The death of COSMOS?
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In the summer edition of COSMOS Currents, a newsletter put out by Pacific
Bell/Pacific Telesis, the death of COSMOS is said to be on the way. "Tired of
those old outdated dial-up COSMOS TTY43's?" one of the articles reads. "Well,
get ready to kiss them goodbye. To better secure COSMOS, all dial-up machines
are being replaced with Private Line terminals. Funds have been approved for
their removal, to be replaced with new CITOH 326's (or some equivalent
hardware). This project is being done to comply with the Pacific Bell Security
Information Policies. and to prepare the way for the eventual replacement of
COSMOS with the new SWITCH product" 

All that we know about SWITCH is that it
used to be called ASCOT and that there was an article about its future in the
spring edition of COSMOS Currents. They go on to brilliantly deduct that "the
main cause of hackers breaking into the COSMOS database has been access to the
dial-up COSMOS network. This project will eliminate that threat What remaining
staff and Systems Technology personnel that must remain on dial-up circuits
will be secured through other means (i.e., tokens)." Tokens? As in coins? Token
minorities? What could they be referring to? 

"More users [of COSMOS] also
translates into more people that have access to the database, and hence the
opportunity to degrade its integrity. The long range answer to many of these
types of concerns will be forthcoming with the availability of SWITCH in the
early to mid 1990s.

Until then we are the stewards who must keep COSMOS
running effeciently [sic]." And then a few rousing choruses of the company
song.

A new telephone number has also been announced for the COSMOS Client Community
that encompasses everything from simple repair to the COSMOS Hotline, MIZAR
Hotline. the CCTACs, the DDTAC, placing an order, etc. That number (811-DATA)
can only be reached from within California and is answered by a voice response
unit that directs the call.

Has anyone else heard anything about SWITCH or its equivalent in other parts of
the country? If so, forward the info here.