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
A loud beep woke Alan from his peaceful slumber at a too-early hour - it was only three in the afternoon. Alan was surprised when he discovered the cause. He’d received a system notification1 from Nick Davies’ PC only seven hours after setting the alert.
That makes it ten on a Sunday morning in Washington. Yet, Davies is up and working on Project 831 while placing a few bets on the side.
Alan started his favourite Linkin Park playlist, then rolled himself a cigarette. He needed his mind to function at its sharpest whenever he was inside someone else’s computer. The slightest slip could expose him to his victim when the hack was live.
And with my phish working in a tech company, I need to be more careful than usual.
Alan’s interest heightened as he lit his cigar-like rollie.
What is so crucial that Davies is working on it first thing Sunday morning?
Alan sat back and inhaled the rich aroma, allowing the vapour to fill his lungs and focus his mind. Alan’s emotions dulled as he thought through what Z was about to do for a few long seconds.
Abruptly, his eyes opened wide.
Leaning forward, he carefully placed his aromatic companion in the Sci-Fi themed ashtray.
It’s time.
Eagerly, Z remoted into Davies’ PC and issued the relevant commands to network the two virtual machines with each other. Once they were linked, he could access 831’s files.
Finding the directory he sought in the 831 VM only took a few seconds. Unsurprisingly, it was named Project_831.
Looking through the directory’s contents, he saw hundreds of sub-directories and files with bland names that provided no clarity on the project’s nature.
At first glance, 831 appeared to be an unattractive prize.
That changed after Z downloaded and opened a tiny file called 831_Brief.
First, he was prompted for the password to decrypt2 the document. That was an insignificant issue. He had a handy utility to extract the password from that file type.
Three minutes later, he knew the password.
And what a password – “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”
With more critical issues at stake, he re-accessed the file and entered the password.
His eyes were instantly engaged by the large red letters boldly stamped across the top.
Cautiously, he started reading.
After appraising the two-page document, Alan knew Project 831 was massive. It was a software project unlike any other he’d encountered. The goal was to create a cyberweapon.
Yet, it’s galaxies away from similar tools I’ve read of or played with.
Although Project 831 produced a physical outcome on a targeted computer device or network, it was aimed at the device users – it hurt them in the real world. It could shred their physical senses and shatter their lives. 831 turned any Internet-connected device into a weapon aimed directly at the user.
And if it can deliver a fraction of its payload, it will change everything.
Hurriedly, Z closed the file.
Alan’s heart raced at the thought of owning the most fearsome cyberweapon on earth. He’d been hoping Nick Davies might have a secret to hide – 831 was much more. His mind filled with a kaleidoscope of blurred visions.
If I control the software, the world will bow before me.
And then, his thoughts shifted in another direction.
Who is Nick Davies? And how come he has this on his computer?
Davies was no mere programmer for a commercial software house. The secret of who was developing 831 had to be buried somewhere in that plethora of files.
To find it, Z needed time.
And to get that time, I must act swiftly.
Z started copying every file in the 831 directory across the Internet and onto his hard drive, ensuring it only transferred at 2 Megabits per second – he didn’t want to alert Davies to what was happening. However, that speed meant the transfer would take seventy-five minutes.
Nervously, Alan waited and watched as the data transferred.
By the time five minutes had passed, he was nervously pacing the length of his small den with a deep sense of foreboding.
Whoever is behind 831 will be a formidable foe.
After ten minutes, Alan forced himself to sit down and roll another cigarette. He seldom smoked to calm his nerves. Yet, this time, he did. He was incredibly apprehensive, especially when Davies lost a few costly hands of poker via his gambling VM.
The guy is blowing money like it’s chump change. He’s definitely not an everyday programmer.
At the twenty-minute mark, Alan decided he’d had enough. It was time to find out more. He opened the 831 directory filling his hard drive and started searching.
I need to know who Nick Davies is.
And who he works for.
Despite speed-reading multiple documents, Alan was no closer to solving the mystery man’s identity at the download’s halfway mark.
And then, he opened a file called C-SOG.
It didn’t take long to realise that Z’s supposedly hapless victim was nothing like that. Alan visibly shivered when he discovered that the non-descript government agency Nick Davies worked for was the infamous CIA.
Even worse, Davies was a member of SAC/SOG, a Special Operations Group in the Agency’s Special Activities Center.
I've always believed these guys are merely a fable the CIA perpetuates to create FUD amongst their friends and foes.3
I’m not only wrong. I’ve caught the worst of them.
A file on Davies revealed that he’d been active in the global war on terror in a way few could believe, let alone do. The number of people he had killed or organised to die was beyond counting. Since terrorists killed his parents, Davies had ruthlessly pursued every chance to skill himself to avenge his parents’ death. He was one of the rare SAC/SOG operatives who didn’t originate from US Special Forces. Yet, the Agency regarded him as their best hand-to-hand combatant.
And, reading between the lines, I get the impression that Davies is in DC because the CIA is worried about how wild and unpredictable he’s become. It’s like, the more people this guy kills, the greater his blood lust becomes.
By then, the download had finished.
Davies had placed a few more bets and lost some serious money during that time. If Davies was a normal phish, it would’ve boded well for a big payoff from that one victim alone.
However, Alan was fearful about the target Z had reeled in.
We haven’t caught a phish. Davies is a killer whale.
Z swiftly reset the VM network settings on Davies’ laptop and closed the connection.
Hopefully, the fool will never know he’s been hacked. If he does …
Alan decided not to let his thoughts go there. If Davies learned what Z had done and who Alan was, all of his lives were over.
Over the next few hours, Alan tried to calm his racing heart and mind as he learned more about Project 831.
He could not believe his bad luck. That Nick Davies would be involved in a cyber project was terrible enough.
It got worse on a new level when he learned more about Project 831. The Agency would do everything it could to hide 831’s existence. It was the deadliest tech Z had come across. It was difficult to comprehend how someone had thought of it, let alone turned it into reality. And the gruesomeness of what it did made Alan shudder.
Whatever sick prat thought it up needs help.
Yet, how it worked made sense. Once Alan understood the two fundamental principles, he was amazed no one had thought of it before. And grateful.
831 will transform the world as everybody knows it. No one will be safe. No one can hide from it unless they cut themselves off from the Internet. And who will do that?
Once the cyberweapon worked as designed, the CIA could topple any person, company or government they wanted to.
All the prats need is the IP address or subnet4 of a target. Once their designated victims connect to the Internet, their physical world will change in ways too horrific to contemplate.
From what Alan had read about their human trials in Guantánamo Bay, demonstrated side effects ranged from severe headaches to the most excruciating death.
And no matter how you want your target’s life to change, it all happens in eleven seconds.
All 831’s operator had to do was enter the target’s IP address range, select the options to choose how the target would suffer, and then click the big red ‘831’ button on the screen.
Thankfully for the rest of the world, the Agency were not using it yet, as they couldn’t control the side effects. However, from the few notes Alan had read, he hoped he could get it working as it was intended.
And even if I can’t, just clicking that button will create a lot of havoc for my enemies.
Alan had never been in such a position before. He was excited at the thought of owning 831. Yet, it could cost him his life. The Agency would come for him if they discovered he had their code.
He was unsure about what to do. The last time he’d felt so lost was over a decade ago.
He knew that occasion held the answer to his current dilemma.
Yet, it was a season of life I’ve tried to walk away from.
And one I desperately want to forget.
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.Most people are familiar with system notifications on their smartphones. They usually display a popup showing you something has happened (e.g., a new message).
Decryption refers to removing a file’s code, turning it back into normal, everyday language (known as ‘plain text’) that any literate person can understand.
FUD is an acronym for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Originally a marketing technique used to promote specific products or manufacturers, FUD has become the greatest weapon in most forms of social engineering, the key to many successful phishing attacks. To learn more about how FUD is used, check out what-is-social-engineering [kaspersky]
A subnet refers to a group of computer devices that can easily communicate with one another because they are similar in their IP address. Think of it like physical addresses. An IP address is like a specific house number on a particular street in a specific suburb. A subnet could refer to everyone in that street or suburb or even everyone within that council area or state. Be warned – subnetting is a highly complex subject. However, if you want to understand more, you can find a simple explanation at what-is-a-subnet [cloudflare]