by Len Marshall
He, Victor, did not want to want to give away any sign of this secret investigation and by doing so alert the enemy insider. To that end all mobile phones, tablets, Wi-Fi pods and other handheld devices were the particular focus of this investigation. Victor realized that he had missed a big opportunity here, to strengthen the internal security.
After further investigations, Victor’s security team had reached a conclusion and they reported back to Ajay that they knew who was involved in these attacks and that the final suspect involved in these hacking attacks was unfortunately Jacob’s best friend Neil. This devastated Jacob and, to an extent, his father as well. Neil’s involvement was first reported to Ajay by Victor. He had not wanted to tell Jacob considering his close friendship with Neil.
It was not an easy proposition for Ajay to comprehend this newly learnt fact. He was in a state of complete disbelief and was worried about how Jacob would react after learning this news.
Victor demonstrated that they had found something on Neil’s mobile which contained a hitherto unknown malicious code. Victor also revealed that the code had more than one function. Its primary function was to scan the network and send information in encrypted format to a predestined IP address while its secondary function was to launch an attack after creating various copies on the network node. He was able to decipher this by analyzing the code and the results of the last attack initiated by this code from one of the finance division’s servers. Ajay informed the FBI agent as soon as it was confirmed by Victor that Neil was indeed the perpetrator. Earlier, Ajay had succeeded in keeping the FBI at bay but two days ago he was asked by the office of the Secretary of Defense to fully involve the FBI in this matter. Naval Cyber Command had detected an unusual surge in network activity on the Waverley Davis network and had found out about these attacks some time ago.
Ajay was informed that the decision to involve the FBI was made on principle by all the stakeholders involved, including leading military in the Pentagon and the White House. The FBI had launched its own investigations as well. All the findings of Victor and his team were shared with them and they conducted interviews with some people, including Victor and Farrell, as part of their preliminary investigations.
Jacob was last to know about this development because he was reacting just as Ajay had expected him to react.
“Jacob, I’m sorry but Christopher is going to take Neil in for further investigation. He’s our main suspect and as such is under federal arrest. The FBI wanted to know more information, hence the investigation into Neil.”
“No charges will be sanctioned against him unless we establish his direct link with the hackers. And right now, we just want to find out if he had any active role in these attacks.” Christopher explained his plan. “But we must be absolutely clear that this is a matter of national security.”
“OK. But can I talk to him for a minute before you take him?” Jacob asked Christopher
“Yes, of course,” he replied.
Although Jacob had been allowed to talk to him before his arrest, he wasn’t sure what he should ask Neil.
“Neil, what does Waverley Davis mean to you?
“It means everything to me, my life, and my future,” Neil said with a look of sincerity, “Why?”
“Why what?” Neil asked still struggling to find any sense in Jacob’s question.
“Why have you become complicit in a plan to destroy the organization and the family which gave you everything you have today?” By now, Jacob was losing control of his emotions.
“Please Jacob. Stop this game of riddles. This is just conjecture so far, what has happened.” For the first time, Neil’s voice was louder than Jacob’s.
“Come with me.” Jacob decided to show Neil what Victor had discovered. Neil followed him to Ajay’s office where he was about to be met with the biggest shock of his life.
***
“It means that this girl is responsible for our failure so far,” Ping May said on his mobile talking about the update report from Lee.
“I think she has to be extinguished. She must go, the sooner the better. She can create serious trouble for us.” Lee advised Ping May to eliminate Jenifer after hearing her recent discussion with Natalie via his listening device planted under the top of Natalie’s computer table.
“What do we know about her and her agent partner and who is more dangerous for us?” Ping May countered.
“In fact,” he said, “they are both bad news for us. They’re loan agents and working as a team.” Lee was excited but also very cautious as to why Ping had not so far given him the go ahead for the assassination of both girls.
“You’ve told me that neither of them have any way to help Waverley Davis against our new weapon, right?” Ping asked Lee to reconfirm the fact he had told him earlier in his report.
“Yes sir. That’s what they’ve said,” Lee confirmed.
“We need to be sure about this and if it is the case, then we can deal with them afterwards. For now, we need to focus on our real target. That’s the person who manages their network security. Killing two girls in New York will create suspicion which we must avoid for now,” Ping said.
“Later on, I’m thinking about owning and running them both, they’ve great potential as cyber troopers. It’s time to make the ancient philosopher Sun Tzu proud,” he added with a slight hint of cynicism in his voice.
“Never mind Sun Tzu,” he said, “this will be recognized at presidential level. This will be recognition from Xi Jinping himself.”
“Goodness, really?”
“Yes, really,” he said.
Lee got the thread of what Ping was implying and now had a smile on his face as well. He looked at his laptop where the digital version of a report file was showing a picture of a family of three. A father, mother and their son at the school the child went to. Lee had been tailing his target since he had got the final signal from Ping.
“Indeed politics has no heart beating in its chest,” he muttered whilst looking at the next slide on his computer where a close-up picture of an eight year old boy appeared. “Nothing personal young man, just another assignment,” he whispered to himself.
On the screen, a third slide was displayed featuring a photo of Victor.
***
“What is this?” he asked. “Some kind of joke?”
This was Neil’s reaction after hearing the detailed charge sheet against him which included details of his alleged role in multiple cyber-attacks on his employer from the FBI agent. The FBI had put together a large dossier on Neil. “I think you know the answer to that question very well Neil, we take our job very seriously.” Christopher’s reply was firm and cold.
Although Neil was confident and felt fairly calm because he had done nothing wrong, at least not knowingly, he clearly felt uncomfortable thinking about the possible outcome of this case. Moreover he imagined his parents learning of that news.
“I think I should be given a chance to explain my end of story as well,” Neil said protesting against his arrest.
“Neil! That will only be possible if you cooperate with us. Right now everything is pointing at you being complicit in this entire episode,” Christopher said. Shaking his head, Neil looked at Ajay and Jacob.
He was asked to hand over his mobile and his company tablet to the FBI. Everyone in his department saw him in handcuffs with his head down being escorted by two New York police officers.
Christopher registered his arrest and the allegations made against him in an FBI memo.
For Jacob, it was not a comfortable scene and his thoughts were clearly divided. He was enraged by the fact that a person he had known for so long had betrayed his and his father’s trust but at the same time he was consciously trying to remember all of his interactions with Neil over the last year when he might have shown any sign of dissatisfaction towar
ds Waverley Davis. He could find no motive for Neil’s crime.
Ajay was even more perplexed by Neil’s arrest. The moment Neil had walked into his office along with Jacob before his detention. Ajay’s sixth sense had told him that Neil was innocent. Ajay knew that he had been used by someone but he was furious at the fact that Neil had somehow allowed somebody to do that to him. He had been trained to avoid seduction and temptations but Ajay had no reason to believe that was a possibility because he knew Neil was not involved in an affair. At least, that is what he had believed. Neil had not told Ajay about Clarke. He had hesitated to do so because he wanted to tell Jacob first.
That decision had cost him dearly.
Christopher was standing next to a big wall mounted LED TV where pictures of various Waverley Davis employees were being displayed. He was giving briefings about these employees to the FBI team. He explained to them why the protection of each one of these people was necessary. He had been tasked to solve the Waverley case as a high priority. Military authorities in the US wanted to see this case resolved ASAP.
Diplomatic channels were also being activated but to make those efforts effective, the US government needed a smoking gun pointing towards the Chinese and it was the FBI’s task to provide the diplomats with that weapon. So far, the FBI had just apprehended an American national who, despite being cooperative, had not been able to provide any kind of lead. Everyone in his contact page on Facebook and phone book had already being put under watch.
In order to avoid unnecessary panic, these people were not told about the monitoring exercise. Christopher was hoping Neil’s co-conspirator would be drawn out into the open through one of these people and there was also a possibility that one of these contacts was behind the attacks. He needed to protect them but also investigate them at the same time. In the first phase he had decided to interview all those who had contacted or were contacted by Neil.
“We won’t know if the person we are protecting is a potential victim or a possible perpetrator so we’ll have to maintain as much secrecy as possible,” Christopher told his squad. “Keep your eyes open but do not preempt any situation unless you feel that the threat is eminent. Right, are there any questions?” he asked.
With that, he concluded his presentation and the FBI Squad was dismissed while he kept staring at all those faces in the photo collage looking out from the giant LED screen.
Victor’s face was also there among those faces. He was completely unaware of the threats he was about to face in the coming days.
Chapter Eight
For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he say shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he sayeth.
Mark 11:23
Jennifer spoke after examining the print-out in front of her for a short while.
“They’re not trying to steal it. They’re looking to cripple the entire cyber infrastructure of Waverley Davis but why, because this graph of figures just doesn’t make any sense.” Jenifer was shocked and mystified by the true nature of the code.
“This Waverley Davis thing is getting messier with every passing minute,” Natalie remarked.
Jenifer nodded her head, agreeing with Natalie.
“There must be a reason. Something must have changed,” Jenifer said, after thinking for a while.
“I think by now the Chinese must have realized that they can’t penetrate into the Waverley Davis network so they must have adopted the second best option,” Natalie guessed. Natalie was right in her guess.
The actual Chinese plan was to cripple the entire node points in the Waverley Davis network with the help of this new worm so that barriers could be removed and the complete network detail could be gathered. So far, both the Chinese and Jenifer were only able to see the part of the network that lay between the internal interface of the perimeter firewall and the external interfaces of each internal firewall which were installed to protect each division’s network independently.
This meant that each division had a second tier defensive mechanism so this prevented this type of worm intrusion. Thankfully, as yet, they had not found a way through these internal firewalls. It was impossible to hack from outside the network. Now it seemed the only way to gain access to any particular department was through its respective employee’s computer terminal. This method was exactly what they had used to copy the information on Neil’s mobile including the Malware. This enabled the Chinese to scan the complete network of the finance division. The second worm was made to address this problem. It was designed to do a lot more than just by-pass the perimeter firewalls. Exactly how still remained a mystery to them. So far, Jenifer and Natalie were unable to understand this part of its operation.
Big multinational companies like Waverley Davis adopt secure server space for secure backup location on and off internet storage for storing strategically important data. By having a secure complete reserve system backup then Waverley Davis would be back operational in a few hours so it made no sense for the Chinese to destroy their local back up. They would need to completely destroy both the internet storage and the local server. Both girls mused that they therefore needed to know exactly what the Chinese were after.
“Maybe they are trying to slow down the Waverley Davis research,” Natalie said.
“Well, that’s plausible,” Jenifer replied.
“Jenifer has finally agreed with me on something,” thought Natalie.
Jenifer at the time was thinking of different ways to come up with some method of her own to stop this new code from working. This was not impossible especially with Natalie on her team. Perhaps she could program a low level language to work using computer dialogue. To successfully do this, she needed more time and she was not sure how much of it she had. Unknown to her, this had already been taken care of by FBI.
For now, all she could do was to stay inside the Waverley Davis network and continue her earlier work there.
***
Jacob sat at the dining table at home chatting to Ajay.
“This doesn’t make any sense, Dad. I can’t understand why Neil would do something like this.”
It had been three days since Neil’s arrest and Jacob was still unable to find any possible motive which could have made Neil complicit in such a high profile cyber-attack. “I don’t think he did that, well at least not with his consent.” Nothing Neil did had made sense since that since that fateful day. Maybe, it was because Neil had a firm understanding and belief on all things related to the Law of Attraction and other universal laws.
Ajay had refused to accept the charges against Neil. However, he could not intervene as the FBI was involved.
“I promise I’ll get to the bottom of it. Clearly he’s been framed by someone,” Jacob said.
“Do you think someone inside Waverley Davis is involved?” Ajay asked.
“I don’t know Dad but let’s see what the FBI comes up with.” Jacob was desperate to know the truth but actually had no workable plan to find it on his own. They had no other option but to rely on the help of the FBI.
Straight after dinner, Jacob got an urgent call on his mobile and immediately a worried look appeared on his face. “OK. I’m on my way,” Jacob said.
“Is it anything serious?” Ajay asked.
“Yes,” he said, “it’s Victor. It seems the hackers are active again.”
Jacob reached Waverley Davis as quickly as he could.
Having told Jacob about the activity on their network by hackers, now both Victor and Jacob were in the control room where Farrell and other members of Victor’s team were busy trying to prevent any cyber access. Although the intensity of the attack was a lot lower this time, the hackers were persistent.
This seemed unusual to both Jacob
and Victor. Jacob had studied the attack pattern of the previous violations. This attack was similar but not identical to the other attacks. Suddenly, there was a surge in the hackers’ activities. Minutes later some of the hackers had managed to bypass the perimeter firewall and were now trying to compromise the email server of the Waverley Davis mainframe server. This attack however was almost identical to one which they had mounted on their access control server a few weeks ago.
“What are they trying to do?” Jacob asked.
“Farrell!” Victor shouted, to gain his attention.
“This attack has two different sources. I think they’ve upped the mode of attack and want to test our network again.”
“Are you certain about the two different sources?” Jacob enquired
“I’m positive,” Farrell replied whilst his hands remained busy on the keyboard.
“They want to compromise the email server in the hope of finding some clues. Surely, these fools must know that this isn’t the primary email server and can be taken offline at any minute without disturbing the users,” Victor said after seeing the concerned look on Jacob’s face.
“I think there’s someone else in the network as well as these other hackers and it looks like it’s another unidentified hacker,” Farrell said suddenly.
“Are you sure?” Jacob asked.
“I think so. This is definitely our mystery first hacker I told you about,” Victor said. He was in fact as intrigued by this unknown second hacker as he was exasperated by those other hackers.
“Wow! They’re at work again,” Farrell said.
“What do you mean?” Victor asked.
“Some of the access control rules have been added to the email server just to make it more difficult,” Farrell replied.
“That means whoever this hacker is, they’re able to penetrate our servers at will,” Jacob said, distress raising his voice.
“Don’t worry, Jacob. Farrell is working on tracking them and we’ll soon have them unmasked.”