Counting from Zero (11 page)

“Will do,” Mick replied, and went back to talking to Sam for a little while longer.

After the video call, Mick felt better, but all day he still found it difficult to concentrate on the work at LeydenTech, but he did anyway.
 
He tried not to think about his own security compromise until the end of the day.
 
Back in his room, he started to carefully examine his own server logs for signs of how someone had stolen his private key.
 
He didn’t find very much, but what little he did find convinced him that his server compromise was linked to the LeydenTech compromise.
 
His own spambot was eerily similar to the one here at LeydenTech.

Now with two examples of the spambot software, he sent both to Kateryna and asked her if she could help.

He heard back from her a few hours later:

Hey Mick,

Hope the weather is good for you in NM.
 
It has been a few years since I visited, but I recall some great archaeological sites, including some amazing petroglyphs near ABQ.

I still can't comprehend your key compromise - you are the most careful person I know.
 
Someone must really have it out for you to do this to you.
 
Do you have any idea who?

I don't know what to tell you about the spambot - I'm not an expert in this area, but we do have a few guys in the office who are.
 
I'll make some unofficial inquiries and let you know what I find out.

So, I have a question for you: if you were born in England to Irish parents, grew up in London then moved to New York, why do you have such a generic American accent?
 
I thought perhaps it was just
me
but I asked a couple of Americans who knew you and they agreed that there is very little evidence of your heritage in your accent.
 
I only have to open my mouth and say one word and everyone knows I'm from somewhere else (even in Romania today as my accent and vernacular are out of date).
 
What is your secret?
 
;-)

Regards,

Kat

------BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

ObykTa4b/eD04V+4+xcgoZmS/9Ef7p

qWVcd2m3iXMwlJenGmxoS9K0pwYO3v

vcetJs032
/4dajPEq/AK8VJUzcKbF4

v4RS
/5n22R8Rh7RWByBJlVMNbuaOGX

zHln0oi3tLZNhMiJXaB8ri8VMTOStK

-------END PGP SIGNATURE------

Mick smiled self-consciously and fired off a quick response.
 
In truth, what accent he had depended on who he was talking to.
 
Talking to his relatives in England and Ireland, he would slip into a light Irish accent.
 
With his school friends, he seemed to be from New York.
 
The only accent he had never really picked up was from the town of his birth, London.
 
It didn't worry him, as in England, accent is used as a class indicator, and any kind of English accent would have made him categorizable, something he tried to avoid.
 
He didn't love everything about America, but he did love that one’s class had nothing to do with accent or birth.

The next few days in Los Alamos passed without incident as he continued the investigation.
 
He received a reply from Kateryna.

Mick,

You know, something strange came up during our investigations into that piece of spamware you sent.
 
It looks like it is from a new codebase - our guys have never seen it before.
 
The spam pattern was also strange - they said it was almost random.
 
That is odd because spammers usually stick with established routes that have worked well in the past.
 
They think that this spamware has a very low success rate as a result.
 
You'd think that a new piece of software would be better than the old ones, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

Oh, and the second app you sent, it is virtually the same as the first one - definitely written by the same people.

I'll keep you posted.
 
Be careful riding that bike of yours...
 
if I'm going to see you in two weeks in Vegas, you need to stay in one piece.

Regards,

Kat

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE------

h8rYbiC2eK6qDXL43TCP8jRQiK
+Ou7

YIgoZ+y+O/cjT7/dMImEvea8KwLzOg

7KFb3c3XPSsKmjieKlwjFcK4Om2tsd

QcijL+HynXNiFMItRF2yqu8ppdJ2kL

Uz7Sld6EErDdLAtAE56C2bhOF1G+qK

------END PGP SIGNATURE-------

The second application or app he had sent Kateryna was the spamware from LeydenTech.
 
The first was the one from
his own
server.
 
Saying they came from the same codebase meant they were the work of the same set of programmers or came from the same company.

Mick could feel himself getting closer to the truth.

Chapter B.

From the
Security and Other Lies
Blog:

I've read that open source software is more secure then commercial software.
 
Is this true?
 
raptors4ever

I love this question!
 
:-) Let me start with a good definition of open source software.
 
Software is the instructions that tell a computer what to do.
 
When a computer is turned on, it starts running software, known as the ‘operating system’ or OS.
 
When you start a program such as a web browser, an editor, or a mail program, you are running software.
 
When you use your mobile phone, you are using software.
 
The actual instructions interpreted by the CPU in a computer are known as machine language, binary files, just binaries (named after the binary format they are stored in), or executable code (since the CPU executes it).
 
If we look at them, we just see a bunch of numbers - it is very difficult to figure out what is happening unless you are a computer.

Source code is a human-friendly way of representing computer instructions.
 
Computer programmers or software developers create and write source code, then that source code is turned into the executable code using a piece of software known as a compiler.
 
Source code is written in different computer languages.
 
They really are languages in that they have vocabulary, syntax, and grammar, and allow one to express ideas and make a computer do what you want it to.
 
Whew! That was a bit long, but hopefully now we're all on the same page.

Normally, when you buy or install computer software, you are using the binary or executable code.
 
You can't actually see what the computer is doing just by looking at it - you can only observe it by running it and seeing what happens.
 
Much of computer software is closed source - that is, the source code is kept a secret.
 
Only people working for the company that created or owns the source code are able to inspect and fix the code.

Open source is the opposite - the source code is freely available for anyone to inspect and examine - usually published on the Internet.
 
In fact, open source is considered 'free' software, sometimes explained as 'free as in speech, not as in beer'.
 
That means that companies can charge money for open source software, but they can't keep the source code secret.
 
Just as free speech allows anyone to express his or her opinion and add to a discussion, anyone can take an open source program, modify it and change it.
 
Only, per the terms of the open source license, they must also publish the changes and alterations they made to the software.

Now, having secret source code might sound great when it comes to software security.
 
After all, bad guys can't look through the code and find the weak points and places where they can try to crash or take over the computer.
 
While it is possible to ‘reverse engineer’ some binaries to get an idea of the source code, the legality of doing this on closed source software is not clear, so only the bad guys do it.
 
Any sufficiently complex piece of software (and today’s software is hugely complex) will have weaknesses and bugs, and bad guys will find them, by trial and error if nothing else.
 
When found, they can then launch attacks using it.

Once these attacks are launched and security experts analyze them, the software will need to be fixed or patched.
 
But only people working at that company can do this, as only they can see and change the source code.
 
Everyone using the software is vulnerable until they fix the bug.
 
Sometimes this can take weeks or even months!

Now, let’s compare this to open source.
 
In an open source project, many programmers and software engineers are able to look over the code.
 
Security researchers from all over the world are able to search for vulnerabilities and possible attacks.
 
When they are found, any programmer can write and upload a patch to fix it.
 
With more eyes on the code, more bugs and potential attacks are found before the bad guys can find them.
 
When an attack happens, open source programmers will immediately analyze the attack and anyone can write the patch and fix it.
 
As a result, in many cases, security holes can be closed more quickly with open source than with closed source software.

The open source software movement is a closely-knit community on the Internet today, encompassing both volunteers and companies.
 
I am proud to be a part of it.

So, you can make up your mind, raptors4ever, which is more secure: closed source or open source?
 
You can probably guess where I stand on this...

-> Your question not answered this week?
 
Argue for your vote on the Shameless Plugging area of our discussion forum.

Chapter C.

Mick O'Malley
– greatly appreciates his friends standing by him over the past few days.
 
He can't put into words what it means to him.
 
And rest assured, he
will
find out who is responsible for this! (19 comments)