Day Zero, Part 1

From the Author;

If you think this couldn’t happen, you are fooling yourself. I have personally watched the computer evolution since the 1970s. I have seen the gaping holes in functionality and security. I have watched them be exploited first hand.

I watched in amazement as entire databases were saved to floppy disks with no backup and then accidentally destroyed or corrupted. I saw people’s professional lives devastated because a hard drive died. Personal lives too. I experienced an entire Institute at NIH become paralyzed because a virus was trying to log into a single PC with everyone’s login ID (snagged from a Domain Controller) and in the process locked out all 2400+ network accounts. It did it over and over until I heard about the virus, Domain Controller and finally noodled out what was happening. I was given no recognition, shocker.

I personally think it’s just a matter of time before a devastating attack designed by “professionals” is set loose. This depiction is from an amateur. For convenience, I call this attack a “virus”, even though it is technically a worm. Feel free to look up any terms you don’t understand, I didn’t “dumb this down” too much.

Day Zero

Anna sat up, squinting at the morning light coming through the window. He took a deep breath and swung out of his twin bed and stood up. He wobbled for a second while orienting himself and blinking a few more times to clear his eyes. It was Saturday.

As consciousness set in he became aware of the day and the mission ahead. His adrenalin kicked in and he was wide awake in five more seconds. His mind was buzzing now, with all the possibilities of the day.

The virus was not complicated at all. It uses a very basic BIOS vulnerability in almost all computers wired to the net, to bypass the operating system and simply take over (he tested this on Mac, PC and Unix boxes already, without the payload). It then shuts down the main and CPU cooling fans and speeds up the hard drive RPM to whatever the maximum setting is. Next, the now over-clocked CPU is told to calculate pi to the last and also print out every help file on the system, after printing “”SECURE YOURSELVES” on a single sheet. The overheat sensors are all disabled.

He had limited the virus to the subnet just inside his dormitory. He walked over to his computer to check the time and he had 15 minutes. He disabled the virus, shut down his computer and covered it with a garbage bag. He had the evidence that 23 computers in the one dorm were infected, but had no way to tell how many were currently on. Anna had every infected computer ‘ping’ his own IP address with an odd file size, which he had monitored with free software. Any that were off at exactly 9AM would be spared and the virus would disappear when they were next turned on.

He started making breakfast, toast and fried eggs. Shortly after the coffee was ready, the building’s fire alarm went off. He put on his robe, grabbed his mug, a book and headed down the hall to the emergency exit with his egg sandwich. His blonde hair was still skewed from sleep when he met the crowd of students forming outside.