Home » The Archives » Chapter 5 » Learning to Live in Paradise
| Re: Learning to Live in Paradise [message #1310 is a reply to message #1309] |
Thu, 26 July 2012 19:45   |
artisticrainey
Messages: 1228
Registered: July 2012
Location: Northern Ireland
Karma:
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Field Commander
Switzerland |
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Monday, April 9th, 2068; Tracy Industries D.C. offices
Lena arrived in her office at 7 AM, as usual and went through her usual routine of checking her voice and email messages. She found one from Brains, who sent his email scanner program attached to it. Before she looked at it, though, she composed an email of her own, and sent it to the other I&M supervisors in the states. She asked them to check over the last five years for viruses that were caught bearing a certain signature (which she described to them).
She downloaded the program and began going over it. She'd gotten about a third of the way through it when she heard the team arrive and went out to speak to them.
"I got a call from Mr. Hackenbacker yesterday evening, saying dat a virus had gotten tru his email checks at de Tracy residence. It was caught immediately afterwards when de person who got de email started to work on someting else, and he isolated it. He sent it to me, and I recognized de signature as being de same as dat on two viruses we caught during de time I've been head here." She described the program to them. "Does anyone remember any otter time a similar virus was sent?"
The others looked thoughtful, and one by one, shook their heads. "No, those were the only two times," said one of them.
"Not many viruses get through the checks that are in place, so we would remember any that do," said another.
Lena smiled. "Dat's true enough. I didn't tink so, but I wanted to check wit you all. Okay; let's get to work, den. I'll be in my office until just before 10, when I have anotter meeting to go to. I should be back after lunch." She turned and headed back to her desk.
She called the security department and told them what she wanted to know. The person she spoke to told her they'd have to check into it and get back to her. She asked them to leave a message if she didn't answer, and gave them her extension number. After she hung up, she turned back to her computer and Brains' program.
When she left for the meeting, she still didn't have a way to modify the program to block viruses such as the new one. But she felt that she was on the right track. She had also received answers from three of the other I&M offices around the country. Only the New York office had been sent any viruses like the ones she mentioned to them, so far. They had been hit three times. She was still waiting for an answer from the security department. Hopefully I'll have a message from dem when I get back.
The meeting didn't end until 12:30 and a few of the other department heads suggested they go out to lunch together. Lena agreed; it was a good way to establish and continue a rapport; besides, useful information was sometimes obtained this way. It seemed, though, that she was the one being questioned. Word of her visit to the Tracy home had gotten around, and the others wanted to know what it was like. She had to choose her words carefully, keeping things very general and not revealing the true location of his residence. But she managed to satisfy their curiosity and, when they returned to work, agreed to try to have lunch together more often.
She went to her office and started, as usual, with her voice messages, of which there were only two. One of them was from the security department there, and it wasn't quite what she'd hoped. But it was a start. She saved the message until she could convey the information to Brains.
Then she went to her email, and found more messages from the other I&M departments. She opened them one by one, and found that the Los Angeles, Juneau, and Denver locations had also been hit, each by a single virus with the same signature. She sat back to think.
All but de Honolulu offices have been heard from. But it's, and she did a swift mental calculation, not quite 8AM dere. Dey won't have had time to check, yet. But dat's seven -- no eight -- so far. Someone really wants to get at Tracy Industries information. Interesting, dough, dat de security departments constantly communicate wit each otter. It sure helps.
Her next order of business was to email Brains with the information she'd gotten. She compiled the facts on Notepad, and then opened an email window. It took her a while, but she finally was satisfied that he had as much accurate information as she could give him.
She wrote:
Although it is too early to have heard from the Hawaiian branch, I'm reasonably sure any virus from this person has never hit them. However four others have, for a total of 8 hits, including the ones that were sent to this location. That's in the last five years.
The security departments in the various locations keep in touch with each other regularly, especially about something like this. They confirmed the hits, but were unable to trace them back to their point of origin. It seems that they would get to a certain area, then something would happen and the trail would vanish. That sounds to me like an alarm flag is sounded at the point of origin and whoever is creating these viruses is able to block any further attempts to trace them.
Interestingly enough -- but not surprisingly -- traces of all the hits led to one area in the world, the British Isles. I suspect you have people over there who can take this information and track the perpetrator(s) further. Perhaps the London offices have more information you can use.
I have not had the opportunity to go completely through your program. I am working on it still, and will contact you when I have any suggestions.
Lena
She sent off the email, and turned to help one of her staff members who came to her with a personal problem.
Post by Hobbeth on 29/03/2005
  
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