Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics
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Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics (ICE) is a term used in cyberpunk literature to refer to security programs which protect computerized data from being accessed by hackers.
The term was popularized by William Gibson in his short story Burning Chrome, which also introduced the term cyberspace, and his subsequent novel Neuromancer. According to the New Hacker's Dictionary, as well as Gibson's own acknowledgements, the term ICE was originally coined by Tom Maddox.
When viewed in a cyberspace virtual reality environment, these constructs are often represented by actual walls of ice, stone, or metal. The term "black ICE" refers to a super class of self-aware countermeasures that are capable of killing the intruder if deemed necessary or appropriate. For this reason hackers tend to use ICE as a backronym for such things as "Insidious Cortical Electrocution".
Though real-life firewalls and similar programs fall under this classification, the term has little real world significance and remains primarily a science fiction concept. This can be attributed to the fact that using the term "Electronics" to describe software products (such as firewalls) is somewhat of a misnomer. It is, however, still used in entertainment products such as in the anime Cyber City Oedo 808 or the computer game Deus Ex, where the player's hacking program is referred to as an 'ICE Breaker', and the game System Shock 2, where an item that auto-hacks electronics is known as an 'ICE Pick'.
The term ICE has recently been adopted by real-world software manufacturers in such products as Black Ice Defender as well as the ICE cipher.
[edit] References
- William Gibson (1984). Neuromancer. Ace Books. ISBN 0-441-56959-5.
[edit] See also
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