As part of my fearful induction into public speaking, I joined the local Toastmasters group. Ironically, their meetings were held at General Telephone’s main offices in Thousand Oaks, where I’d once worked ever so briefly. My Toastmaster’s visitor pass gave me unfettered access to the offices inside the building. I couldn’t help but smile every time I walked in, thinking about how completely freaked out the folks in Security would be if they only knew. One of the interview requests I received around this time was from the U.S. Commission on National Security in the Twenty-first Century, a think tank that presents security recommendations to Congress and the President. A pair of men from the Department of Defense, representing the commission, came to my apartment in Thousand Oaks and spent two days asking me how government and military computer networks could be made more secure.