Home » The Archives » Chapter 5 » Learning to Live in Paradise
| Re: Learning to Live in Paradise [message #1306 is a reply to message #1305] |
Thu, 26 July 2012 19:43   |
artisticrainey
Messages: 1228
Registered: July 2012
Location: Northern Ireland
Karma:
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Field Commander
Switzerland |
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Sunday, April 8th, 8 PM DST; Silver Springs, Maryland (April 9th, noon, on TI)
Lena had just said goodbye to her grandson, David, and his family when she heard a phone ring. It took her a minute to identify it as the secure line from Tracy Island, and she hurried into her home office to answer it. As she suspected, it was Brains.
"Lena, are you alone?" he said, sidestepping the formalities.
"Yes. My grandson and his family just left. What's wrong?"
"A virus got in through an email to Tin-Tin, bypassing all my virus scans. Although it is a benign one, it could have compromised International Rescue's anonymity, if it is what I suspect it to be."
"What would dat be?" she asked, intrigued. Brains' virus scans were the most stringent she'd seen.
"I'd rather show you its program and have you make your own judgment. See if it concurs with mine. I've managed to isolate it so I can send it to you without it harming your system."
"All right." She turned her computer on and readied it for the transmission. "Go ahead; I'm up and running. Or ratter, my computer is."
Brains smiled at her choice of words and said, "Sending now."
Within moments, the transmission had completed. Lena isolated it with her own program (not that she didn't trust Brains' isolation, but one couldn't be too careful, especially when it affected something as important as International Rescue), then opened it. She started to do a quick scan, but something caught her eye and she scrolled back. A few seconds later, she gasped. "Brains, whoever sent dis could have found out about International Rescue!"
"Exactly. But unless they already knew, I don't think that's what they were after. It's more likely they want Tracy Industries secrets."
"Industrial espionage? Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Any company, even one half as successful as dis one is, is subject to..." She stopped suddenly as she noticed something else.
"Lena? What is it?"
"Hold on. Someting looks familiar..." She kept scrolling and studying the virus program. "Someting about dis looks very familiar. Wait! Now I remember."
"Tell me."
"Since I've been de head of de D.C. I&M department, two similar viruses have nearly made it into de computer systems dere. Now, you know as well as I do dat programmers have dere own unique styles, like writers. You know, signatures. Whoever wrote dis program also created dose otters."
"Do you know who?"
Lena sat back, thinking. "No. Our department isolated de viruses, which were fortunately discovered almost immediately, found how dey got in, and sent dem to de security department to trace deir origins. I don't know what happened after dat."
"You're sure this was created by the same person?"
De signatures are de same. I wouldn't forget dat. It's part of my job not to. But you said it was sent to Tin-Tin. Do you know who sent it?"
I haven't told her yet, and I don't want to until I have more evidence. It was attached to an email from Giles Tallman, a man she met when she was in Kabul recently. There seems to be some mild flirtation going on between them."
"Ah. Den dat's why you haven't told her. But maybe you can enlist her help anyway."
"How, without telling her?"
"Does she know anyting about dis?"
"Well, yes, since it was when she began working in the lab on the computer that we caught it. Wait a minute. You want her to bait whoever did this?"
"Sort of. Dis person apparently hasn't been caught yet. So I suggest you isolate de virus to one computer, and have her use dat for innocuous work, or come up wit a phony formula dat looks real, to buy time so dis can be traced to its exact point of origin."
Brains sighed. It seemed that no matter how many people there were to help him, his workload seemed to grow and expand. "How would you isolate something like this to one computer?"
She smiled. "You work too hard. De last time we talked, it was Sunday morning dere. Did you work all day?"
"Oh, no. I took a long break and puttered around."
"Puttered around? Doing what?"
"I have a robot I created. Braman. Hopefully, I'll get his response times down. I'm also teaching him chess and we played a few games. He'll one day be able to replace people in Thunderbird 5, in case of problems or if there's a special event that requires all humans to be here. In fact, he has been tested up there successfully - on a limited basis."
Lena shook her head. Even his recreational time often seemed to be geared toward providing IR with better tools. But she didn't tell him that; instead she reminded him how to isolate the virus, putting it on one computer and keeping it from spreading. She heard the chagrin in his voice, as he realized that he should have thought of it, himself.
"Look," she said, "I'll check wit security tomorrow morning, and let you know what dey found. You take care of de isolation and getting Tin-Tin to help. Maybe dis time, we can catch whomever is doing dis."
"Okay. But email me as soon as you know anything, and flag it as a priority message. We need to take care of this as soon as possible. I need to see if I can find a way to keep this kind of virus from getting through." He sighed. "As if I didn't have enough to keep me busy."
"Hello, Brains. Didn't Mr. Tracy ask me to be an agent to help you wit computer upgrades and de like?"
"Of course! What is the matter with me? Lena, would you mind?"
"Don't be ridiculous, young man. That's what I'm here for. I'll need you to send me de program for your current virus scans. I'll see where dey can be altered to include dis type of ting."
"I have it on a CD. I'll have to locate it and send it to you later."
"Dat's fine. Now, don't you go losing sleep checking your email every few minutes for my message. I promise you, dere won't be anyting from me before noon my time tomorrow, and more likely later dan dat. Dat would be -- let me see -- 4 AM your time, or later. In fact, I tink I'll check wit de otter I&M departments to see if dey have had anyting like dis happen to dem in de last few years. I'd be surprised if dey hadn't, especially de New York office. So don't expect anyting before 6 AM tomorrow, your time at de earliest."
"Okay, Lena. I promise to get a good night's sleep tonight. Now I have to find that CD with the virus scan program on it. I'll be in touch."
"Dat's fine, Brains. Goodbye." As Lena hung up, her thoughts were spinning. To quiet them, she looked closer at the virus program. Poor Tin-Tin. A young girl as pretty and intelligent as she is shouldn't be subject to dis kind of ting. Whoever dis Giles Tallman person is had better watch his back. Dere are several people who would want to get back at him for dis. He'd better watch his back.
Post by Hobbeth on 24/03/2005
  
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