The Goddess Shines on America

The black Lincoln Continental drove out of Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport. At the same time as it started, four black Cadillac cars drove out one after the other, and four police motorcycles appeared from nowhere. Combined into a mighty team, drove along the airport expressway to downtown Washington.

"Andrews Air Force Base is nine miles east of us."

Inside Army One, President Reagan handed Alice a bottle of Coke: "The base is named in honor of Frank Maxwell Andrews, one of the founders of the U.S. Air Force."

Reagan, who was seventy-five years old at the time, still had short black hair, and his rugged appearance was reminiscent of Brezhnev in the Soviet Union, but the achievements of the two were far apart.

"The current mission of this base is to provide rapid response capabilities to emergencies and emergencies that seriously endanger national security, and to provide support for the Air and Space Expeditionary Force. Its aviation unit is the first echelon to defend the White House, and the President of the United States Air Force One and Air Force Two are parked at the base."

As he spoke, he took a sip of the crystal-clear champagne himself, and used a standard champagne glass: "At the same time, if a foreign head of state visits Washington DC officially, their special plane usually lands there."

Seeing that Alice had been listening to himself seriously, when the convoy started to slow down after driving far, he smiled and said, "Do you know why I said this to you?"

Alice took a sip of Coke: "Strong external military strength is the guarantee for the United States to establish its global hegemony, but when the enemy comes from the invisible world, even Andrews, who is next to the White House, may not be able to protect it. national security."

"That's right, that's what it means!"

While speaking, the convoy stopped after only a short distance, because their destination, the Pentagon, was indeed only about a mile away from the airport.

"Come on, Alice."

When the Secret Service team opened the door, Reagan gestured to her, "Let's talk after we get out of the car!"

For ordinary people outside, the Pentagon is a very mysterious place, especially for those who are used to watching Hollywood action blockbusters, this pentagram-like building is simply the command center of the world. If some movies add sci-fi plots and near-future elements, then its command center is almost like a future world, full of lofty feelings.

But in fact, that's what happened.

After all, this is an old house that was built as early as 1943.

Alice walked along with President Mr. Sen. The busy corridor was covered with sound-absorbing carpets, and staff were constantly moving around. That's all for the men, Alice focused her attention on the OLs in uniforms. Although this is not the White House, female interns are always worthy of gossip.

Then, they came to a conference room.

"Let me introduce you."

Reagan strode in. Facing the dozen or so people who were already sitting at the table, he reached out to Alice and said, "Alice Wang, the owner of Cisco Systems, and a shareholder of Microsoft."

Patting the girl on the shoulder, he said with a smile: "Then these, Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberg, FBI Director William Webster, CIA Director William Casey, and the Director of the National Security Agency, Dominic Flair."

The four men sitting in the front row nodded to Alice one by one, but Reagan did not introduce the next few people in turn, but Alice could clearly see that they were all high-level figures in the Pentagon.

"Hello, everyone."

Faced with these high-level figures who would scare people to death, Alice nodded vigorously: "It's an honor to meet you all, where is my seat?"

"Today, you will be the chief, and we are all the audience."

Reagan looked at the girl with a smile, and patted the head of the long oval table: "I'll just find a seat next to you."

When Alice was seated, Minister of Defense Weinberg almost couldn't wait to speak: "Alice, I won't talk nonsense. Does this kind of intrusion by IBM only need programmers with good skills?"

Alice sighed slightly.

At this moment, she felt a burst of emotion no matter what.

Because of his own existence, this world has really been accelerated a lot.

Just look at Cisco in history. As of this moment in March 1986, it should have just launched the world's first router. But now, this company has easily occupied a large blank market on the west coast by relying on the quality of its products in the 1990s, and it is gradually blooming on the east coast, and this is only two years.

Think about it, Cisco in history was listed in 1990, and its annual profit at that time was about 69 million US dollars. But today, Alice, who just read last year's annual report, knows that its revenue for the entire 85 years has reached a full 28 million.

One is 69 million for four years, and the other is 28 million for two years. One was listed in 1990, and the other was only established for two years as of May 1986.

And now, it's only been two years since she really started to develop her career, and she can already sit here and talk about things with these people.

Although, there is something tricky about it...

"When I heard Mr. Weinberg's question, I felt a full layman's feeling."

Hearing the question from the Minister of Defense, Alice put her elbows on the table: "Remote computer intrusion through the network, of course, requires skilled programmers to operate. And if it is said that the other party's computer is not guarded by a level Programmers, or the computer does not have the software to prevent network intrusion, intrusion must be effortless."

Such words easily changed everyone's face.

Weinberg took a deep breath: "That is to say, all the computers in the world are in a state of being invaded by program masters at any time!?"

This is undoubtedly an extremely scary question. You must know that anyone with a discerning eye can see that it is only a matter of time before the globalization of the Internet. After all, the production efficiency it brings is really amazing. At the same time, it has been several years since the introduction of personal computers, and the popularity of computers used by enterprises will rise linearly. It is conceivable how many business confidential data are stored in them.

Therefore, if a high-level programmer can easily hack into any networked computer, the potential crisis is especially reminiscent of the Soviet Union, where a camel is bigger than a horse even though the sun is setting at this time...

But as soon as Weinberg finished speaking, the CIA director William Casey who was sitting not far away said, "Secretary Weinberg's opinion can indeed be understood in this way in theory, but now, most skilled programs All employees are technical madmen, and generally they will not commit network intrusions. Alice, do you think my analysis is correct?"

Alice nodded vigorously: "Although computers have existed for a long time, the great development of the Internet has just appeared in recent years. Many skilled people really haven't realized that they can do this. Even if there are individual intrusions It is often just the personal behavior of mischievous geeks..."

"But sooner or later, right?"

William Casey stepped up his tone: "Like what IBM did this time."

"That's right, actually I didn't expect it to appear so soon..."

Alice lowered her head, and her voice became weaker at the same time. It looked as if a kind girl had witnessed the ugly reality, so that her pure and innocent heart was greatly hurt.

Therefore, the combination of bowing her head and voice, but no one saw the smile quietly evoked at the corner of her mouth.

"It's okay, Alice, isn't that the main purpose of us sitting here now?"

The man who spoke, Dominic Fryer, was an unattractive man, but he was the director of the US National Security Agency, a person who made Alice look up immediately.

NSA for short.

This is the largest intelligence department in the US government agencies, even worse than the CIA. It is responsible for collecting and analyzing foreign and domestic communication data. It belongs to the US Department of Defense, also known as the National Secret Service. A secret directive of the President, established independently from the military branch at the time.

If so, the main mission of the CIA is to openly and secretly collect and analyze intelligence on foreign governments, companies, and individuals in terms of politics, culture, and technology, and to coordinate the activities of other domestic intelligence agencies. Well, the NSA, an organization that has more funds than the CIA, occupies a larger office building than the CIA, and employs the largest number of PhDs in mathematics and computer science in the world, its job is to monitor radio broadcasts. , communications, the Internet, and especially secret military and diplomatic communications.

Sound familiar?

That's right, it is the initiator of the Prism Gate project that Cisco will participate in.

But that was in 2007. At this time, Cisco was forced to launch into the Chinese market, which made Huawei rise. It has not entered yet.

"Cough cough."

Well, since it was the director of the NSA who caused Cisco to lose the Chinese market, Alice was really in no mood to pretend to be pitiful.

"Well, I know what you guys are thinking. I've been thinking about this for the past few days."

She straightened her collar and blurted out: "Just put a wall in front of each computer, wouldn't that be all right?"