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. 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. When viewed in a cyberspace virtual reality environment, these constructs are often represented by actual walls of ice, stone, or metal. The term "black ICE" refers to a super class of self-aware countermeasures that are capable of killing the intruder if deemed necessary or appropriate. For this reason hackers tend to use ICE as a backronym for such things as "Insidious Cortical Electrocution". 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. It is, however, still used in entertainment products such as in the anime Cyber City Oedo 808 or the computer game Deus Ex, where the player's hacking program is referred to as an 'ICE Breaker'. The term ICE has recently been adopted by real-world software manufacturers in such products as Black Ice as well as the ICE cipher
References
- William Gibson (1984). Neuromancer. Ace Books. ISBN 0-441-56959-5.
See also
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| The Sprawl trilogy: | Neuromancer · Count Zero · Mona Lisa Overdrive |  |
| The Bridge trilogy: | Virtual Light · Idoru · All Tomorrow's Parties | |
| Other novels: | The Difference Engine (with Bruce Sterling) · Pattern Recognition · Spook Country | |
| Burning Chrome anthology: | Johnny Mnemonic · The Gernsback Continuum · Fragments of a Hologram Rose · The Belonging Kind · Hinterlands · Red Star, Winter Orbit · New Rose Hotel · The Winter Market | |
| Other short stories: | Dogfight · Burning Chrome · Skinner's Room | |
| Miscellanea: | Neuromancer video game · Agrippa (A Book of the Dead) · Johnny Mnemonic film · New Rose Hotel film · No Maps for These Territories · Node Magazine · The X-Files episodes | |
| Story elements: | Molly Millions · Cyberspace · Megacorporation · Tessier-Ashpool · Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics · The Sprawl · Raygun Gothic · Gender-bait · Hubertus Bigend | |
