Andrei received approaches from the FBI and even more shadowy agencies in the intelligence community on the mistaken assumption that his cooperation after the bombing meant that he would be keen to cooperate in other, less overt ways. There was talk of ‘back doors’ and ‘mass data transfers’. Andrei rebuffed them all and eventually they stopped contacting him, presumably reverting to their usual ways of snooping. Although security on the site had been a priority ever since John Dimmer had turned up with Fishbowl’s first National Security Letter, Andrei had a team get to work on developing even more sophisticated levels of encryption. A more important effect was that user registration skyrocketed, at first out of solidarity from the inhabitants of cyberspace as Fishbowl came under McKenrick’s attack, then due to the internet multiplier phenomenon as awareness of Fishbowl entered truly popular consciousness. ‘Fishing’ and ‘Baiting’ became words in general use, even amongst people who had never opened Fishbowl – and they weren’t talking about rod and reel.
