Attack of the Hackers

Columbia University Spectator, May 23 & 30, 1984

This was my very first published byline, included here partly for nostalgia. I was still about three months away from resigning my technician post at CBS News to pursue a full-time career in journalism and had chased the story as an assignment for a non-fiction writing class taught by essayist Nora Sayre at Columbia University, where I was studying part-time to prove to myself I could write professionally. Early desktop computers were around but not common, and the world was starting to awaken to real-life stories of hackers breaking into government and corporate mainframe systems, particularly following the 1983 movie WarGames. As a techie, I was intrigued by the subject matter and went looking in the Columbia computer labs for source material. Eventually, I stumbled onto a young computer science prodigy named Perry Metzger who was already an Ivy League undergrad at age 15 and was willing to share insights about the community that was gathering around the emerging technology. I presented the finished piece to the editor of the weekly Summer Spectator, who broke it into two installments in successive issues. I’ll never forget the moment I stood on the sidewalk on Broadway, just south of the university main entrance at 116^th Street, and opened the May 23^rd issue to find Part 1 anchoring a full tabloid page inside, with my byline “Bob Sabin” right below the headline. I’m not sure why I went for Bob instead of Rob, by which everyone knew me, but Bob Greene, the popular columnist at the Chicago Tribune, was a hero at the time. All I know is that my heart nearly leaped from my chest when I saw that byline, and my professional destiny was sealed.

Incidentally, and not surprisingly, Metzger went on to doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania and by all indications has enjoyed a storied career at the forefront of his field, including the co-founding of the recently formed Alliance for the Future, a Washington non-profit hoping to steer government AI policy away from fear-based, reactionary regulation.