Counting from Zero (4 page)

But the best defense against both viruses and worms is to ensure that you run a secure operating system and that you keep up to date with patches and patches.
 
You should also be very careful about every piece of software you install or download onto your computer.
 
You should immediately install every software update and patch that becomes available – many of them fix known security flaws.
 
Myself, I only install software that I have compiled myself and examined the source code.
 
At the very least, you need to make sure that you trust whoever wrote the software, and you fully understand what the software does.
 
Otherwise, you might find your computer compromised...

-> Your question not answered this week?
 
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Chapter 2.

“Thank you everyone for attending this meeting,” the Chairman began.
 
He looked around the room at his team.
 
He had built this company, Cloud 8++, from nothing.
 
The industry had grown up as well, from lone hobbyists, to a cottage industry, to today’s corporations.
 
They had enjoyed a great deal of success and ill-gotten profits over the years, but things were changing.
 
“First, I would like a report on the progress of the new exploit.”

“Everything performed as expected,” was the response from one man.
 
“There was a 100% success rate against targeted web servers.”

“Impressive, but the outage didn’t last very long.
 
You had told us it would take a day or more before the servers came back up again.
 
Did we have enough time to install our software?”

“We did have time to install our software.
 
This particular attack was directed against an open source program that has a large and active community of developers.
 
They mobilized very quickly and had a patch uploaded within four hours of the attack.
 
Web servers began coming up again almost immediately after that.
 
Most servers were patched within twelve hours.”

“Is there anything we can do to prevent this in the future?”

“Our later zero day attacks will be against commercial software, so we won’t need to worry about the open source community.
 
In addition, our consultant has some ideas on how we can fragment and divide the community, slowing their responsiveness in the future.”

“And the silent exploit?” the Chairman asked.

“Also extremely effective, although we do not have exact numbers, yet,” the man hesitated for a moment before continuing.
 
“I did a reverse lookup of the target IP addresses you gave me –”

“You should not have done that!”

“Well, I did.
 
The addresses belong to UBK
corporation
, the government outsourcing company.
 
As far as I know, they do not represent a primary target for us.
 
Why are we using our silent exploit on them?”

“This is not your concern!
 
And you will NOT do this in the future!” the Chairman shouted, pounding the table.

“At least we are ready to move to Phase 2!” the man replied, trying to change the subject.

“No, we are not,” replied the Chairman, startling everyone around the table.
 
They looked around the table, confused.
 
“We will continue testing the attacks.
 
We need to fully understand the response and counter measures for each.”
 
The room was silent for a moment.

“OK, I will say what everyone is thinking – this is crazy!
 
We know the attacks work, and we know there will be a response – so what?
 
Why would we continue testing?”

“This is not a discussion, I am telling you what I have decided.
 
We will continue testing until I say we are ready.”

“Is this a new direction from our
benefactors
?” another man asked, stressing the word.
 
As soon as he said it, everyone in the room knew it to be true.

“Gentlemen, times are changing.
 
You all know the essential role our
benefactors
play in our business.
 
Even with our new command and control infrastructure, we need protection against trace backs and to handle our revenue.
 
Now, everyone must focus on the task at hand.
 
I want regular status reports leading up to the next test.
 
That will be all!”

The Chairman sat alone in the conference room after the others had left.
 
He was not without his concerns, either, but he would never have shared them with his team.
 
He did not hire idiots; soon they would all work out the new plan, and there would be more dissent.
 
But he knew he had no choice – to do otherwise would be even more dangerous.

Mick O'Malley
– feels proud every time he is able to recognize Kanji using pattern matching, e.g. recognizing Tokyo as the TV set with rabbit ears and a wrapped present on a stand.
 
(6 comments)

The next morning, Mick found an intriguing mail in his unauthenticated folder.
 
All of his important mail arrived signed or encrypted using PGP software.
 
His unencrypted and unauthenticated mail tended to be spam or junk mail, messages from slight acquaintances, or clueless introductions (sometimes difficult to discern from spam).
 
In this case, he found an invitation to lunch to discuss a potential new consulting project.
 
The fact that Vince Della of LeydenTech did not bother to sign and encrypt his email to Mick was not good.
 
Even a cursory bit of research on Mick would show what he expected in terms of communication and Internet security when dealing with him.
 
Mick only checked his unencrypted folder today because he expected to hear back from a contact at a large software company in the Northwest of the U.S. whose corporate mandatory-to-use software prevented the use of PGP encryption.
 
Otherwise, the message might have languished for days.

He accepted the invitation and added Vince to his professional network.

Is Vince perhaps a marketing person?

Mick was extremely selective in choosing consulting jobs.
 
He was very open about his selection criteria.
 
He refused to work for the government – any government.
 
He avoided patent and intellectual property work like the plague.
 
He would not deal with anyone who did not meet his standards for ethics and privacy.
 
And finally, the job had to be interesting and challenging.
 
With Gunter’s help, he had been gradually building up his experience, despite his selectivity.

Mick had woken up early, something easy to do while still adjusting to east to west jetlag.
 
As a result, he had 45 minutes to read with Sam on a video link.
 
He sent an invitation to an encrypted video session, which she accepted.

After Sam played a new song on the flute for him, they got back to reading.
 
They each had a copy of the book – an actual,
old fashioned
wood pulp and ink version.
 
Mick read electronic books and papers professionally, but when it came to pleasure, he still preferred the physical medium of paper.
 
They alternated reading pages to each other of
The Two Towers
.
 
The precocious ten-year-old loved her namesake in the story, while Mick most admired the swift and light-footed elf.
 
When they had read a chapter, they relaxed and chatted a bit about the story.

“It is so sad that Saruman turned evil...
 
And Gandalf trusted him, too...” Sam commented.

“I agree
,
Gandalf must have felt terribly betrayed by his friend.”

“Well, sayonara, Alec-san,” she replied very seriously, putting her hands together and bowing low on the screen.
 
Mick laughed and bowed back, logging off.

Down in the lobby, he found Lars relating a story from Tokyo to a small group of people.
 
This time of year, Lars would always seek out the sun any chance he had during the northern hemisphere winter.
 
He could usually be found near a window as he was now.

Lars waved from across the crowded room, but Mick had no difficulty seeing him, as they both towered over the locals.
 
Mick came over.

“Mick, you've been to one of those costume cafés right?” Lars asked.

“You mean maid cafés?
 
With the servers dressed up like cosplay?” Mick replied, using the term used in Nihon for costume play – dressing up in costumes.

“Yeah – I was dying of curiosity, so I went to one yesterday in Akihabara – like a bloody Hooters, which I'm sure you frequent, Mick.”
 
Lars was joking, of course.

“Actually, it’s not – instead of the servers being dressed and acting like girls in ninth grade gym class, they are dressed as nineteenth century maids, and act like they are nine years old...
 
quite creepy actually,” Mick replied.

“You're not wrong!
 
I did learn a few things, including 'Moé Moé Kyun!' Course I don't know what it means...
 
I also got some good reading done there – I'm half way through
Barchester Towers
.”

“You were reading Trollope in a maid café?
 
That is so...” A series of words flipped through Mick’s mind like a high speed train passing by local stations, including pretentious, incongruous, ridiculous, but none conveyed the exact level of appall he was after.
 
In the meantime, Lars continued.

“So much for my cultural exchange efforts.
 
When is the next major release of your software project coming out?” he asked, knowing full well Mick's reaction.

“Lars, I'm working on it!” he replied, taking the bait.
 
"If a few other developers would write some code more often, it would be much sooner,” Mick said pointedly, trying to make Lars feel guilty for his recent lack of participation, but the attempt failed – Lars was already distracted, watching an attractive young woman walk across the room.
 
It was closer to the truth that Lars, rather than Mick, would hang out at Hooters, if they had them in Helsinki.

A little later at the conference, Mick caught sight of Liz just before she spotted him.
 
He knew the instant they locked eyes that it was going to be a long week.

She’s going to want to talk for sure…

It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to her – Mick really liked Liz and enjoyed her company, but he didn’t necessarily want to converse on the same set of topics.
 
She looked like the cheerleader he never dated in high school.
 
Of course, Mick barely went to high school, either.
 
Mick had had some fun together with Liz, and enjoyed her company, but the spark just wasn't there for Mick, and no amount of talking could fix that.

“Mick!” she called out as she approached.
 
He kissed her on the cheek and gave her shoulder a little squeeze.
 
He smiled at her.

“Liz!”

“I just love Nihon – everything is so efficient here,” she continued.
 
Mick always listened closely for the start of a Texas accent in her, but fortunately she had yet to succumb, despite having lived in Dallas for nearly four years.

“Yeah, it's pretty good,”
Mick
agreed.
 
She caught his arm and walked him in the direction she was heading.

“Have you heard the latest from Steel Trap Computing?
 
Ridiculous, I know!” she began as he just listened and walked with her.

After a few sessions, Mick felt that he had the lay of the land for the conference venue.
 
He knew where to get his espressos, where the dead spots in the wireless network were located, and some quiet places for side conversations.

With his lunch approaching, Mick did a little research on LeydenTech, and discovered that not much was publicly available.
 
He sent off a few queries to find out whether it was just privately held or if it did government work.
 
The location just outside of Los Alamos, New Mexico, tended to suggest the latter.
 
It was no surprise to Mick to find that the company was involved in energy storage of some kind.
 
Another tingle made him check his mobile: Vince had left him a
voicemail
message (non-secure calls went straight to voicemail), despite his greeting (recorded about six years ago) that said that he did not check voicemail and asked the caller to use a technology from the current century to reach him.