It is hard to imagine the modern world without information technology. At home, at work, and at play, mobile phones, emails, and computers have become part of daily life. The story of information technology is a story of machines ? from the ancient abacus to the small powerful computer chips of today. But it is also a story of people. Meet a woman who wrote computer programs two hundred years ago, a teenage millionaire, a man who began with a paperclip and ended with a house ? and meet the criminals who want your name and your money.