10 - What a hack job
Washington DC – 10 am Monday
Welcome to my online cyber thriller, The Phisherman. If this is your first time here, maybe you'd like to learn more about the story and meet the three main characters first by clicking HERE - FYI, if you don't want to be overly offended by the character whose point-of-view this chapter is written from, I highly recommend it. If you'd prefer to start at Chapter 1, click HERE. To select another chapter, click HERE.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE: I wrote the first half of this chapter from an IT Support person’s perspective as it is both unusual and one many IT personnel will identify with (I mean being abused by other workers, not working with a professional killer).
As a digital design engineer developing new tech years ago, I supported people using hardware & software my team developed. So, I get it when IT people express their frustration at the foolish things computer users do, which then gets blamed on the IT team. And to be clear, the word “foolish” is seriously understating the idiotic things some people do with their tech.
Like all support people, IT personnel try not to respond in kind, no matter how rude people are to them (which happens a lot) – if they do, it often comes back to bite them.
So please consider your IT Support person next time your tech stuffs up. I know you’re a technology expert – everyone is these days. However, your tech is most likely misbehaving because of the talented person using it.‘What do you mean, I’ve been hacked?’
Dave, the IT guru, took a quick step back. There was no way he wanted to be close to Nick Davies if the man with a renowned short fuse exploded.
Staring at the CIA operative who had violently pushed his chair back and now stood before him, Dave could not help but feel petrified. Nick was in the prime of his life. And he looked it. His six-foot-infinity, barrel-chested, muscular physique and the comfortable way he wore it made it clear that Nick was an extremely physical man. His short dark hair, tanned skin, and square jawline emphasized that he was a man of physical prowess. And the jagged scar running from his right eye down to his pronounced jawbone attested to the many brutal battles Nick had fought and survived. It did not matter that he wore a navy-blue Italian business suit and expensive black leather shoes. In form and presence, Nick Davies epitomized how anyone would expect an operative of the mysterious black ops Special Activities Center to look.
Dave considered his puny, five-and-a-half-foot frame reflecting in the window behind Nick. He didn’t stand a chance if the man towering over him got physical.
And that was without considering the man’s reputation in unarmed combat. In the few weeks Nick had been back at Langley, wild stories had gushed all the way down to IT Support.
If half of them are true, Nick Davies is the worst of the worst.
Knowing the man with the fierce reputation was supposedly back in DC because he had a screw loose upstairs, Dave knew he had to tread lightly.
There’s no way I want to push Nick Davies’ angry button.
Dave only wanted one thing right then – to disappear into thin air. After the weekend he’d enjoyed with his sister and her family in Chicago, he could not believe Monday morning had turned into a scary confrontation with the Agency’s angriest, deadliest killer.
Yet, after breaking the bad news to the short-tempered colossus who stood only three feet in front of him, Dave knew he needed to explain what he had found.
And I have to do it in a way that will appease this angry beast quivering with rage.
‘Okay, Nick,’ he responded uneasily. ‘Let’s sit down and discuss this calmly.’
Thankfully, Nick merely glared at him for a few seconds before returning to his black, soft-leather, executive-style chair.
Dave released a subdued sigh of relief as he seated himself in the gray fabric office chair on the other side of Nick’s well-organized teak desk.
‘So, our custom scanning software detected a system anomaly when we scanned your laptop this morning. When we used the best commercial scanners, the hack was invisible. There’s no way you could have detected this without the in-house program we developed with the NSA.’
Nick nodded his head, though it was more curious than patronizing.
‘Tracking the illegal service led us to a previously unknown exploit in a popular document format viewing application. So, when you used that program to open any file infected with this exploit, the hack would have started no matter what you did. And you wouldn’t know anything was wrong, either.’
Nick merely stared at Dave as if he was bait and Nick was a shark waiting to pounce.
Dave gulped, then nervously continued.
‘The big problem is what it did once it went live; it opened a hidden connection from your computer to the Internet. It’s like a thief building a tunnel underneath your house. You don’t know it’s there until things go missing.’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ Nick rudely interjected. ‘I know how all that crap works. It’s like a house has one address, yet many ways inside through the doors, windows, lifting the roof tiles, yadda, yadda, yadda. And any computer is the same. It has one IP address but many ways in and out – what you geeks call ports.1 I know all that stuff. Can you get to the point, Dave? Just tell me what it’s doing and how to stop it.’
‘Okay, sorry if I’m boring you, Nick. I’m merely ensuring you understand the seriousness of what’s happened.’
Dave regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth, especially when Nick’s anger rose in a flash.
Standing to his feet yet again, the giant pounded his desk as he yelled, ‘What kind of idiot do you think I am, Dave? I don’t need your stupid explanations. So, you can stop being such a dipstick. Just tell me, what the hell is it doing?’2
Dave looked up at the angry man, wishing he could find the right words to mollify him.
I know who’s behaving like a dipstick.
However, I’m not game to say anything resembling that blatant truth.
Nervously, he pleaded, ‘Okay, Nick, please sit down, and I’ll tell you what has happened.’
Nick sat back down, though he continued glaring malevolently at Dave.
Trying to ignore the visible threat seated a few feet in front of him, Dave continued.
‘So, we traced the source to an incident that originated from one of the virtual machines used to protect your laptop when you’re online. We’re not sure what you’re using either VM for, though I guess at least one is for the top-secret cyber project you’re working on. I needed to check with you and get you to log into the one we know this originated from.’
Mentioning the VMs, Dave saw Nick’s entire person transform. The rage disappeared, replaced with an expression that looked almost like fear. The firm body that had looked like it was made of iron slumped. And when Nick’s head bowed as he released a deep sigh, Dave felt as if the CIA’s champion was facing a battle he didn’t want to fight.
For Dave, it was hard to understand.
What could the most brutal man I’ve met have to fear from his computer?
Maybe the rumors about the cyber project are true?
10:15 am Monday - Nick’s perspective
Nick was pissed off.
At Dave Supergeek, just for being a spineless, unwelcome jackass.
At Casey Bitch, for dropping me in this mess.
And most of all, at himself, though he still didn’t understand how.
Or why.
He struggled to believe it when Dave said, ‘You’ve been hacked.’
Why do four-eyed geeks always have to speak in that irritatingly arrogant high-pitched voice?
And as Dave explained what he’d found with his condescending tone, Nick knew he didn’t like Dave.
Nor do I trust the myopic technoid.
Like most computer nerds, Dave came across as if his role was the most valuable job in the world. His faintly boastful tone left Nick wondering: Do the little weeds gloat amongst themselves about how they ‘saved the day’ as they sit in their room downstairs, poking around in God-knows-what until they find some stupid tech-related problem with the guys who do the real work?
Thank God no one in C-SOG is like Dave.
At least the faint tremor in Dave’s voice and the noticeable shaking in his hands communicated that the desk jockey had enough sense to be intimidated by Nick.
After such a great weekend with Lucy and a few good wins online, Dave’s accusation was the last thing Nick expected when the pudgy geek knocked on his door.
When Nick greeted him with a gruff, ‘Who are you and what do you want?’ Dave quietly stepped into Nick’s office and closed the door before facing Nick and dropping the hacking bombshell.
And when the brazen bastard asked to access the ‘Venga’ VM …
Nick knew his hazardous hobby was about to be exposed. After what Dave told him about the hack, Nick suspected it was related to a document he’d downloaded in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Though I cannot understand how this supposed attack occurred. I copied the file from a reputable website, and it sure looked like a genuine document when I opened it.
When Nick saw it on the website in the early hours of Saturday morning, it was irresistible: how to beat the gambling odds through mathematical analysis. And the content was excellent.
That article was the reason I scored those big wins over the weekend. It turned what had been a significant loss into a very profitable time online.3
Nick despairingly realized that document had to be the culprit.
It was the only such file I opened inside my gambling VM last week.
However, that wasn’t Nick’s primary concern.
Over the weekend, he’d also written some notes for Julie on 831.
… with a few personal additions. After all, I’m finding her macabre passion for the project a bit of a turn-on. And after the outfit she wore to work last Friday … whoa, baby!
Trying to focus on the immediate issue of the hack, Nick searched his mind to remember if he’d had both VMs open simultaneously over the weekend.
If he hadn’t, the hacker would merely know of Nick’s gambling activities.
No harm done.
Of course, Dave the nerveless nerd would report Nick’s unauthorized activities once he became aware of them. And the Agency would reprimand Nick in some way. Nick was sure Casey would try to claim that moment.
I hope the bitch tries. She ain’t my boss anymore, so I don’t need to show her any respect, not that I ever did. But I hope she tries. I’d love to tell her a few more home truths.
However, it didn’t matter who came to give him the official line. Nick’s track record in the field meant he was a highly valued, irreplaceable asset.
I know there won’t be any long-term consequences. I’m too good at eliminating the Agency’s ‘problems.’
The same would be true if the hacker had escaped from the VM and accessed the laptop’s host operating system. There was nothing significant there other than Nick’s email and general web activities. Because Nick followed Agency protocol for all communications, he knew that would not create any issues, though it would still need to be checked.
However, if the hacker gained access to the 831 VM, that could be disastrous.
Project 831 was a game-changer. It promised to revolutionize every aspect of international relations. Everyone would listen to and obey whoever controlled 831.
C-SOG already had the weapon functioning at a basic level. The tests conducted on the Guantánamo Bay subjects were gruesome proof. Even Nick had shuddered at the sight of prisoners with half of their heads missing – they looked like they’d been shot with an exploding bullet.
However, the software still lacked the level of control specified in the project’s scope. It was not enough to set some switches, press a button and see an effect that could range from causing a severe headache to ending someone’s life in seconds. The goal was to manage the scale of the two different yet symbiotic weapons so the operator could render a specific physical outcome based on their controlled input.
Once the team achieves that, it will hand the CIA unassailable control over every state enemy. And ally.
Yet, in the hands of a hacker, someone who would likely know how to harness its destructive power, Project 831 will usher in doomsday for everyone.
Thanks for reading my online serial. I hope you enjoyed this chapter from an IT support person’s perspective. Hopefully, you’ll remain considerate of IT Support people whenever your tech stuffs up. I also hope you enjoyed it enough to click the heart-shaped LIKE button below. And if you have any suggestions to help make it better or you simply want to encourage me as a storyteller (either would be appreciated), please leave a comment.As described in the story, a port is a specific entry point for a network application or service accessing your computer via its IP address. For example, web browsers using basic HTTP (web browsing protocol) use port 80 by default. Likewise, unencrypted emails work via ports 110 and 143, and so forth. For more information, refer to ports [whatismyipaddress].
While you’re there, check out the “My IP” tab at the top of the page to see what information is publicly accessible about your device & its location.
For anyone feeling ‘sorta the same’ about my technical inclusions in this story, hopefully, you’ll understand later on as it will help you learn how to make your computer and personal data harder for hackers to get their hands on.
A hallmark of any successful phishing attack is that the victim doesn’t know he/she/they have been hacked until the hacker tells them. To accomplish that, many phishing attacks include credible information in documents/links their victims access.