The 1992 cover format continued the previous year's style.  Non-subscriber issues had a price of $4 printed on the cover, with an exclamation point following the price for Spring, making this a year where two versions of each cover exist.

The page length remained at 48 pages with the page numbering scheme also remaining as it was in previous years.

The table of contents titles on the back cover had the following unique titles:

• Spring:  containment field
• Summer:  potential lawsuits
• Autumn:  inner workings
• Winter:  offerings

The three solid lines around the article titles remained until the Winter issue, when it was replaced by a single thick solid one.

Second class postage permit info continued to be printed on the back covers of all issues.

Messages continued to be hidden in tiny print in the space on the back cover where a mailing label would go, carrying on another tradition:

• Spring:  "it never happened"  (Alluding to revisionism found throughout the world)
• Summer:  "WE'RE IN A UNITED STATE"  (An acknowledgment of the unity existing in the hacker world)
• Autumn:  "10/28/92 end of world virus"  (A made up virus that fooled some members of the media)
• Winter:  "KOSOVO KLEANING 93"  (A dire prediction of what was ahead in the former Yugoslavia).

The first three covers of the year were drawn by Holly Kaufman Spruch and the last one was drawn by newcomer Affra Gibbs.

The mini-covers in the upper-right would also continue throughout the year.

The covers continued to focus on events in the hacker world as well as what was going on throughout the rest of the planet.

Spring:  The Spring 1992 cover was set in Washington, D.C. at a time of upheaval.

The Capitol Dome is in the distance.  The Capitol Reflecting Pool, normally a rectangle, is instead in the shape of the letter "S."

The presence of a scarecrow, a tin man, and a lion would indicate that the pool is actually a winding path and the Capitol building the equivalent of the Emerald City.

The light bouncing off the building would seem to confirm this.

There are signs posted on the grass next to the pool that hint at ominous developments ahead.  One says "AMSOC," which is a reference to "INGSOC" from 1984.  INGSOC was the political ideology of the totalitarian government in that novel, which took place in England.  We merely made an American version of it.

Another sign warns of punishment ahead, a reference to the increasing penalties that hackers everywhere seemed to be facing.

"Computer Licensing and Registration - Form Line" was a warning of the threats to free speech that regulation of computers would bring.  We had a little fun with the Roe vs. Wade debate which was once again raging at that time.

Two signs referred to potential changes in the culture.  One said "Rowing Allowed" with the word "Not" inserted between the two words while the second read "Wading Not Permitted" with the "Not" in that phrase crossed out.

At the bottom (and the beginning of the path) is the direction to "Follow the Shining Path" which basically was a literal instruction but it was also a reference to the Shining Path guerrillas who were in the center of a civil conflict in Peru.  1992 would prove to be a very pivotal year for them.

A dead cow is seen on the grass, a nod to the hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow and a monk is seen presiding over the entire scene.

A digital payphone is present with connections to two different telephone poles, a reference to the surveillance capabilities the authorities were attempting to install in digital phone systems.

The mini-cover was a simple statement - a UNIX prompt for the root superuser (#) with the command whoami entered next to it.  The answer with a prompt like that would of course be "root" and this was meant as a reminder of how powerful we each were if we only took the time to look.

And the tradition of an exclamation point on the masthead of the first issue of the year also continued, only with three of them this time.