by Mark Goodwin
Kate replied, “You don’t have to worry about that. Regardless of who finds the bug we’ll all share credit.”
“That’s not what I was talking about.”
“I don’t get it,” she said.
“I don’t want him putting the moves on you while I’m asleep.”
“Ha, ha. Such a kidder.” She desperately wanted him to clarify that he wasn’t joking this time.
Gavin said, “I’ve got a case of Red Bull in the fridge for just such an emergency. Give me ten minutes, and I’ll be online.”
CHAPTER 5
Draw your water for the siege! Fortify your strongholds! Go into the clay and tread the mortar! Make strong the brick kiln! There the fire will devour you, the sword will cut you off; it will eat you up like a locust. Make yourself many—like the locust! Make yourself many—like the swarming locusts! You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars of heaven. The locust plunders and flies away.
Nahum 3:14-16 NKJV
Three hours had passed when the first Signal group video call came over Kate’s computer. It was Vijay.
“Hey, Vijay. Did you find something?” Kate asked.
He spoke with a thick Indian accent. “Maybe, but I would like to wait until everyone has joined the call.”
Kate looked at the screen. “Looks like we’re still waiting on Shu.”
Willow said, “She sent me a text. She had to run out for a while. Something about one of her clients having security issues.”
“Okay, in that case, I will begin,” said Vijay.
“I wonder if Shu’s thing is related to this.” Gavin could be seen in one of the tiles on Kate’s computer taking a long swig of his Red Bull. “New York’s 911 emergency call system is out. We might be looking at something a little more large-scale than a simple bank heist.”
“That is curious,” said Kate. “Vijay, go ahead and tell us what you’ve got.”
Vijay’s video feed switched over to his screen flow. “Check out this huge chunk of code right here. It looks like a Windows update, but clearly it’s not.”
“Windows, huh?” Willow lowered her brow. “That takes some serious skills or an insider at Microsoft to pull that off.”
“Maybe and maybe not,” Gavin added.
“What do you mean?” Kate inquired.
He continued, “The NSA’s DoublePulsar was designed to open up a backdoor into any Windows machine. Once a hacker has that kind of access, they can insert any kind of code they want. They can make it look like an update, a video file, or even part of the firmware antivirus system itself.”
Willow said, “DoublePulsar was patched by Microsoft.”
Gavin looked at the screen as if the statement was very naive. “And you think that’s the only backdoor tool ever developed by the NSA?”
“Probably not,” Willow admitted. “But it’s the only one that was stolen.”
“Correction,” added Vijay. “It’s the only one that we know about that was stolen. Even when the NSA knew their compromised toolkit was out there, they provided no guidance to security firms nor Microsoft themselves about what threats to protect against. The NSA has never been big on transparency.”
“If something like that was out there, I’d think we would have heard about it,” Willow said.
Kate considered the probability. “Not necessarily. DoublePulsar and EternalBlue were possibly just samples. The Shadow Brokers specifically said they had more NSA malware available for sale on the Darknet. I would imagine a state actor like China or Russia could cough up some pretty serious scratch for tools like that.”
“Heck,” Gavin added. “Kim Jong, Iran, or even Isis could afford some of those goodies.”
Willow spoke again. “I’ve been looking through the Windows updates on the machine I was assigned to, and I’ve found a similar code.” Her video feed switched to her screen flow. “Look at this line at the top. It’s very similar to what Vijay found, but it’s unique. If they’re both viruses, technically they’d each be zero-days. Any anti-virus that would patch the vulnerability from what Vijay found would still let this piece of code through.”
Kate shook her head in unbelief. “That’s impossible. Can you imagine the time put into coding each one of these bugs? Who would waste two separate zero-days on the same attack?”
“Make that three.” Gavin’s video switched to his video feed. “Look what I found.”
Kate read through lines of code. “Once again, completely unique.”
Vijay spoke next. “The Trojans are incredibly simplistic in their design. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. They are very succinct, no filler except for what I would consider camouflage. This code must have been written by a genius.”
“Or another computer,” Willow commented.
“AI? I don’t think so,” said Gavin.
Willow continued, “Two guys who presented at DefCon 25 wrote a machine-learning program for hacking. Point number one, that was years ago. I’m sure even they have progressed in their research. Point number two, you guys don’t think the NSA has developed AI for writing malware?”
Kate examined the codes and thought about Willow’s premise. “Even if they had such a program, it would take a tremendous amount of computing power.”
“Which they have,” said Willow. “The NSA Data Center in Utah could easily accomplish such a task.”
“Yeah, but the NSA wouldn’t be running a program to steal a couple million dollars from a bank.” Kate shook her head. “If such a program exists and has fallen into the wrong hands, it would take a state actor like China or Russia to operate it.”
“Perhaps, not,” Vijay said. “It might take time, but many more advanced colleges have the computing power to run an AI program of that magnitude.”
Gavin spoke up. “You know who has command of lots of computing power, cryptocurrency engineers. They have people all over the world running programs which are supposedly solving problems to mine coins. What if rather than figuring out arbitrary math problems, all of these computers were actually running an AI program which was churning out all these bugs?”
“I don’t think so,” said Vijay. “I’ve seen the problems Bitcoin miners are solving. It’s very complex stuff.”
“Maybe not Bitcoin,” Gavin replied, “but what about the hundreds of other cryptocurrencies?”
“I suppose it would be a possibility,” Vijay yielded.
“I found the virus in the computer I’m inspecting.” Kate toggled her feed so the others could see the code she was looking at. “Same thing. Very similar but it’s a totally different bug. It’s like a swarm of viruses; like a plague of locusts or something.” She picked up her phone. “Guys, I’m going to sign off. I have to call this into the office. Thank you all so much for your help. Please message me if anyone gets an idea of how we can patch this.”
Gavin snorted. “I’ve got an idea for a patch.”
“What’s that?” Kate listened intently.
“Pull all of your money out of the bank, cancel your credit cards, throw away your computer, and never go online again.”
“I mean serious patches.” She sighed.
“I am serious. This isn’t good. We can’t write a patch for every piece of computer hardware in the country. And if every machine has a unique bug, that’s the only fix.” Gavin’s voice sounded grave.
Willow added, “And I hate to be the bearer of more bad news, but I just got an alert on my phone. Washington DC’s subway system is offline. Sounds like the locusts are eating their way into every network in the country.”
Kate started thinking about how far things could deteriorate. “Be safe guys. I’ll speak with you all later.”
“Okay, take care. I’m going to the grocery to stock up on some supplies.” Gavin signed off.
Kate closed the Signal program on her desktop and grabbed her keys. She called Mr. Mendoza on the way out the door.
“Kate, hi. Did you find anything?”
“Yes, si
r. But it’s not good. I’m on my way to the office so I can discuss it with you. Also, I need to look around under the hood in our servers.”
“Why? Do you think our network could be infected?”
“Whatever is going on is widespread. New York’s emergency dispatch system is out, DC’s trains aren’t running, and my friend in San Francisco got called away for a cybersecurity emergency. I’m not sure what the nature of that threat is, but it’s likely that all of this is connected to our breach.” She opened the door of her Mini and got inside.
“I’ll see you when you get here.”
Kate raced across town to the office. She called Gavin on the way.
He answered, “I knew you were a stalker.”
“Stop saying that!” she protested.
“I’m just dreaming. What’s up?”
“Are you serious about buying extra groceries or were you just trying to freak everybody out?”
“They were all looking at the same code I saw. If that doesn’t freak them out, nothing I say is going to do it. But yeah, I’m on the way to Harris Teeter right after I go to the bank.”
“Why are you going to the bank? Are you going to talk to your boss about what’s happening?”
“No. I’m going to take all of my money out. Or at least as much as they can give me on short notice.”
“Gavin, you’re overreacting.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Maybe you’re right. If so, I’ll put my money back in the bank when the smoke clears.”
“But you can’t take back a bunch of groceries.” Kate tried to reason with him.
“No, but I gotta eat anyway. Worst case scenario, I have an extra hour in my schedule on grocery day for the next few months. I’m sure I’ll figure out something to do with the spare time. I’ve always wanted to learn how to play cricket.”
“It’s a lot like baseball.”
“Oh, then never mind. I hate baseball. Well, gotta go. I’m pulling into the bank parking lot right now. Can I call you from work tonight?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Great. I’ll talk to you then.”
She clicked off the phone. Kate hated the circumstances, but she was glad she’d found a way to connect with Gavin.
Suddenly, Kate slammed the brakes! Her car stopped inches away from the bumper of the car in front of her. The man in the vehicle ahead opened his door and yelled profanities at the car in front of him.
Kate looked up at the traffic light. It was green. She could see from beneath the louvers on the traffic signal for the cross traffic that it was also green. Six cars had collided in the intersection. “Great. I bet they’ve hacked the traffic signals.” Kate looked around for a place to park. She was only about a mile from Sky National Bank Plaza and could walk there quicker if the traffic lights were going to be an on-going problem. She backed up to the last side street and cut over to Peachtree. “There’s the Georgian. I can park at the hotel. It’ll cost me, but at least my car will be safe.”
She opted to pay extra for valet parking so she wouldn’t have to waste even more time spiraling up and up to find an open space. Kate looked at her impractical shoes and growled. “I should keep sneakers in the car. I’m sure I will from now on.” She began her long trek to the office.
On her way, she called her brother.
His receptionist picked up. “Hi, Kate. I’ll put you right through.”
“Sis, hey. Did you get that thing worked out? I heard we had to go offline for a while yesterday and the big wigs called you in for your expert opinion.”
“Yeah, I’m still working on it. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Can you come by my place on your way home tonight?”
“Can’t do it tonight. Penny has book club and Sam is going to the movies with his friends. I have to be home with Victoria.”
“She’s fourteen. I used to babysit when I was fourteen.”
“It’s a different world these days. I can’t leave her at home alone. Why don’t you drive out to the house?”
“Out to Buckhead?”
“It’s nine miles.”
She sighed. “Nine miles of chaos. You should see it out here. I had to leave my car at the Georgian. I’m walking the rest of the way to the office.”
“Why? What happened?”
“The traffic lights are all messed up. I think it might be related to yesterday’s hack. Did you hear about what’s going on around the country?”
“I heard about the trains in DC and the 911 system in New York. You think they were hacked?”
“If not, it’s an awfully big coincidence. You should ask Penny and Sam to stay home tonight.”
“Yeah, right.” Terry laughed. “That’s not going to happen. So, are you coming by?”
“It might take me a while to get there, but I’ll come. I gotta go. I’ll see you tonight.” She hung up the phone so she could pick up the pace to the office. She walked briskly past intersection after intersection of fender benders and enraged motorists, each blaming the others for the accidents.
CHAPTER 6
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.
Joel 2:1-2
Kate sat scanning a computer screen at a desk in Zachery Mendoza’s office on the 58th floor.
Mendoza watched over her shoulder. “Believe it or not, my Master’s Degree is in Computer Science. I’d be glad to help if I knew what I was looking for.”
“Our Microsoft SQL server is different from the infected personal PCs we went through earlier today, but I would expect to see some similarities if the bank’s network is infected. However, I would not expect it to look like any type of an update.”
“What if I brought in some more people to help? Would that speed things up?”
Kate looked up momentarily from her screen. “Albert is probably the only person on shift who is capable of processing enough information to be effective.”
“Okay. I’ll get him a workstation set up right over by the window. The three of us can scan code all night if we have to.”
Kate looked up. “I have to go by my brother’s tonight. It’s super important. I can work until eight or so, but I’ve been staring at screens all day. I won’t be very productive after that anyway. I can be back at 6:00 AM.”
“That’s fine. You’re right. We have to get some rest. If we burn out, none of us will make any progress.” Mendoza walked out of the office to speak to his secretary.
Kate, Albert, and Mendoza spent the next several hours examining line after line of code from the bank’s mainframes, but to no avail.
At 8:00, Kate took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. “Mr. Mendoza, we may be looking at code for the next two weeks. We may or may not find anything. I’m going to call it a night if you don’t mind.”
Mendoza looked up from his screen. “I’ll let Janet know that you’ll be using my office tomorrow. I’m going to keep looking for another couple of hours. I may be in late tomorrow.”
“Okay. I’ll be in early. Give me a call if you think you’ve found anything. Or better yet, take a picture of the screen and text it to me. I’ll recognize it if it’s related to what we found on the PCs today.”
“I’ll walk you out, Kate.” Albert stood up. “Mr. Mendoza, do you want me here or in the IS control center tomorrow?”
“Report back here tomorrow, Albert. I appreciate your help. Both of you, have a good evening.”
“Yes, sir. You, too.” Kate led the way to the elevator.
Albert put his hand in front of the elevator door and let Kate get in first. “I’m starved. Do you want to grab a bite to eat?”
“Thanks anyway, but my brother is waiting for me.”
Albert looked at lights indicating which floor the elevator had reached. “Maybe some other time then.”
Kate also turned her attention to the descending floor numbers. “Sure. Maybe another time.”
The commute out to Buckhead proved arduous indeed. Officers from the Atlanta Police Department directed traffic at major intersections. All other intersections she drove through had temporary four-way stop signs.
She finally arrived at her brother’s large house in the upscale neighborhood. She knocked on the door.
Her niece answered the door with a fistful of money. “Oh, hey, Aunt Kate.”
“Hi, Vicky. You don’t have to pay me to come over.”
The thin, pretty teenage girl glanced down at the cash in her hand. “We called for a pizza an hour and a half ago. Dad says everyone is ordering pizza so they can watch all the special coverage on the news about the hacking stuff going on.”
Kate stepped past her niece. “Where is Terry?”
“Watching the news.” Victoria closed the door and followed Kate inside. “You look great. Did you lose more weight?”
“About ten pounds total.”
“What’s his name?”
“Whose?”
“The reason you lost all that weight.”
“Renato.” Kate trailed behind her niece down the stairs and into the den.
“Oooh, sounds exotic. That’s the guy you’re trying to look good for?”
“No.” She laughed. “Renato is my Jiu-Jitsu instructor. He’s the reason I lost the weight. But it’s from training. There’s no guy.”
“If you say so.” Vicky rolled her eyes and plopped down on the couch next to her dad.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kate crossed her arms.
“There’s always a guy.” Vicky winked.
“Have you been spreading rumors?” Kate quizzed her brother who seemed engrossed by the news coverage.
“Nope. My lips are sealed.” Terry held the remote territorially in his hand. He didn’t look up until a commercial break. Then, he turned to Kate who’d taken a seat on the recliner. “What’s the latest at work?”
