... I humbly submit the following security-related adaptation of "The Night Before Christmas" (original author unknown).
JUST WAIT 'TIL NEXT YEAR!
'Twas the year before Christmas, and all through the land
The tape drives were whirring with computer thefts grand.
Though the codes and the passwords were prepared with great care,
The embezzlers and felons popped up everywhere.
While bankers and executives were snug in their beds
And visions of profits danced in their heads,
Computers and terminals and DP machines
Were covertly used for criminal means.
Commercial Trust in New Jersey received such a clatter
When a keypunch mistake made a bank account fatter.
One-tenth of a million was lost in a flash
And a simple coin dealer had that much more cash.
In Flushing, a student who knew some DP
Awarded himself a Phi Beta key.
His grades were altered so lively and quick
That his peers were amazed and the faculty sick.
Two agents in Bridgeport for the U.S. DEA
Discovered that selling drug data would pay.
An IBM mainframe was used for the crime,
And they managed to profit for quite a long time.
In Toronto, an Amdahl was used for abuse
As students put CRT screens to misuse.
And Hawthorne, California, saw funds fade away
When a Honeywell system took part in foul play.
Even NASA had its share of computer-crime men,
Stolen DP directories and breached PDP-10's.
And who can forget the Belmont affair,
When programmer and cash were suddenly not there.
In L.A., the UCB staff had a fright
When one million dollars was lost overnight.
And Security Pacific had its day to rue
When a clever programmer took ten million-two.
Now congressmen, now senators and banks of the nation,
All struggle to enact preventative legislation.
And Abraham Ribicoff is getting his licks.
While sponsoring Senate Bill Seventeen-Sixty-and-Six.
Today, for computers with data encryption,
Total security is nothing but fiction.
And computer criminals and crooks continue to jeer,
"If we didn't get you this time, just wait 'til next year!"
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