Similar catastrophic spectacles to Sydney played out across the world. Anything controlled by computers was out of control or off.
Mai woke Anna a little while after she had gotten up and brushed. She had the radio on and was listening to the news. Reports were coming into BBC, via AP, about the devastation across the world.
A firestorm had engulfed the US cities of New York, Atlanta and Detroit. There was no news at all from Singapore, like it had gone dark. Every major city in the world was devastated and most small cities were struggling to contain the fires. “Electric is off.” She reported.
Several small fires had broken out in the Dorm, but were easily taken care of. Everyone had their doors open and people were running up and down the halls, talking or yelling. Anna wondered if this was happening in his wing too.
People were packing up and heading home, which seemed amazing because so much of the infrastructure was inoperable. The few students with cars left immediately, but trains and planes were a no-go. A few students were going to hike all the way home to Germany. It was getting warmer these days, so it actually sounded a bit feasible.
With all the havoc, no one was going to come knocking on the door, so Anna figured he was safe for the moment. Even leaving school now wouldn’t raise eyebrows, because most of the students were leaving too. He decided to head south.
“Mai, lets go see Budapest.” he asked her.
“No, we have class to do, I can’t.” she sputtered. She turned and walked back to the kitchenette to make more tea.
Anna went to the window and pointed towards the center of campus and said “It’s all on fire Mai, there won’t be classes for a long time.” Several buildings were engulfed in flame.
She looked over her shoulder and nodded. Turning back to the tea, she thought about the idea. She had never been to Budapest. Without looking, she asked him, “No problems there? You know?”
“No, I don’t know, but it’s an old city and won’t burn up like the big cities.” He hoped he was right.
She flashed an unconvinced look over her shoulder. “I don’t know too.”
As he grabbed his coat and turned to the door he told her “I am getting my stuff together, I will stop back in a little bit.” He left her.
Back in his Dorm, things were about the same as in Mai’s. He went to his room and packed up everything he figured he needed in his backpack and a carry bag. He stopped by the common room and used his stash of change to buy as many cracker and cheese packs as possible from the vending machines.
Anna headed back to Mai’s room, but she was gone. “What the hell?” he muttered. He sat on the edge of the bed and waited for a few minutes. Looking around the room he noted her coat and shoes were gone. Maybe she had headed over to my room and I missed her?
Anna headed downstairs and out the door. He stood in between the two Dorms and called out for Mai. He noted a few rooms still had smoke filtering out of the windows. A girl jogging past him told him to shut the hell up, which he did. He stood there for some time, baffled. I have to go now.
Anna strode towards the main campus gate and didn’t look back. He traversed the shortcut path quickly and left the campus through the main gate. On the streets, accidents were all over and some cars and trucks were on fire. He walked towards 5 Kvetna, the main road towards Hungary. He passed several petrol stations where people were in fist fights over something. With the power out, they can’t get fuel.
As Anna passed a shop he looked in the window and saw Mai inside at the register. He stopped and waited for her to come out.
As she exited the store she spotted Anna and walked over to him, awkwardly carrying a case of bottled water. “We needed these.” She smiled.
Anna was stunned for a minute and then smiled too. They divided up the water and filled their backpacks and coat pockets with bottles. Together they silently walked towards the highway, which was packed with stopped cars. Staying off the road, but near it, they passed the Subway Services Station to their left. It was deserted. They headed south east.
Mai and Anna started their life together that day, inseparable and in a new world. They had never been more secure.
“Day Zero” is a term given to a computer virus attack that was not foreseen or the result of a known vulnerability. There have been many of these in the past and more are coming.
Showing posts with label Day Zero. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Day Zero. Show all posts
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Day Zero, Part 5
Jan came back from the shop to find her Laptop on the table, billowing smoke. The fumes choked her, so she went to the window and opened it. She dropped the bag of groceries in a chair and unplugged the machine, swishing her hand in the air and covering her mouth with the other. The building’s fire alarm went off and she headed out, towards the fire escape.
Other people were funneling into the hall too and everyone smelled smoke. Behind her in the hall she heard shouts and saw flame coming from a room farther down the hall. She joined the line and began the trek down the stairs, “Nine floors to go.” She thought.
As they went down, the smoke got thicker and shouts from above got louder, it became panicked screaming as she passed the 5th floor. Some people were fully dressed and others were in varying states of undress. The fully naked, still wet man would have normally made her blush, but Jan just followed him trying to not look down at his ass. She almost laughed at the sight.
At the lower floors, the added traffic in the stairway slowed their pace to a step every few seconds. Above them, the screaming and panic was full fledged. At least a few people were losing it up there. She looked up and through the fog could just barely see flames above her.
A second later someone falling sailed downward, hitting the hand rail she was holding on to. The woman’s hard heel shoe smashed into Jan’s hand and separated two of her fingers from the palm. The pain was immense and Jan dropped for a few seconds, watching the body tumble till it hit the bottom. She pulled herself up when she started feeling feet step on her to get over.
She looked at her hurt left hand and tried not to scream, but started crying. She continued the march down the last few floors. She figured she was in shock, because she couldn’t feel her injury at all as she passed the body of the falling woman, sprawled on the floor in front of the building exit. Everyone had to step over the twisted body at the bottom to get outside.
As she entered the afternoon sunlight, she looked up at the same Sydney skyline she had seen a half hour before, but it was different now. Looking up towards King Street and up Pitt Street, the buildings were alight. She looked around at ground level and noticed all of the traffic was stopped. The traffic lights were out and accidents filled all of the intersections. Sirens blared, but no one could move.
People were panicking and driving on sidewalks and through the parks, in the process striking pedestrians. Jan looked up at her own building and saw someone jump from a smoking window on the top floor. She closed her eyes, but heard the splat. She kept moving away from the building and headed toward Hyde Park.
After 20 minutes of flailing in the throng of people, she made it to Archibald Fountain, where she cleaned the blood off her smashed hand and did her best to compress the stubs of her missing fingers to try to stop the bleeding. She felt tired as she sat down, leaning against the fountain wall. She was bleeding badly. The last thing she saw was the MLC Centre collapsing in a cloud of dust.
Other people were funneling into the hall too and everyone smelled smoke. Behind her in the hall she heard shouts and saw flame coming from a room farther down the hall. She joined the line and began the trek down the stairs, “Nine floors to go.” She thought.
As they went down, the smoke got thicker and shouts from above got louder, it became panicked screaming as she passed the 5th floor. Some people were fully dressed and others were in varying states of undress. The fully naked, still wet man would have normally made her blush, but Jan just followed him trying to not look down at his ass. She almost laughed at the sight.
At the lower floors, the added traffic in the stairway slowed their pace to a step every few seconds. Above them, the screaming and panic was full fledged. At least a few people were losing it up there. She looked up and through the fog could just barely see flames above her.
A second later someone falling sailed downward, hitting the hand rail she was holding on to. The woman’s hard heel shoe smashed into Jan’s hand and separated two of her fingers from the palm. The pain was immense and Jan dropped for a few seconds, watching the body tumble till it hit the bottom. She pulled herself up when she started feeling feet step on her to get over.
She looked at her hurt left hand and tried not to scream, but started crying. She continued the march down the last few floors. She figured she was in shock, because she couldn’t feel her injury at all as she passed the body of the falling woman, sprawled on the floor in front of the building exit. Everyone had to step over the twisted body at the bottom to get outside.
As she entered the afternoon sunlight, she looked up at the same Sydney skyline she had seen a half hour before, but it was different now. Looking up towards King Street and up Pitt Street, the buildings were alight. She looked around at ground level and noticed all of the traffic was stopped. The traffic lights were out and accidents filled all of the intersections. Sirens blared, but no one could move.
People were panicking and driving on sidewalks and through the parks, in the process striking pedestrians. Jan looked up at her own building and saw someone jump from a smoking window on the top floor. She closed her eyes, but heard the splat. She kept moving away from the building and headed toward Hyde Park.
After 20 minutes of flailing in the throng of people, she made it to Archibald Fountain, where she cleaned the blood off her smashed hand and did her best to compress the stubs of her missing fingers to try to stop the bleeding. She felt tired as she sat down, leaning against the fountain wall. She was bleeding badly. The last thing she saw was the MLC Centre collapsing in a cloud of dust.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Day Zero, Part 4
The CAIC bulletin was issued Saturday at 1PM EST, as a “low risk” issue, because it didn’t seem to be exploited. Most agencies and companies didn’t react because of that over the weekend and they didn’t have HP computers.
A Security consultant to another large computer manufacturer in the US called several people from work to see if they felt this bulletin warranted immediate investigation. No one felt it was worth pulling people into the office over.
The Japan Computer Security Research Association took note of the strange network traffic and began analysis immediately. They noted that this attack was successful at penetrating their computer’s security defenses, but did nothing because it did nothing obvious. It looked like only a probe.
Jan sat in front of her Laptop in the spare room of her Apartment, when she noticed a momentary system hang, but it stopped after a few seconds. She continued tapping out her blog for the night, praising the show she had seen at the Sydney Opera house that evening.
Several Russian hacker groups noted the intrusion and started a meager engineering effort, but it didn’t put any priority to it. The nature of the attack modified the code in the BIOS and didn’t effect the Operating Systems, so nobody took notice, even if they did identify the intrusion.
Anna was not enjoying the Pub they had chosen after the movie, it got too loud when a local band started their first set of the night. Both he and Mai agreed that the movie was horrible and laughed when they aped some of the dialogue, in character.
They only stayed for one drink and headed back to school. On the Bus ride Anna checked the time and realized there was just 10 hours to go. He became preoccupied with the coming event and got real quiet. Mai noticed his quick change in behavior.
“What is wrong?” she asked and leaned in close to him.
The Bus went over a speed bump and jogged Anna back to the moment. “Nothing” he said, “Just thinking about the future and where will we be a year from now.”
“Better places, but this now is good too” She said, smiling. It was the kind of smile that wanted a smile in turn, which Anna did. “We are almost there.” And she stood, reaching for his hand.
Anna took her hand and pulled himself upright using the stainless steel pole, next to him. She wrapped her arm into his as usual, and they exited the Bus once it stopped. When they got to the Dorm, Mai surprised Anna and told him, “Go to Fire Exit on opposite side.” And went inside the building.
Anna walked around the exterior of the Dorm and found Mai waiting at the Fire Exit. They went inside and up to her room on the 3rd floor. She kissed him and whispered “Just kissing” as she set the key and opened the door. Anna understood what that meant and was not bothered at all as he stepped inside.
The room was unremarkable, no posters or decorations at all, just very clean and tidy. Mai went over to the entry closet and motioned to Anna to follow. She took off her coat and took Anna’s too, hanging both neatly, flattening out each with her hands. She smiled and walked over to the bed and sat.
Anna followed her and rested beside her. She reached up and stroked his cheek, looking straight into his eyes. “Let’s have today and not care for tomorrow.” She tapped his cheek in a motherly way and kissed him.
They reclined then hugged and lay on their sides facing each other. Anna put his hand on Mai’s back and held her against him softly as they kissed more. He began to get physically excited and didn’t want to get overwhelmed. He released his grip on her midsection and drew a line down her nose with his finger. “Just kissing”, he said. They both giggled.
In whispers, they talked a little longer until Mai fell asleep and Anna stayed still spooning her when she turned over, dreaming. He thought about tomorrow and the day after, until he fell asleep too. He dreamt that he was with his mother, father and brother again.
A Security consultant to another large computer manufacturer in the US called several people from work to see if they felt this bulletin warranted immediate investigation. No one felt it was worth pulling people into the office over.
The Japan Computer Security Research Association took note of the strange network traffic and began analysis immediately. They noted that this attack was successful at penetrating their computer’s security defenses, but did nothing because it did nothing obvious. It looked like only a probe.
Jan sat in front of her Laptop in the spare room of her Apartment, when she noticed a momentary system hang, but it stopped after a few seconds. She continued tapping out her blog for the night, praising the show she had seen at the Sydney Opera house that evening.
Several Russian hacker groups noted the intrusion and started a meager engineering effort, but it didn’t put any priority to it. The nature of the attack modified the code in the BIOS and didn’t effect the Operating Systems, so nobody took notice, even if they did identify the intrusion.
Anna was not enjoying the Pub they had chosen after the movie, it got too loud when a local band started their first set of the night. Both he and Mai agreed that the movie was horrible and laughed when they aped some of the dialogue, in character.
They only stayed for one drink and headed back to school. On the Bus ride Anna checked the time and realized there was just 10 hours to go. He became preoccupied with the coming event and got real quiet. Mai noticed his quick change in behavior.
“What is wrong?” she asked and leaned in close to him.
The Bus went over a speed bump and jogged Anna back to the moment. “Nothing” he said, “Just thinking about the future and where will we be a year from now.”
“Better places, but this now is good too” She said, smiling. It was the kind of smile that wanted a smile in turn, which Anna did. “We are almost there.” And she stood, reaching for his hand.
Anna took her hand and pulled himself upright using the stainless steel pole, next to him. She wrapped her arm into his as usual, and they exited the Bus once it stopped. When they got to the Dorm, Mai surprised Anna and told him, “Go to Fire Exit on opposite side.” And went inside the building.
Anna walked around the exterior of the Dorm and found Mai waiting at the Fire Exit. They went inside and up to her room on the 3rd floor. She kissed him and whispered “Just kissing” as she set the key and opened the door. Anna understood what that meant and was not bothered at all as he stepped inside.
The room was unremarkable, no posters or decorations at all, just very clean and tidy. Mai went over to the entry closet and motioned to Anna to follow. She took off her coat and took Anna’s too, hanging both neatly, flattening out each with her hands. She smiled and walked over to the bed and sat.
Anna followed her and rested beside her. She reached up and stroked his cheek, looking straight into his eyes. “Let’s have today and not care for tomorrow.” She tapped his cheek in a motherly way and kissed him.
They reclined then hugged and lay on their sides facing each other. Anna put his hand on Mai’s back and held her against him softly as they kissed more. He began to get physically excited and didn’t want to get overwhelmed. He released his grip on her midsection and drew a line down her nose with his finger. “Just kissing”, he said. They both giggled.
In whispers, they talked a little longer until Mai fell asleep and Anna stayed still spooning her when she turned over, dreaming. He thought about tomorrow and the day after, until he fell asleep too. He dreamt that he was with his mother, father and brother again.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Day Zero, Part 3
Watching Mai enter the dorm, Anna shook his head to clear it. He went to his dorm and worked a little on the virus. His plan was to trigger it this coming Sunday, Easter.
He removed the code to ping his own computer and decided to make it a random lesser number of infected computers that would actually burn. The others infected would just destroy the hard drive and most likely not result in fire. He also modified the code to just print the one page and have the infected systems use one GMT time no matter where they were located. Everything would happen at about the same time, everywhere.
He scrapped the option he had to wake up computers that were turned off, so they could join in the fun. This was going to be more than enough to get his point across without that. Lastly, he lifted the governor that had restricted the spread of the virus.
He figured it would take a day or two to spread globally, so he decided to plant it at a local coffee shop that also had wireless access, this coming Thursday. On that afternoon he went in alone, stayed to himself and using his flash drive, planted the virus on one of the computers owned by the shop. Most people brought their own systems, but he didn’t have a Laptop.
From the one machine, it reached out to any 10 computers it could connect to and pass on the virus. Those computers then reached out to only 10 other uninfected computers and did the same (computers already infected didn’t count). This reduced the risk of someone noticing a major surge in activity on their system. The virus stopped trying to attack other systems after, 5 minutes.
Twenty minutes later over a million computers were quietly infected and sat waiting for Sunday. That number continued to grow as Anna finished his coffee and left the shop.
Several EU internet providers took note of the strange traffic, but ignored it because it died off so fast. They didn’t even try to analyze the data.
Mai and Anna had both been busy that week with class work and only talked a few times. He asked her if they could go out Saturday and she said yes. He planned on an early dinner, then a movie and a few drinks at the pub after. Anna didn’t drink much, but he was fine with sipping a few brews.
They met Saturday, late in the afternoon and walked down the path to catch the bus. Mai looked radiant and was very bubbly. They stopped to kiss several times on the mostly secluded path. Again she held his arm, as if to bind them together.
At dinner (different joint) Mai told Anna about her family and the Indian tradition of arranged marriages. Her parents were killed on their way home, in a terrorist train bombing in Mumbai in 2006. Her Aunt had arranged for her to come to Prague to finish her school and to get her away from that situation. She has been on her own here, except for financial aid. The arranged marriage she has was cancelled.
She asked Anna about his family and he explained the accident in Chernobyl that had slowly killed his mother and left his father a babbling mass of flesh, back in 1986. He was just a baby then. He was eventually taken to America where he finished middle and high school. He learned English and appreciated the opportunities he had there. Anna had not seen his older brother, who had not joined him in America, but talked to his Uncle a little. His father had died in 1988, but Anna didn’t find out until he was 10 years old and first met his Uncle.
After America he bounced around several British schools and wound up in Prague on a computer science scholarship. He was a star pupil here, but kept a low profile. He wrote custom code for the school and helped to manage the network to earn spending cash.
Anna noted that they had a lot in common, but not many good things and Mai did about the same. They changed the subject and talked about music and their teachers. Mai did a funny impression of her Physics professor that made Anna spit out his wine, some running out his nose.
Professor Maelick had a minor aneurism that left him twitchy and in less than full control of his left arm. It turned out that Anna worked closely with him, on the Campus Network and knew him well. They laughed a lot, but Mai felt bad when she found out about the Aneurism.
“He jokes about it himself and if you got to know him more you might like him.” Anna told her.
Mai looked at him curiously and said “So I should take dinner with him?” And laughed.
Anna grabbed her arms as he pulled her towards him, across the small table, her face close to his. She looked up after a few seconds, still giggling and he could only kiss her.
She pulled away after a second and whispered “Not so much here with people.”
Anna felt hurt for a second, but understood after he thought about it. They left the restaurant and went to the theater up the street. It was not too crowded at all and Anna paid for the tickets. They went into the theater hoping for the best and cuddled together through the movie.
At this same time, Hewlett Packard contacted the US Department Of Energy’s Computer Incident Advisory Capability (CAIC) about a vulnerability it had identified in their BIOS. This was the result of backwards engineering the attack Anna had created.
He removed the code to ping his own computer and decided to make it a random lesser number of infected computers that would actually burn. The others infected would just destroy the hard drive and most likely not result in fire. He also modified the code to just print the one page and have the infected systems use one GMT time no matter where they were located. Everything would happen at about the same time, everywhere.
He scrapped the option he had to wake up computers that were turned off, so they could join in the fun. This was going to be more than enough to get his point across without that. Lastly, he lifted the governor that had restricted the spread of the virus.
He figured it would take a day or two to spread globally, so he decided to plant it at a local coffee shop that also had wireless access, this coming Thursday. On that afternoon he went in alone, stayed to himself and using his flash drive, planted the virus on one of the computers owned by the shop. Most people brought their own systems, but he didn’t have a Laptop.
From the one machine, it reached out to any 10 computers it could connect to and pass on the virus. Those computers then reached out to only 10 other uninfected computers and did the same (computers already infected didn’t count). This reduced the risk of someone noticing a major surge in activity on their system. The virus stopped trying to attack other systems after, 5 minutes.
Twenty minutes later over a million computers were quietly infected and sat waiting for Sunday. That number continued to grow as Anna finished his coffee and left the shop.
Several EU internet providers took note of the strange traffic, but ignored it because it died off so fast. They didn’t even try to analyze the data.
Mai and Anna had both been busy that week with class work and only talked a few times. He asked her if they could go out Saturday and she said yes. He planned on an early dinner, then a movie and a few drinks at the pub after. Anna didn’t drink much, but he was fine with sipping a few brews.
They met Saturday, late in the afternoon and walked down the path to catch the bus. Mai looked radiant and was very bubbly. They stopped to kiss several times on the mostly secluded path. Again she held his arm, as if to bind them together.
At dinner (different joint) Mai told Anna about her family and the Indian tradition of arranged marriages. Her parents were killed on their way home, in a terrorist train bombing in Mumbai in 2006. Her Aunt had arranged for her to come to Prague to finish her school and to get her away from that situation. She has been on her own here, except for financial aid. The arranged marriage she has was cancelled.
She asked Anna about his family and he explained the accident in Chernobyl that had slowly killed his mother and left his father a babbling mass of flesh, back in 1986. He was just a baby then. He was eventually taken to America where he finished middle and high school. He learned English and appreciated the opportunities he had there. Anna had not seen his older brother, who had not joined him in America, but talked to his Uncle a little. His father had died in 1988, but Anna didn’t find out until he was 10 years old and first met his Uncle.
After America he bounced around several British schools and wound up in Prague on a computer science scholarship. He was a star pupil here, but kept a low profile. He wrote custom code for the school and helped to manage the network to earn spending cash.
Anna noted that they had a lot in common, but not many good things and Mai did about the same. They changed the subject and talked about music and their teachers. Mai did a funny impression of her Physics professor that made Anna spit out his wine, some running out his nose.
Professor Maelick had a minor aneurism that left him twitchy and in less than full control of his left arm. It turned out that Anna worked closely with him, on the Campus Network and knew him well. They laughed a lot, but Mai felt bad when she found out about the Aneurism.
“He jokes about it himself and if you got to know him more you might like him.” Anna told her.
Mai looked at him curiously and said “So I should take dinner with him?” And laughed.
Anna grabbed her arms as he pulled her towards him, across the small table, her face close to his. She looked up after a few seconds, still giggling and he could only kiss her.
She pulled away after a second and whispered “Not so much here with people.”
Anna felt hurt for a second, but understood after he thought about it. They left the restaurant and went to the theater up the street. It was not too crowded at all and Anna paid for the tickets. They went into the theater hoping for the best and cuddled together through the movie.
At this same time, Hewlett Packard contacted the US Department Of Energy’s Computer Incident Advisory Capability (CAIC) about a vulnerability it had identified in their BIOS. This was the result of backwards engineering the attack Anna had created.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Day Zero, Part 2
He stepped away from the building and looked up at the floors above his ground floor room. There was fire licking the window sill of two rooms a few floors up and smoke coming from three others too. This was only one side of the oblique building too, so this had to be a success.
The dorm didn’t burn to the ground, which was good for Anna as he sat cross legged on the lawn eating his breakfast. His hope was that all evidence of the attack was destroyed in the fires.
He didn’t notice the girl watching him from over his left shoulder. Several students were crying around him, because they knew their rooms had been engulfed. The fact that the Campus had its own Fire Brigade had certainly helped save the building.
Anna was approached by Mai a little later when he was sitting on the ground reading, some distance from the dorm. She sat next to him on the grass and introduced herself; “I am Mai” she said.
Anna didn’t reply, but took in her very pretty brown skinned round face and jet black long and braided hair. He smiled and said “Hi”. He looked back to his book, feigning calmness. Thinking to himself, “That has to be the prettiest girl I ever spoke too.“
“Were you in the fires?” she asked.
He looked back at her. Anna closed the book and said “No, nothing of mine was burned, I think.”
Mai smiled and said “Good to you and me.” She looked Indian.
He smiled back, she was being very cute and was hard to ignore. They talked for a while until they had the signal that they were allowed back into the dorm. She had never brought up the fires again during the rest of the time they had spent talking.
Classes started as normal following the weekend and Anna ran into Mai several times that Monday. He had never noticed her before, but now she was the only person on Campus that he could pick out of a crowd.
Anna was among a throng of students interviewed that week by the Foreign Police. Since Anna was not a citizen, his interview went longer, like the other non-Czech students. It was nothing violent, but he had a definite feeling that these Police didn’t like him or any expatriate.
Mai cornered Anna on Tuesday and they agreed to meet the following night for dinner after classes. Mai took him to a restaurant that was a short bus ride from Campus. He didn’t get out much, but whenever he got away from Campus he always commented on how beautiful Prague was. He had only been here for 4 months.
The dinner was good and the chatting was fine, mostly about the fires and what investigators had found out so far. That they were all caused by a computer and they were almost all different styles of system.
Mai took his arm as they waited for the bus to head back to town. Anna was almost having trouble believing this gorgeous girl liked him. He decided then that he would kiss her good night when they parted.
The bus dropped them at the front entrance to Campus. It was about a 10 minute walk to the dorm. They talked more and she held his arm as they snaked up the shortcut path. The dorm was built in 3 wings, one for women and two men and after 9PM, they had to keep to their own sides. It was 10:15 now.
When they got to her dorm she spun, leaned up and with a grin planted a kiss on Anna. He had to fight the surprise and reflex to pull back, because he was in the mindset that he was going to kiss her. After a moment, the surprise passed and smiled back at her as they separated.
She said “Good night, fun!” turned and went inside.
The dorm didn’t burn to the ground, which was good for Anna as he sat cross legged on the lawn eating his breakfast. His hope was that all evidence of the attack was destroyed in the fires.
He didn’t notice the girl watching him from over his left shoulder. Several students were crying around him, because they knew their rooms had been engulfed. The fact that the Campus had its own Fire Brigade had certainly helped save the building.
Anna was approached by Mai a little later when he was sitting on the ground reading, some distance from the dorm. She sat next to him on the grass and introduced herself; “I am Mai” she said.
Anna didn’t reply, but took in her very pretty brown skinned round face and jet black long and braided hair. He smiled and said “Hi”. He looked back to his book, feigning calmness. Thinking to himself, “That has to be the prettiest girl I ever spoke too.“
“Were you in the fires?” she asked.
He looked back at her. Anna closed the book and said “No, nothing of mine was burned, I think.”
Mai smiled and said “Good to you and me.” She looked Indian.
He smiled back, she was being very cute and was hard to ignore. They talked for a while until they had the signal that they were allowed back into the dorm. She had never brought up the fires again during the rest of the time they had spent talking.
Classes started as normal following the weekend and Anna ran into Mai several times that Monday. He had never noticed her before, but now she was the only person on Campus that he could pick out of a crowd.
Anna was among a throng of students interviewed that week by the Foreign Police. Since Anna was not a citizen, his interview went longer, like the other non-Czech students. It was nothing violent, but he had a definite feeling that these Police didn’t like him or any expatriate.
Mai cornered Anna on Tuesday and they agreed to meet the following night for dinner after classes. Mai took him to a restaurant that was a short bus ride from Campus. He didn’t get out much, but whenever he got away from Campus he always commented on how beautiful Prague was. He had only been here for 4 months.
The dinner was good and the chatting was fine, mostly about the fires and what investigators had found out so far. That they were all caused by a computer and they were almost all different styles of system.
Mai took his arm as they waited for the bus to head back to town. Anna was almost having trouble believing this gorgeous girl liked him. He decided then that he would kiss her good night when they parted.
The bus dropped them at the front entrance to Campus. It was about a 10 minute walk to the dorm. They talked more and she held his arm as they snaked up the shortcut path. The dorm was built in 3 wings, one for women and two men and after 9PM, they had to keep to their own sides. It was 10:15 now.
When they got to her dorm she spun, leaned up and with a grin planted a kiss on Anna. He had to fight the surprise and reflex to pull back, because he was in the mindset that he was going to kiss her. After a moment, the surprise passed and smiled back at her as they separated.
She said “Good night, fun!” turned and went inside.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
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.
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.
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