The phixer
Last, but definitely not least, is Alison Simpson, Britain's most celebrated hacker hunter.
Warning: Like a movie preview, this character introduction includes sections from the story that contain minor spoilers
She's sassy. She's sexy. And if she's on your cyber trail, you'd better start proxying the hell out of thereThe more Nick thought about his circumstances, the more he knew he needed to do something. He was a man of action. There was no way he would sit around passively waiting for Langley to work things out. He knew he was good, if not the best, at what he did: find bad guys and eliminate them.
And I know my hacker is a bad guy.
However, first he had to catch the hacker. And therein lay his immediate problem.
Nick knew he was out of his depth in the cyber world. He needed someone skilled enough to help him find the phisherman.
Of course, asking any Agency cyber-specialists to help was off the table; they’d be alert to his status. He needed to recruit someone outside the Agency.
It didn’t take long to think of the perfect person: Alison Simpson, the hot cyber-chick from Britain's GCHQ. She’d helped his team a couple of years earlier on a mission called Operation Venga.
She will be perfect.
Thankfully, he’d kept her contact details, though for other reasons. She was the best-looking woman he’d worked with. He loved her long dark hair, sparkling brown eyes, and flawless olive complexion. A sensual yet elegant grace accompanied her every movement. And the thought of her toned hourglass figure affected him in many ways.
Hopefully, you can tell this segment is taken from one of Nick's chapters
In 2011, much of the online world was living in fear as a hacker collective known as The Shadow ran amok. No one appeared to be beyond their reach.
And when a new black hat group called Schadenfreude, aka SF, launched their “Month of Mayhem,” the digital destruction descended to another level.It unravelled for SF and the Shadow after the FBI arrested a founding member of SF. Alison was on loan to the FBI at the time.
And no one outside that FBI team knew it was me and a secret cyber friend who cracked that hacker’s cyber-defences and tracked him to his New York City hideout.
Over the next seven months, most of SF’s core were unmasked and captured. The only ones who escaped capture were a founding member known as lul and a professional hacker who used the moniker Abaddon – two Shades that Alison hated with a vengeance for their constant attacks on women in the cyber universe.
More than twenty black hats were arrested that year. And leading the way in the cyber-snaffles was British cyber-analyst Alison Simpson.
By 2012, Alison had developed an enviable reputation. She'd helped fine-tune Karma Police, a secret digital surveillance program unmasked by Edward Snowden only two years later. She had also assisted the NSA on their PRISM program. And she’d been brought into the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group, a specialist unit within GCHQ. As a member of JTRIG, she'd instigated successful hacks on The Shadow, the government of Iran, and the Taliban.
With every cyber challenge she faced, Alison achieved success. And as her digital reputation grew, the resentment in many of her cyber peers was undeniable. They struggled to accept a woman being better than them in what many had decided was a man’s domain.
Yet, they had no choice other than to face the obvious. Within a short yet arduous time, Alison Simpson had become the best cyber agent in the UK’s security services.
Of course, no one in Britain's secret service was aware of her dark secret.1
Alison's success in the cyber security world came at great personal cost. Few would make it through the lonely path she’s traversed and the extreme challenges she’s overcome in what is a male-dominated industry. Unsurprisingly, after all she’s experienced, she doesn’t trust many men.From the moment she’d arrived for her official interview with George, her middle-aged, balding section chief, Alison had been fighting sexist attitudes. George’s expensive, poo-brown, tweed suit should have warned her of what was coming.
“Welcome to the team, Miss Simpson,” George had said in a falsetto voice that irritated her from the moment she heard it. He didn’t bother to stand, let alone extend a hand in greeting. He merely pointed to one of the uncomfortable, vinyl-covered chairs in front of his overly large desk.
“Please, have a seat so we can get this little charade out of the way.”
Alison tried to find a comfortable sitting position as George drily continued.
“First, let me say you should not believe everything Gareth may have said when discussing the role with you. He's more at the bottom of the pile, if you know what I mean.”
Alison politely nodded her head when George gazed at her quizzically over the top of his large, thick-rimmed spectacles.
“Good. I’m glad you understand that there is an order to things.”
She inwardly winced at how George stressed the word ‘order’ after a slight pause.
“So, I guess I should bring you up to speed with how things are in our section before you meet the lads. You see, Miss Simpson, we’ve never had a woman on our team before. The boys are a little nervous. Not that they’re nervous about you, of course,” he added with a wry smile. “They’re more concerned that you might be a bit more of …”
George paused again, then grimaced before continuing in his piercing tone.
“A political addition, if you know what I mean. You know. Technology is not something women are generally any good at, Miss Simpson. Understandably, the lads are concerned that you might not be as good as them. No one wants to be lumbered with someone that’s just not wired for it, if you know what I mean.”
Alison felt her heart drop. She knew what he meant. She'd experienced it up close and personal too often. For some reason, males everywhere thought the cyber world belonged to them. Women were not supposed to understand it, let alone enjoy it.
George blabbered on for a few minutes more, stumbling around his words as he tried to make it sound like it was merely going to be a challenge for her to work with a bunch of egotistical chauvinists. It was, supposedly, an opportunity to break new ground for women.
Though I know that was not what he meant.
And when she thought it couldn’t get any worse, Alison’s new boss closed the interview with words that made her heart sink even lower.
What no one counted on was her fighting spirit. Alison loves a challenge, especially when it’s facing up to someone like the phisherman.Alison was surprised when her scanner app beeped. Nick’s laptop was transmitting an encrypted message. She couldn’t believe her luck. Whatever the phisherman had set up was occurring as she ran her diagnostic software.
Nick demanded, “What’s happening?”
Alison held a hand up as she focused on her screen contents.
It didn’t take her long to discover the hidden task the phisherman had created on Nick's laptop. What scared Alison was when she saw it had been configured at 6:30 on the previous evening, while Nick was in his hotel room.
Worst of all, it had been created via the WiFi connection.
The bastard was in or near Nick’s hotel when he did it.
Not only was it brazen. It showed Alison that her prey was super-confident in his ability. And she was convinced his bravado came from the experience of someone whose tech skills possibly superseded hers.
After all she’s endured to get where she is, she loves rubbing her victories in the faces of men who deserve it.Alison especially enjoyed being in court for the sentencing of two unemployed twenty-somethings she busted. The nasty buggers anonymously threatened to rape one of their targets. They even sent the poor girl a message with a street view image of her house front to terrorise her.
Instead, they got to live the terror. After the young men received their sentence, Alison walked up to where the little prats sat with ashen faces, struggling to accept they were going to jail for what they'd told the court were “just a few harmless insults.”
“Hey, boys,” she’d called out in a sultry voice.
When they turned to face her, she whispered, “Now you’re going to find out what real men are. And the ones you’re about to meet in prison will love passing your young, firm asses around. Of course, for them, it will just be – what did you call it – oh, yes, just a little harmless fun.”
She struggled not to laugh at the terror that covered their faces as she continued.
“But for you, well, you’re both going wish you were dead. But you won’t be. Instead, you’re going to experience the very things you threatened that young woman with, just in a smaller hole.”
So she can’t wait to catch the phisherman.Alison was packing up to leave when a popup appeared on her screen. Her cyber ally had responded on their encrypted chat.
However, when she read what he’d written, it was not what she expected. There was nothing about the CIA's mysterious project. Instead, it was about her prey, the phisherman.
And it gave Alison much more incentive to find him.
The hunt had just become personal.
As she hit “Send” on a short response asking for news on the project, a system alert was triggered. It emanated from her scanner application which had been performing a stealth scan of the hacker’s private email server.
When she looked at what had activated the alert, Alison was ecstatic. Her software had detected a means to get inside the phisherman’s server.
Now, I can shake your world, you son of a bitch. It’s time you get what you deserve.
Alison likes to keep life uncomplicated. She has little time for people; to her, most people are liars, abusers, or both. All that really matter to her are new tech, fast cars, loud music, and busting hackers, though the order will change on any given day.Nick stopped when Alison popped the boot of a charcoal Aston Martin DB11 AMR illegally parked out the front. Before he could say anything, she’d climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine. Nick reveled in the throaty roar of the turbocharged V12 engine until Alison gave a couple of revs to hurry him up. Throwing his suitcase and laptop bag into the boot, he slammed it shut and squeezed his large frame into the passenger side of one of his current dream cars.
I don’t know if Ali would know how to tame such a beast and drive it as it deserves.
He didn’t have to wonder for long as Alison accelerated with a burst of speed that pressed Nick back into his seat. As she cut into a gap between two cars that was barely large enough, she flashed him one of those heart-stopping smiles and asked, ‘So, when are you going to tell me about this mysterious project that’s been stolen?’
Nick recounted parts of his story as Alison did her best to race through London’s traffic-clogged streets, though he was constantly distracted by her driving. Not only was she aggressive - Nick was shocked by how good she was. Despite the congested roads, she handled the AMR with incredible precision whenever she spied a gap large enough to duck and weave through London’s hectic streets.
She’s almost as good as me.
As the tires screamed around yet another corner, he commended her. ‘You know, Ali, I have to tell you: you are probably the best female driver I’ve ever seen. And I’ve met a couple that can drive pretty well.’
He was surprised at the unmistakable flash of anger that crossed her face before she drily muttered, ‘Gee, thanks, Nick,’ as she sped through another small gap he thought was too small.
However, in a life that runs on secrets, there’s one that may cost her everything … and it’s so secret, even she doesn’t know what it is.
Yet.
When you read “The Phisherman,” you’ll discover many true events are intertwined within the story.
Some use fictitious names (for example, The Shadow correlates with Anonymous in the real world - everything The Shadow does in The Phisherman occurred in our world at the hands of Anonymous’ members. Likewise, SF parallels LulzSec, and SF’s Month of Mayhem parallels LulzSec’s 30 days of lulz).
Other mentions, such as Karma Police, the NSA’s PRISM program, JTRIG, and the 2011 cyber busts, are real events/organisations.