe? Before then, was much harder 
to hack in. Then suddenly, day of attack, gets easier. Later gets 
impossible again.' ' But you're still getting in.' 'Can't stay away!'"

Misha and Grisha certainly are brilliant hackers. It also seems they 
have programmed a backdoor into DeepArcher so that they can still get in 
when it has once more become impossible for everybody else. Remember 
what Windust said about PROMIS:

"'(...) what's disturbing about this
Promis software is that there's always a backdoor built
in, so anytime it gets installed on a government computer
anywhere in the world--law enforcement, intelligence,
special ops--anybody who happens to know about this
backdoor can just slip through it and make themselves at
home--wherever--and all manner of secrets get
compromised.'" (BE 104-105)

Maxine also cannot stay away from DeepArcher. When she goes in there 
after 9/11 she meets two acquaintances of Eric's:

"'Nice place to hang out,' sez Sandwichgrrl. 'Not to mention do 
business," adds Promoman. 'Joint's jumpin. A lot of these folks who look 
like only virtual background? they are real users.' 'Really. There's 
supposed to be all kinds of deep encryption.' 'There's also the 
backdoor, you didn't know about that?' (...)
So that 11 September window of vulnerability Lucas and Justin were so 
worried about, for good reason apparently, has allowed not only 
unwelcome guests to sneak in but somebody (...) to install a backdoor 
also." (BE 355)

Might have been Misha and Grisha, might have been someone else. There 
might also be multiple backdoors...

Justin explains: "'Downside of being proprietary, always guarantees a 
backdoor sooner or later.'" (BE 356)

As I have explained, the various backdoors that were allegedly built 
into PROMIS were an important part of the software's charm.

As an aside: Igor and Maxine first meet over the Madoff Ponzi scheme. 
Compare, er, DeepCapture:

http://www.deepcapture.com/bernard-madoff-the-mafia-and-naked-short-selling/

Thomas




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