Cyber Teen Project

Chapter 10

Nigel’s heart sank when he saw his mother in tears. His mother was strong and rarely showed signs of weakness, so seeing her in a vulnerable state disturbed him.

“Mom? What"s the matter? I took care of the Jake problem!” Nigel said. “Or, I’m taking care of it…”

takingEllen composed herself. “Nothing’s wrong, Sweetheart. I just received some bad news.”

“Did someone die?” Nigel asked.

“No, Honey. I got hacked,” Ellen said in a rather matter-of-fact tone of voice.

“Hacked? How? When?”

Nigel’s mind was swimming. The Watson household was under attack, and Nigel was determined to find out who was behind it all.

“All I know is that my bank account was drained and someone may be using my identity. The bank has been useless,” Ellen said, disgusted.

Did someone breach the defenses of our home network? Nigel left his mother and set out to find the culprit or culprits behind the hack.

Did someone breach the defenses of our home network?* * *

Nigel pulled an all-nighter scanning his network for vulnerabilities. He did find an exploit on the router that his Internet Service Provider (ISP) managed. Nigel tried to patch it, but wasn’t able to directly manage it.

“Hello, ISP Systems Technical Support. This is Marcy. How can I help?”

“Ah, hello. This is Nigel Watson calling.”

“I see that you are an authorized caller, Mr. Watson. How can I help?”

“I found a major vulnerability related to your router and want to request a patch.”

“Let me check.” Marcy typed. “According to my records, your router’s firmware is the most up-to-date version.”

“No, it’s not!” Nigel demanded.“The X11R has a major flaw that allows attackers to remotely control any system on the network. It was only discovered last week! Please check again.”

“Our system is updated each Sunday. It’s possible that I don’t have the same information. I suggest that you call back on Monday,” Marcy said.

“That is days from now. I need to protect my network,” Nigel said.

Marcy didn’t have anything helpful to say. Nigel slammed the phone shut in frustration. How can a provider of internet service have such antiquated systems?

How can a provider of internet service have such antiquated systems?Nigel woke up exhausted. As he walked downstairs looking for breakfast, he hoped his mother would be in a better mood.

His mother was crouched over the kitchen table, surrounded by jewelry, hands covering her face.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Nigel asked.

“No, Nigel. It’s my day off, and I need to visit the pawn shop.”

“I will give you the money,” Nigel insisted.

Ellen took Nigel’s hand and wept.

“Thank you, Son.”

* * *

Sally noticed that Ellen was not her usual positive, cheery self. Ellen"s face had taken the form of a permanent scowl, unnatural on her pretty face.

“What is it, Ellen?”

Ellen just sat there and said nothing.

“What’s wrong?”

“All my accounts are hacked, and the bank believes that my identity is stolen,” Ellen said in one breath.

Sally hadn"t a clue what to say next and was silent for a long moment.

Ellen’s lips started quivering uncontrollably, and she started sobbing.

“There must be something that the bank can do,” Sally said.

“Nothing. They can"t do anything.”

“I have an old friend who works at the FBI. Do you want me to contact him?” Sally asked.

“Really?”

“Let me put you in touch with him. His name is John.”

“Thanks! You are a true friend,” Ellen said.

“Don"t mention it. That’s what friends are for.”

* * *

Ellen was able to get some food for the family thanks to Nigel’s help. When she got home from work Sunday, she sighed as she looked at the clock. 7:03 p.m., long after Nigel and Ralphie"s dinnertime. There was no sign of her boys, but she did find empty pizza boxes in the kitchen trash.

It"s just as well, Ellen thought. Ellen was broke, even with Nigel’s gift, but apparently Nigel had more saved so they could get some pizza. Perhaps she’d been too hard on Nigel for wanting to help with the finances.

It"s just as wellShe also needed to get in touch with her divorce attorney. Rick’s last alimony payment was over a month late! At least he’d been keeping up with child support payments.

Her cell phone rang.

“Is this Ellen? This is Agent Appleton calling. Our mutual friend, Sally, gave me your information.”

“Thanks for calling back.”

“I need some more information from you. I have been tracking a similar case and want to make as many correlations as possible. Can I stop by?”

“Yes, please do. I"m at my wit’s end here,” Ellen said with genuine anguish in her voice.

“I will leave now. Give me thirty minutes.”

Agent Appleton gathered information from Ellen"s computer.

“So do you know how my computer got hacked?” Ellen asked.

Agent Appleton looked at her like she was a dullard; his gaze was intimidating to say the least.

“Not yet. I will need to give the information to our forensics guys. It may take a while,” Agent Appleton said.

After the evidence was collected, Ellen showed him to the door, and he promised to be in touch. Ellen had an uneasy feeling about all of this.

* * *

Gregor sent an encrypted, high-priority communication to all members of The Collective. He found the true identity of one of the authors of Dark Glider, a frequent poster to many community forums that created cheats for The Colossal Machine.

The Colossal Machine“The real name of the poster who released the Dark Glider code is Len. He didn"t have a last name, but I was able to obtain an address in Los Angeles, California.”

Alexei immediately sent a response: “Please call me on my secure line ASAP.”

When Gregor called Alexei, he sounded far away.

“How did you find the author of Dark Glider?” Alexei demanded.

“He got sloppy. His IP address was logged on one of the Dark Web servers. He must have forgotten to use his VPN, or the connection dropped. I have seen this before with people that think that the MORP browser will completely protect them,” Gregor explained. “I was able to exploit the web server and download the entire connection log to find the IP. Getting the rest of the information was easy.”

“Good work. I will get the team on this.”

* * *

The Colossal Machine had been so popular that Pretzelverse Games had barely been able to keep up with maintenance, let alone create an expansion. However, Alexander Vandervoss insisted that one be developed. As a result, the main cadre of developers that led the original team were whisked away to a secret company retreat to develop an expansion for one of the most successful games of all time.

The Colossal MachineJohn Appleton read the latest subversive list briefings that were published surrounding any activity in Eastern Europe, where his main focus was Collective activity. A massive multiplayer online game was hardly the focus of his day-to-day work, but he had a personal interest in games or programs that captured the imagination of the general public.

How could a company with a modest development staff release an expansion at this breakneck speed?

As far as John knew, the game had been out for a few months before the expansion was announced at the All Games conference in Southern California. One of the more disturbing aspects of The Colossal Machine’s expansion was integrating DNA samples into the game. One of the previous bulletins published about The Colossal Machine discussed the process in detail:

The Colossal MachineThe Colossal Machine“Pretzelverse Games has introduced a new feature named P.E.T. 2.0, which stands for Personal Entity Tracker version 2. There is no official explanation of the acronym. Pretzelverse wants to convince pet owners to scan their pet"s DNA into The Colossal Machine, to play with their pets in the virtual space. However, test players soon realized that they no longer owned the rights to their pets, their likeness, or even their names. They all became property of Pretzelverse Games.”

The Colossal MachineThe report continued with a highly technical explanation of the FBI’s understanding of the process. John thought scanning and filing DNA was all pretty creepy.

* * *

During the beginning of their first break, Sally joined Ellen in the lounge.

“Did John reach out to you?”

“Yes, he came over last night. He said that forensic lab technicians will need to sift through the data on my computer before they can identify the hack.”

“Oh. I don’t know what was involved, but that seems a little extreme,” Sally said. “I had another thought concerning your bank account.”

“Oh?”

“I’m not sure what checking account you have, but the top tier account has certain protections against fraud. The bank calls it zero-liability protection, which means if your account gets hacked and it"s not your fault, you will get your money back. It’s worth looking into if you haven’t already,” Sally said.

will“Thank you. That’s good to know.”

After her shift ended, Ellen stopped by the bank.

“I’m afraid that protection is not on your account,” Joyce said.

“I have the Checking Premium account that the bank offers. It clearly states in the terms of service that I have this protection,” Ellen said. She’d done her research.

“Let me check with the branch manager. One minute, please.”

Ellen waited for the branch manager with a pang of concern. It was five minutes before closing. They better not even think about throwing her out.

After another ten minutes, Gordon, the branch manager, appeared. Ellen could see that he was scheming against her behind those round glasses.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Watson,” Gordon said. “I reviewed your account history, and you did indeed have the zero-liability protection when you opened the account. However, last spring we modified our portfolio and asked each account holder to affirm their coverages. I regret to inform you that since you failed to reaffirm your coverage, you no longer have this protection.” Gordon gave her a sheepish grin.

“I never received any notice.”

As soon as she uttered the words, she remembered some flyers the bank had sent out. She had thought they were junk mail.

“I assure you that they were sent out. We gave you sixty days to respond. Since you failed in this capacity, we automatically unenrolled you,” Gordon said in a monotonous drone.

Ellen took this as a personal attack.

“You people are incredible. You screw us in every which way with exorbitant fees, then when we need your help, you refuse! You people are f*****g incredible,” Ellen screamed.

fucking incredibleOther customers were looking at her like she just escaped the nuthouse.

If Gordon was angry, he didn’t show it.

“I’m truly sorry, Mrs. Watson. If you require a loan, I will personally authorize up to ten thousand dollars immediately.”

Ellen began to calm down. She just wanted the nightmare to end.

“Thank you, Gordon, but I’ll decline for now.”

“If you change your mind, the offer stands.”

* * *

Viktor enjoyed traveling to the west coast of the United States. He rarely got to see such nice and sunny weather. It took him over twenty hours to make the journey, but it was worth it to see the sun.

Len was at work when he received an alert that he had visitors. His security system was configured to track all movement around his home and alert him if someone lingered at the door or if a break-in occurred. Len looked at the security app on this phone, but saw no one. He tapped on the icons in the app to view recorded footage. He saw a man wearing a trenchcoat and a large-brimmed hat. It was a sunny but cool day in Los Angeles, and the person didn’t stay long, so Len dismissed the threat.

Len always worked late into the evenings. He rarely took his work home, because if he did, he would risk the source code getting out. As soon as he finished, he headed home.

Len’s front entrance was obscured by several plants and other vegetation. Remembering the alert, he felt a bit uneasy and briefly examined the app, which assured him that his home was safe. According to the app, all of the locks, doors, and windows were secure.

He entered his home and was relieved to find no one lurking in his living or family room. He turned the light on in the kitchen—and found a man sitting at the head of his dining table. He was tall and had a medium build but was not menacing. He was dressed exactly like the man in his security video.

“The boss wants to see you,” Viktor said as he raised a pistol and shot Len in the neck with a dart. Seconds later, Len was out cold.

Viktor rummaged through Len’s pockets, pulled out his wallet, and removed the driver’s license which verified that his first name was Leonard, surname Stanovich. He removed his smartphone and launched the Collective Systems app. He positioned the driver’s license next to Len’s face so both were visible in one frame. Time to transport the luggage.