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.

Contents

Origin of term

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.

Description of ICE

When viewed in a cyberspace virtual reality environment, these constructs are often represented by actual walls of ice, stone, or metal. Black ICE refers to ICE that are capable of killing the intruder if deemed necessary or appropriate; some forms of black ICE may be artificially-intelligent.

Real-world usage

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.

Nevertheless, 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.

Usage in fiction

The term ICE is widely used in cyberpunk fiction.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Anime

Cartoons

  • Phantom 2040, though in it "ICE" stands for "Integrated Cyber Environment", referring to cyberspace, rather than Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics

Card games

  • Netrunner, where the corporate player uses ice and the runner player uses icebreakers; while corps in Netrunner understand ICE to be an acronym for "Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics", the runner viewpoint is that the acronym should be for "Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics"

Literature

  • Neuromancer, original popularizer of the term
  • Hyperion, wherein black ICE is used to defend the TechnoCore

Roleplaying games

Television

Video games

  • Anarchy Online features an item called "Hacker ICE-Breaker Source", which can be further upgraded to "Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics Upgrade".
  • Deus Ex, where the player's hacking program is referred to as an "ICE Breaker"
  • Dystopia, wherein there are security programs called "ICE walls"
  • System Shock, where ICE is represented in cyberspace as both autonomous security programs and ICE protection attached to data or software objects appearing as blue crystal formations.
  • System Shock 2, where an item that auto-hacks electronics is known as an "ICE Pick"

References

v • d • e
The works of William Gibson
The Sprawl trilogy: William Gibson, aged 60.
The Bridge trilogy:
Other novels:
Burning Chrome
short story collection
Characters:
Miscellanea:
Story elements:
Cyberspace · Megacorporation · Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics · The Sprawl · Raygun Gothic · Gender-bait
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrusion_Countermeasures_Electronics"


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