Chapter Forty-One
Back Door Man
As we had discussed, Jen brought her fifteen year old nephew’s friend to the plant the following week. He was a pimply faced kid with a typical fifteen year old attitude (which some of us never lose). He holed up with Earl and Dusty for several days planning and executing a cyber assault on our X-400 related inputs.
Things were good, make that great, between me and Dusty. In a weird way, I felt a sense of relief knowing that she would not feel insulted that I didn’t hit on her. It seemed to strengthen our friendship. And I was really missing Holly.
After the weekend jaunt to the lake, I managed to avoid Chuck for several days because I knew it might be awkward. But one cannot avoid the uncomfortable forever.
“So, should I be expecting a harassment lawsuit or a wedding invitation?”
It looked like good time Charlie was still with us.
“Neither. We started the weekend as co-workers and friends and we are still co-workers and friends. In fact, Dusty came up with another good idea this weekend about X-400 security.”
“You are with a great looking girl at one of the most romantic spots on earth and you talk about X-400? Who are you and what have you done with Mick?”
“Yeah, I know. Pretty incredible, isn’t it?”
“What? She has someone special that owns a large firearms collection?”
“No. She really doesn’t, but I think I do, except for the firearms.”
“You never cease to amaze me, Mick. Tell me more about her X-400 idea.”
I related her idea to Chuck. I told him that we had brought in an outside expert to help with the testing. I didn’t tell him our expert was too young to drive. Chuck seemed in a good mood these days, but I didn’t want to test it.
“That is a good idea. Looks like Dusty is really pulling her weight. Let me get this straight. She’s beautiful, smart, nice and available?”
“It seems that way.”
“And you didn’t jump at it or on it. I’m still a bit stunned. Well, let me know how the testing goes.”
A few days later, Dusty plopped down in my office with a six inch pile of paper clutched in her hands.
“Wow. If you don’t mind me saying so, you look a bit frazzled.”
“If I ever agree to spend two days cooped up with a horny fifteen year old geek again, please shoot me.”
“Was it that bad?”
“When he wasn’t trying to look down my blouse, he was trying to look up my skirt. He must have bent down twenty times to tie his shoes and he was wearing loafers. Earl did what he could to keep him in check, but, at first, that little horn dog was relentless.”
“You should have kicked him out. We could have hired a professional.”
“I thought about it. But after he got rolling into his hacking routines, he settled down and kind of forgot about me and Earl except for asking us to get him pizza, pop tarts, Cheetos and Mountain Dew.”
“That sounds pretty good. I don’t suppose you could get some for me.”
“Not a chance, buster.”
“Anyway, I still would have kicked the brat out on his keester.”
“Don’t think that we weren’t tempted. But, he was good, real good. I may have to replace my keyboard. I think there are scorch marks on it from his flying fingers of fury.”
“So what’s the bottom line?”
“Most systems have tight security. We could not get into four of the five X-400 inputs. But late on the second day, the teen geek found a backdoor into production volume and mix time. With some spreadsheet help and recreating conditions at the time of the runs, we were able to duplicate these parameters and back calculate the formula. We verified with Dan Fallan. Once he recovered from being stunned by our findings, and, perhaps, my tight jeans, he confirmed that we got it right.”
“Gee. That’s two out of five components that could be compromised.”
“Well, you fixed the invoice copy problem and our favorite under-aged geek blocked up the back door he had found. Just to be safe, I suggest you hire the darn kid to review security every six months. He will probably want some candid photos of me in return, but I think he can be had for twenty bucks an hour and a boatload of junk food. Also, I haven’t been able to see any weaknesses in the security around the other three components. But I’ll be taking a deeper look in the next few weeks. Then it’s back home for me.”
“I won’t wish you good luck because I don’t want any more bad news. And Dusty, we will miss you around here. You have done a good job of shaking things up.” Including me.
“I’ll miss you too, Mick. But I’m sure we’ll stay in touch. And I’m not gone yet. I still have a few weeks to create some more mischief,” she said with a luminescent twinkle in her eye. If I had only known.
MBA - Moron$ Ba$ and A$ PG Version Page 42
