Ibm's Shadow Force

Robinson pens a narrative history of one of IBM's most illustrious and secretive organizations--IBM's Federal Systems Division--that protected America, helped NASA put men on the moon, and spawned such technology as today's Internet, ATM transactions, eBay operations, and online banking.

A narrative history of one of IBM's most illustrious and secretive organizations -- IBM's Federal Systems Division -- that protected America, helped NASA put men on the moon, and spawned such technology as today's Internet, ATM transactions, ebay operations and online banking. Included in the book are space-age computer and weapons systems details never before shown to the public. Federal Systems developed such things as a dispatch system for New York City's police force, international banking systems in the UK, Japan and other countries, and a special operations system for the New York Stock Exchange. This is the first book ever written about this semi-clandestine organization operating under the IBM umbrella that supported NASA's projects from Project Mercury to Space Shuttles and Skylab. Federal Systems was also a major part of the development of modern weapons technology. Each chapter of the book focuses on one aspect of Federal Systems' 50-year history of service to the government. The organization changed hands during an IBM selloff in the early 1990s to Loral Corporation, which in turn sold it to Lockheed Martin in 1996.