Number: 24.1.1
Background Text: 1984 by George Orwell
Discovery
The Mailstrom was found on a lithograph given at the listening party to those who pre ordered Year Zero. The same lithograph is used on the front page of the Year Zero liner notes.
Content
The Mailstrom is a server-hopping program designed to catch emails using a randomly generated decryption key [1]. In this way it evades any attempt to isolate and remove it from the system, while providing thoes who know of it the possibility of stumbling upon a wreckage/shard combination leading to an email that can help fight the government's abusive control.
Wreckages
- See Wreckages
Each page is an email caught by the Mailstrom's decryption net, providing insight into the lives of people living in world of year zero. The first wreckage/shard combination was provided as an example on the Mailstrom information page, and subsequent combinations have been found through audio clips, on buttons handed out at various NIN and AIR related events and in the Year Zero CD case and booklet.
Connections
The Mailstrom has become the biggest tool to deciphering the state of the world in Year Zero, continuing to be a source of fresh information as new wreckage/shard combinations are found.
Consolidated Mail Systems
The Mailstrom catches emails as they are transmitted to the Consolidated Mail Systems, a government controlled central e-mail server for all e-mail content on the internet. Inherent flaws in the predictability of the CMS allows the Mailstrom to hop servers without ever losing its target and remaining hidden from any attempt to isolate and remove it.