18 - Desperate measures
London – 1:30 pm Tuesday
Welcome to my online cyber thriller, The Phisherman. To learn more about the story and meet the three main characters, click HERE. If you'd prefer to start at Chapter 1, click HERE. To select another chapter, click HERE.
It didn’t take long for Alan’s app to notify him of Nick Davies’ whereabouts.
And when he saw Davies’ location, he fell out of his chair in shock.
What is the prat doing in London?
Worse, Davies was in Virginia, around thirty minutes away. Like every professional hacker in Britain, Z knew the National Cyber Security Centre is in Virginia.
And, worst of all, it’s where that cyberbitch works - Alison Simpson.
Over the last decade, Simpson had created a fearsome reputation in the cyber universe. Alan hated that she was a Brit, though he’d heard rumours that she was from elsewhere. However, no one could find anything about her online besides harmless media releases. Her digital footprint1 was non-existent. It was like someone followed behind, wiping every trace of her digital existence.
Z knew several “leet haxors”2 who’d tried to take her down. Unfortunately, they were all doing time at Her Majesty’s pleasure. His original black hat mentor, D3vast@t10N, didn’t even try.
He simply disappeared when the bitch started rounding up too many legends in 2011. Even Abaddon had steered clear of her.
Neither Z nor his remaining cyber lads knew how Simpson achieved the breaks she did, though they had their suspicions. When the Security Service received official clearance in 2018 to engage in illegal activities when pursuing criminals,3 several of Z’s cyber-circles were sure it was because of what she was already doing.
She couldn’t have busted the black hats she did without having one foot in the dark side. The problem is no one has any idea of the cyberbitch’s identity in our underground world.
That was the worst part of living in the online universe post-9/11. Before that dark day, there was little suspicion in the online community.
Then, three months after Alan dropped out of university to pursue a career as a professional hacker, the infamous attacks on American soil occurred.
Many people knew that 9/11 resulted in the War on Terror across the globe. Everyday people never considered that it was not only a physical battle. The terrorists who incited the tsunami of violence that reached every corner of the planet used the Internet to communicate. As a result, the torch was applied to the digital world.
Not long after that, The Onion Router network, otherwise known as TOR,4 was publicly launched in response to the new world of digital distrust. It created a closed universe within the Internet that enabled users to communicate while hiding their identity and location. As a result, TOR’s darknet became the new haven for cyber activists, cyber criminals, cyber terrorists and general hacker groups.
It meant the people Z associated with online didn’t know who he was in real life. It also meant the reverse was true. He never knew if another hacker was who they claimed to be or if it was merely a charade. Z was sure Alison Simpson had infiltrated one or more of his black hat groups. The problem was that no one knew it was her. Or if she had allies hiding in plain sight.
And if Little Miss Hacker is working with Davies, I’ll smell my bacon cooking soon if I don’t respond urgently.
The fellow who could break Alan in half with his little finger was less than twenty miles away, probably discussing his options with Alison Simpson. Disconcertingly, it looked like the CIA man knew he’d been hacked.
Worst of all, Alan sensed that Davies was not far from discovering who Z was in flesh and blood. He suspected Simpson had already found his zero-day. If she used it to track the packets his exploit sent to his secure server, it wouldn’t be long before Alan’s greatest fear on two legs came for him.
And if the phish caught the phisherman, Alan knew who would lose. He was concerned he would lie decomposing in an unmarked grave well before his intended time and date.
Alan rushed around the room, packing the few things he needed to start anew as Starset blasted “It Has Begun” in the background.
After hiding his desktop computer, phone and SIM in one of his secret places, he snuck downstairs. He had no intention of informing his two housemates that he was going. It was part of why he never let anyone get close to him; he always moved on.
This time, it’s simply sooner than I expected.
The teenage gamers were busy playing the modded PS3 in the gaming room he’d set up, complete with its powerful surround sound system and 4K-definition projector.
Their confusion at my whereabouts should muddy the waters for whoever comes chasing me.
Quietly leaving through the front door, Alan followed the escape route he mapped out when he first arrived in East London. He’d run through the series of back alleys a few times since to ensure there were no new neighbourhood cameras, never expecting to use it.
It took him over an hour to make the rushed walk to his new, short-term abode. Ironically, he was moving closer to the NCSC and Nick Davies with every step. However, that didn’t concern him. There were no direct connections between Alan Watson and his emergency accommodation.
And with my newly switched-on burner phone5 and tiger box,6 there are no digital links to track, though I can never be sure if the cyberbitch is on the case.
By the time Alan had set himself up and logged into his hacking console, another hour had passed. Unfortunately, being a shared accommodation facility, he had to wait five minutes until his three young German roommates left to play basketball.
Now those stupid prats can’t spy on me, it’s time to check on CIA Action Man.
Z opened his Kali VM designed specifically for network security and hacking.7 After logging in, he connected to the anonymous proxy8 that would transfer him to a phone network tower in Scotland. That way, no one could trace Alan’s physical location before Z located the information he was after.
Then, he opened the command-and-control app to connect to Davies’ phone.9
Nervously, he waited.
As it tried to establish a connection, he checked his private chat room with Abaddon.
Still no reply.
With a growing fear mixed with a sense of futility, lul sent another brief message.
r u there? He waited a minute, but there was no response. It was like Abaddon had disappeared.
That was forgotten when the C2 app connected and Davies’ phone uploaded its location data.
Alan was rattled when he saw the CIA agent’s location.
That can’t be right!
Within an instant, his confusion was replaced by terror.
Nick Davies was moving at a rapid rate.
And at the pace he’s travelling, Action Man is less than sixty seconds from my new hideaway.
Thanks for reading my online serial. I hope you enjoyed this chapter 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.Digital footprint refers to the trail you leave behind when you access sites across the Internet. Direct references are sites you log into, such as FaceBook and Gmail. Indirect links are websites you visit but don’t create an account with – yet they can still trace you via your IP address, browser configuration, and even your computer device. To learn more (which is a good idea), look at what-is-a-digital-footprint [kaspersky]
This is “leetspeak” for elite hackers, i.e. people who are exceptional hackers. If you want to learn some leetspeak, check out leet-speak-&-how-to-use-it
Fyi, that really happened in the UK
The Onion Router aka TOR provides anonymity so users can communicate with other TOR users in a way that protects every user’s identity from being disclosed. It was first released in September 2002. For more info, check out HERE
A burner phone is a disposable cell phone using a prepaid service, often used to obscure the user’s identity. [Source: dictionary.com]
A tiger box is usually a mobile device (e.g. a laptop) with network testing & hacking tools installed, customised to the device owner’s preferences & uses.
Kali is free security auditing toolkit with a custom Linux. It has over 300 security and/or hacking programs. For more information, see kali.org
An anonymous proxy (as discussed in Chapter 9) gives your Internet connection a fake IP address, so it looks like you are in a different location (commonly a different country that speaks a foreign language) to anyone tracking you. There’s a lot more to it, including how to break it, but that should suffice. For more information, see what-is-a-proxy-server [avast]
Command-and-control is commonly referred to as ‘C2’