Hardwired
English Danny?
Meaning the names L
Or their binary compliments
Are written into the code
It’s a challenge and reply system
Compared against a truth set
If the set is external
An internal script
Finds the set in another file
And loads it from there
If the file isn’t available
It returns an error
Typically ‘File not found’
Sometimes with the file name
But if it is hardwired
The truth set or its compliment
Are stored within the same file
Usually in the front of the file
Or with jumps to the truth set
Located in the front of the file
Same place most viruses live
Liamsi?
I’m looking Daniel
But it could take some time
So what you’re saying Danny
Is that it’s the proof
That’s in the pudding?
Something like that L
And you couldn’t just say that?
(Daniel just looks at Lydia)
Ok team, decision time
We need a network connection
To make our little program happy
Do we give it one or not?
What are you thinking Daniel?
I think it’s a risk Phillip
Letting this application loose
On the internet?
It could call its friends
And that’s a risk
So in the interest of Science
And more importantly time
Are we code studiers
Or chance takers?
Can you cloak an IP Daniel?
We can cloak part of it Liamsi
But not all of it
And even if we do
The signature fingerprint
Will lead right back to us
And except for Phillip here
Math professors
Don’t cloak IP addresses
Computer departments do
And we can’t claim coincidence
Because the odds of ingress
And eridugga
Being accidentally entered anywhere
Much less on the same line
Are completely ridiculous
19001
Randall you should make
The call
After all it is your project
My call?
Thanks Phillip
Ok then
I say we go for it
Lydia?
I wouldn’t
Daniel?
No way I’d do it
Liamsi?
Worst idea ever
It seems we have a consensus
But Randall’s made the call
Oh I see, ok then
You guys are
(Randall pauses)
You know what?
Never mind
(Flushed, Randall smiles)
(Everyone else laughs
then Daniel speaks)
Don’t worry Randall
We’re not laughing with you
We’re laughing near you
19002
Online ingress
Daniel enters the file name
online with three variables
< ingress eridugga kish shirpurla >
‘Network access initiated’
Authentication - failed
97.74 .215.168
National Security Agency
Access granted
21.1.171.99
российский Интернет
Access granted
111.0.120.441
Yuèguò Chángchéng
Access granted
Get off!
Write the IPs
And get off Daniel!
Get off now!
Liamsi?
Pull the plug Daniel
I mean it!
It’s a hoax?
It’s no hoax Daniel
It’s NSA!
Trap the IP’s
Close it close it
Shut it down!
Ok Liamsi
We’re closing
We’re down
We’re good
Liamsi?
(Liamsi looks like he saw a ghost)
More than ten seconds is crazy!
It wasn’t fast enough
This is not ok
19003
Daniel what just happened?
(Daniel can’t stop laughing)
We just pulled the lions whiskers!
Three lions
(still laughing)
We just went someplace
You don’t go ever
Liamsi saw it first
We need to back up files
And leave
This is insane
It’s not funny Daniel!
(Liamsi tries not to laugh)
People aren’t heard from
We can’t do it!
What did we do?
(Daniel’s still laughing)
It sucks being you Randall
I can’t believe it!
Daniel
What did we just do?
We set fire to a bag of excrement
On the doorstep
Of three major world powers
Then we banged on the door
And ran away!
I can die now
What am I saying?
I’ll probably die now
My life is complete!
Stow the backups Daniel
This project’s over!
It’s alright Liamsi
It’s not alright
We’re done for
Anyone got priors?
Why were they together?
They’ll be here soon Daniel
You can ask them
Talk to me Liamsi
What just happened?
I’m sorry Randall
We just hacked three sites
United States, Russia and China
Get it?
No authorization
No security clearance
No invitation
It’s not alright
They get all up for this
They live for it
They spend months
Trapping practice traffic
And then someone like us
Does something stupid like this
For them it’s a dream come true
For us it’s prison at least
Right now hackers at NSA
And probably Russia and China
Are looking for us
They’re good Randall
They’re really good
They’ll find us
It’s just a matter of time
We’ve got minutes
Maybe hours
If we broke fast enough
If they have to scrub the tapes
Otherwise minutes
19004
We’re unplugged right?
They can’t find us
Right Liamsi?
We had five seconds to get off
It took us ten Randall
Twice as long
Which means one of two things
Either no one knew we were there
Or someone did and if we’re lucky
They’ll only want to question us
Liamsi wait
What if we shut down and leave?
Randall listen to me
You don’t run from these people
I used to be one
If they’re coming they’re coming
And no budget cut can help us
We had access
To three government networks
That don’t talk to each other
It’s like a red phone network
The existence of such a network
And our hacking into it?
They could end us
Ok Liamsi the files are backed up
Now we wait
Wait for what Daniel?
A knock at the door Randall
We wait for a knock at the door
And if it comes
It’s all over
Could we erase the drives?
No Randall
Scrubbing the drives
Removes any reasonable doubt
At this point it’s better
To claim ignorance
And beg for mercy
Besides, they’ll probably notice
The fourteen tons of punch cards
And transfer equipment
Tucked under Liamsi’s mattress
19005
Mathematical data files
Hey guys?
I’m getting a lot of math data
All different kinds
Constellation variables
Tectonic shifts
Seismic parameters
Including Plate shift and
Compression
Diurnal variance tables and influence
Differential calculus equivalents
Numerical pairing
And arrays with no explanation
Some definite patterns
But I don’t recognize the discipline
What’s diurnal Phillip?
Influences Randall
Effects of the moon and the tide
On the tectonic plates for example
That’s called diurnal movement
Oddly enough
It’s much of the math one might use
If they desired to balance the planet
(Phillip smiles)
And it says all rights reserved
Copyright 1985 ‘The Civil’
Very funny Phillip
It would seem our math professor
Has quite a sense of humor
Glad you could appreciate
Miss Lydia
19006
All quiet
On the Western front
Except for a three alarm fire
Protocol is a code
Of military etiquette
And preamble is
The introductory part
Of that code
Ingress is a military application
Employing a preamble
Within its protocol
A unique handshake sequence
Gray matter inspiration
Of one Mr. Stewart Kim
Network security designer
Data applications engineer
Working alone in a lab
That doesn’t exist
As far as anyone knows
In his spare time
Mr. Kim
Assembles intricate structures
From wooden toothpicks
19007
Mr. Kim’s ‘handshake’
Was a blind contribution
He wouldn’t know how or where
It would ultimately be used
Applications engineers
Working in top secret labs
Carefully managed
Independently brilliant
They work alone in a cubicle
Without knowledge of the work
In the adjacent cubicle
Of course Mr. Kim’s cubicle
Is an engineering lab
Each individual design
Becomes part of a puzzle
Assembled by someone else
Who retains no knowledge
Of discrete parts
A puzzle builder
Much like a film editor
The days of understanding
An application start to finish
Left long ago
Those days barely existed
In government work
Mr. Kim’s ‘handshake’
Was essentially a magic key
That unlocks a single lock
In different ways
Depending on how it’s used
The concept is difficult to visualize
When viewed as a single lock
Or a simple door
Imagine an elevator
Operating within several floors
Choose the correct button
For your desired floor
Arrive as expected
Push the wrong button
You arrive at security
This is helpful if you wish
To access a global network
From any computer
In the case of Ingress
The correct handshake
Includes the IP address
Of the initiating computer
Before the passwords
Omitting the IP address
Pushes the wrong button
Arriving at security
Of each network
But Mr. Kim’s ‘handshake’
Does much more than that
Because before you arrive
It maps a complete path
Back to you
You become a priority task
Of a collection operator
In a cage somewhere
Five seconds isn’t necessary
To find you
Nicely done Mr. Kim!
Someone
Pushed the wrong button
19008
Undisclosed
Office of National Security Agency
IT Security Management
Ma’am?
We just picked this up
It seems we have some visitors
Within in our jurisdiction?
For you
(Folder marked TSSCI - eyes only)
MIT?
MIT, yes ma’am
Assign it
Get me names and records
On everyone at the location
Past six months
All activities, deliveries
Who what where when and why
My authority
Anything in anything out
Anything, anything
I want it
Let’s just see what we’ve got
Yes ma’am
19009
It’s not right
Liamsi?
You’re right Daniel
Those three networks together?
They shouldn’t be
It’s not right
Yeah?
We need a trace route?
Yes
Not on the same machine
True that
What do you think L?
I think you’re both right
They’ll know us soon enough
If they don’t already
Lydia?
Do you think we’re going to prison?
I don’t know, Randall
Maybe
If we survive what comes first
What comes first?
She means torture Randall
That would make sense
They’ll want to know everything
What we know and who we know
Who else might know
We’d better get our stories straight
Everyone prepare to say ‘ouch’
Not funny Phillip!
I wasn’t actually joking, Miss Lydia
We’re in it pretty deep here
And we don’t even know what ‘it’ is
In any event, Daniel’s right
We should blame Liamsi
He’s from California
And he ran the cards
(Phillip smiles)
Don’t blame me!
It’s Randall’s project, blame him
He can tell them it was the Civil
Oh yeah right!
Where’s the love now?
They probably are the Civil Liamsi
(Lydia interrupts)
Yes Danny but do they know that?
(everyone laughs)
Guess we’ll find out soon enough
What’s a trace trout?
What?
(Daniel laughs)
You said run a trace trout?
(Daniel smiles)
Oh that’s simple Randall
We release a trout in the toilet
To see if it’s a viable escape route
For when the feds show up?
(Randall realizes he’s said
something wrong)
Now if you meant a trace route
Well that’s something very different
(Randall smiles too)
Ok fine, I get it
What’s a trace trout?
Trace route!
We open a command prompt
(Daniel sees Randall is lost)
A DOS box?
(still nothing)
Ok forget the DOS box
We open up a little black screen
On the computer
Then we enter network addresses
The ones we saved from before
We will be looking for clues
To tell us how we accessed NSA
The Russians and Chinese
On one network
But this time
We won’t actually access them
We just want to see where they live
Because it was a little crazy
That our program accessed them
You think it’s a good idea D
To go back so soon?
Oh no Lydia
It is a horrible idea
But like you said
They’re going to know about us
It couldn’t hurt to know
A little more about them
Tracing the network route
Might be the safest way to do that
So we wait it out a day
And give them a new target
A different computer
Which might dilute their search
Anyone with a weak stomach
Might want to sit it out tomorrow
But I have to tell you
You can’t hide from what’s coming
And the one that’s not here
Is easiest to blame
Tomorrow then
Say 9 o’clock?
9 O’clock!
Very funny L
19010
Red target
What do we have?
Working in the lab ma’am
A total of six individuals
Two department heads
Mathematics and Computer Science
A Dr. Phillip Robert Sanders for math
Dr. Daniel Aaron Roth for computer
Lab assistant Mark Curtis Teals
Self-employed data recovery expert
Liamsi Malles from California
Prior service SIGINT collection
And he’s an A-list computer hack
Who’s service?
Ours ma’am, INSCOM
Both here and overseas
Hmm
Dr. Lydia Erin Carnegie
Geophysics and Geodesy
She was a colleague of
Dr. Daniel Aaron Roth
Also Dr. Allen Charles Phepps
And Dr. Jonathan Edward Warbel
Phepps and Warbel died recently
Dr. Phepps was a resident scientist
At Oxford University, his discipline
Oceanic and Atmospheric studies
And we have
Mr. Randall Taylor Sparks
A freelance reporter
For the Daily Sun Chronicle
In Attleboro, Massachusetts
Mr. Sparks and Dr. Carnegie
Recently visited Oxford
Where Dr. Phepps worked
Mr. Sparks has a fiancée
A Miss Susan Eileen Fisher
Who joined him in England
The couple lodged in Abingdon
She purchased books
Both there and in London
They stayed on a week
After Dr. Carnegie came back
Nothing significant, tourists
UK purchase history provided
Courtesy of British Intelligence
Card access records at MIT
Indicate no presence of Miss Fisher
No closed-circuit video records
We’re not sure how she’s involved
But we’ve got a trace on her
And then there’s this
A shipping invoice for $3,580.00
For 14 tons of research material
Billed to a ‘Sparks data punch’
Signed for by Dr. Roth
Sparks data punch
Our Mr. Sparks?
It would seem so ma’am
And Mr. Malles is assigned
To the same project
As for Mr. Sparks
According to hospital records at
Intra-Care Behavioral Health Center
In Houston, Texas
He was the sole visitor of one
Dr. Jonathan Warbel
Up to the time of his death
Dr. Carnegie’s Warbel?
Yes ma’am
Seems Carnegie and Sparks
Aren’t too healthy to be around
Mr. Sparks wrote an article
About Dr. Warbel
For the Daily Sun Chronicle
A copy’s in the file
And
Yes?
NSA has an interview file on Sparks
For some piece he wrote about time
Ethan Stearns was assigned to it
It seems our mister Sparks
Is a busy and resourceful man
To have scientists working for him
I don’t believe it for a second
You want us to pick them up?
Yes, but not yet
This is a Red priority target now
Task continuous, post lead analysts
Call Homeland for impact warrants
Tell FISA whatever you must
My authority and tell them it’s Red
Trap everything coming and going
Phones, credit cards and banking
Communications, wideband scrub
Cloak activities
We don’t want to spook them
They hacked our Ghost network
My instinct is they’ll come back
We’ll be waiting
Draw them in at one time
And secure the perimeter
This is the script to use
(she scribbles a brief outline)
Assign someone from the cage
And Miss Fisher?
Yes, pick her up too
Same time as the others
But question her separately
Yes ma’am
19011