The Broken Window

separate servers.”
    Sterling added, “As for an outside intruder, that’d be impossible too. We have the same physical perimeter protections used by the National Security Agency. We have fifteen full-time security guards and twenty part-time. Besides, no visitor could get near the innerCircle servers. We log everybody and don’t let anyone roam freely, even customers.”
    Sachs and Pulaski had been escorted to the sky lobby by one of those guards—a humorless young man whose vigilance wasn’t diminished one bit by the fact they were police.
    O’Day added, “We had one incident about three years ago. But nothing since.” He glanced at Sterling. “The reporter.”
    The CEO nodded. “Some hotshot journalist from one of the metro papers. He was doing an article on identity theft and decided we were the devil incarnate. Axciom and Choicepoint had the good sense not to let him into their headquarters. I believe in free press, so I talked to him. . . . He went to the restroom and claimed he got lost. He came back here, cheerful as could be. But something didn’t seem right. Our security peoplewent through his briefcase and found a camera. On it were pictures of trade-secret-protected business plans and even pass codes.”
    O’Day said, “The reporter not only lost his job but was prosecuted under criminal trespass statutes. He served six months in state prison. And, as far as I know, he hasn’t had a steady job as a journalist since.”
    Sterling lowered his head slightly and said to Sachs, “We take security very, very seriously.”
    A young man appeared in the doorway. At first she thought it was Martin, the assistant, but she realized that was only because of the similarity in build and the black suit. “Andrew, I’m sorry to interrupt.”
    “Ah, Jeremy.”
    So this was the second assistant. He looked at Pulaski’s uniform, then at Sachs. Then, as with Martin, when he realized he wasn’t being introduced he ignored everyone in the room except his boss.
    “Carpenter,” Sterling said. “I need to see him today.”
    “Yes, Andrew.”
    After he was gone, Sachs asked, “Employees? Is there anyone you’ve had disciplinary problems with?”
    Sterling said, “We run extensive background checks on our people. I won’t allow hiring anybody who’s had any convictions other than traffic violations. And background checks are one of our specialties. But even if an employee wanted to get into innerCircle it would be impossible for him to steal any data. Mark, tell her about the pens.”
    “Sure, Andrew.” To Sachs he said, “We have concrete firewalls.”
    “I’m not a technical person,” Sachs said.
    Whitcomb laughed. “No, no, it’s very low -tech. Literally concrete. As in walls and floors. We divide up the data when we receive them and store them in physically separate places. You’ll understand better if I tell you how SSD operates. We start with the premise that data is our main asset. If somebody was to duplicate innerCircle we’d be out of business in a week. So number one—‘protect our asset,’ as we say here. Now, where does all this data come from? From thousands of sources: credit card companies, banks, government-records offices, retail stores, online operations, court clerks, DMV departments, hospitals, insurance companies. We consider each event that creates data a quote transaction, which could be a call to an eight hundred number, registering a car, a health insurance claim, filing a lawsuit, a birth, wedding, purchase, merchandise return, a complaint. . . . In your business, a transaction could be a rape, a burglary, a murder—any crime. Also, the opening of a case file, selecting a juror, a trial, a conviction.”
    Whitcomb continued, “Any time data about a transaction comes to SSD it goes first to the Intake Center, where it’s evaluated. For security we have a data masking policy—separating the person’s name and replacing it with a code.”
    “Social Security number?”
    A flicker of emotion crossed Sterling’s face. “Ah, no. Those were created solely for government retirement accounts. Ages ago. It was a fluke that they became identification. Inaccurate, easy to steal or buy. Dangerous—like keeping a loaded gun unlocked aroundthe house. Our code is a sixteen-digit number. Ninety-eight percent of adult Americans have SSD codes. Now, every child whose birth is registered—anywhere in North America—automatically gets a code.”
    “Why sixteen