The Deepfake on My Phone

Chapter 4 Defining the Crime

The interview room was beige and smelled of stale coffee and disinfectant. A man in a crisp suit introduced himself as Detective Miller.

With one hand at the small of my back, Julian laid out the breach, the video, and the extortion. Miller listened without interrupting. When Julian finished, he turned to me.

"Mrs. Hayes, we're treating this as felony extortion, conspiracy to commit corporate espionage, and illegal surveillance. The video is the weapon they used to make the threat."

I set both hands flat on the table and pushed the tablet closer to him, screen up.

"I've already isolated the data packets and traced the origin node." I slid my tablet across the desk.

"They used a vulnerability in the monitor's firmware. The entry was basic, but consumer-grade security didn't stop it. For the deepfake, they would have pulled source material from social media and video calls."

Miller took the tablet and scrolled through the logs. "You've done most of our preliminary work, Mrs. Hayes."

"We'll set up a sting," he continued. "A dummy USB, a tracker. You make the drop."

"A simple tracker only tells you where the drive is." I turned the clean USB between my fingers. Both men waited.

"Catching her at the drop won't expose the people behind her. I want the entire network."

I stopped turning the clean USB. "I can write a Trojan that opens when she inserts the drive. It will bypass her firewall, copy her hard drive, and upload every contact, file, and buyer to a secure server."

Miller looked from the USB to my trace report. Then he pushed the clean drive across the desk.

"Mrs. Hayes. Welcome to the team."

My phone buzzed with a new message. Chloe.

*"Time's running out. Tomorrow night. 8 PM. South Pier, the abandoned shipping containers. Come alone, or your daughter's playgroup gets an interesting email."*

I turned the phone so Miller and Julian could read the message.