Matt had agreed to make contact with Adriana. His first attempt was obviously to check social media. Unfortunately, like many of the engineering kids she was not posting updates of all the cool parties she was attending. Her posts were infrequent and reserved. He got a picture of someone a bit shy and careful. He guessed her parents had managed to convince her that anything she posted would prevent her from getting a job in the future.
It occurred to Matt that beyond basic social skills, he wasn’t really good at this detective/espionage stuff. Still, he had a rather powerful resource in Glitch_HR. He searched for “Private Investigator” with the usual filters of someone cheap and local. There were a few people who matched the criteria. A guy named Tony Zimmerman seemed to have a skill rating in the top 5 million people worldwide. Even more impressive was his experience level in the top 2 million. How did a college student get ranked so high? Did this guy solve mysteries when he was in high school like those cheesy television shows that Matt enjoyed?
Matt called him up. “Hello, Tony? Sorry to bother you and this might sound a bit strange…I’m wondering if I can hire you for a bit of investigative work.”
“My caller ID says this is Matthew Stanton. I’m not sure how you got my name, but I might be able to help you. Why don’t you tell me what you are trying to find out.”
“Oh great! This is kind of embarrassing, but I’m trying to meet up with a girl named Adriana Foster. Ideally, I would not have to follow her around like a creepy stalker, but I want to invite her to a party some of my friends are having so I would have an excuse to talk to her. I have her number and address, but I don’t think she wants a random guy she doesn’t know calling her.”
Another stalker, Tony Zimmerman thought to himself. His real name was Vasek Golovko, and he was currently under a lot of pressure to find the identity of an American hacker who was causing his organization a lot of trouble. He didn’t know the details, but he had been given an IP address and told that whoever initiated the hack was very skilled and likely extremely dangerous. He had tracked the IP to a large prison-like dormitory but had not been able to narrow it down further due to a surprising secure military grade firewall.
Regardless, he was stuck right now and he had standing orders to take these stalker jobs. Often they would end badly with trespassing, assault or even just highly embarrassing behavior. They were excellent sources of blackmail. His organization had a large network of assets like this who they could manipulate. They could get these people to take jobs in sensitive companies and run programs to get their spying software past many defenses.
“Ah, young love! A job like this is pretty easy for me. I would be happy to help you. Let me get the information you have, and I’ll do an initial investigation for $50. This is usually sufficient to get you her class schedule and typical places she eats or hangs out after class. If you need more help than this, we can discuss after I get the initial information.”
Matt was impressed. He had a bit more money than his friend Scott due to some scholarships and his parents chipped in a bit of spending money. That seemed pretty cheap for all the time it would save him.
----------------------------------------
Barry had been busy the past couple weeks. The information he had found in the Glitch_HR training was world changing. He couldn’t believe how many futuristic technologies were out there that were just missing a few pieces. The problem was information and communication - due to secrecy or simply the anti-social nature of scientists and engineers, they were just not able to share the work needed. Instead, they stumbled along trying to solve everything themselves.
Now if Barry was a Saint, he would anonymously introduce some of these people to each other and stand back while the world was transformed by these brilliant scientists. Instead, Barry was scheming how he could make himself wildly rich and famous. He would happily share some crumbs with the people responsible. Likely it was more than they would get struggling in anonymity with unfinished projects. They would likely even be grateful if he handled it correctly.
Barry realized that waiting on Scott and Matt to start up a company was going to be too slow. What he needed was a lab and some materials to run some tests. The University had labs and materials like this. Usually this stuff was used by professors and graduate students, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him.
So Barry approached one of his professors during office hours. He usually didn’t do this because his grades were pretty good. He never needed special tutoring or begging to get his grades up. Dr. Springer had taught one of his Freshman classes. Barry liked him because his class was more interesting than most.
“Hi Professor - I noticed you had office hours today. Do you mind if we talk for a bit?”
“Hello Barry. I remember you were one of my best students last year, but I didn’t think you were in any of my classes now. How can I help you?” Dr. Springer asked, kindly.
“Oh thanks. This might sound a bit weird, but I have some experiments I want to run and need a bit of help finding a lab and materials to use. I mean, this is a school, so I figured there might be a way students could test out ideas they have.” Barry said, somewhat awkwardly.
“Huh… that is interesting. You would be surprised how rare it is that students have any interest in learning more than the bare minimum needed to pass their courses. We encourage students to do projects their Junior and Senior year, but I can’t remember someone wanting to try something like that in their free time. I’m not sure we really have anything set up, but I can look into it.” Dr. Springer replied.
Barry handed over a 4 page document he had been working on.
“So, I wrote up the experiment I wanted to try including the materials and how much they would cost. I linked a couple articles explaining some related experiments that looked promising, but I think it is important that I can duplicate some of their work to make sure the project is feasible. I’d really appreciate it if you looked it over. I think I can probably come up with the money for some of these initial experiments, but I can’t afford a place to work or some of the lab equipment. If you could take a look, that would be great!” Barry blurted this out, speaking a little too fast.
Dr. Springer chuckled. “I see this is pretty important to you. Would you mind hanging out for a few minutes while I read through this?”
“Thank you professor! I would be happy to wait around.” While Dr. Springer started reading through the notes, Barry decided he might as well read another article on Glitch_HR. He had found a promising lead on how he might be able to store the energy from his fusion cells in ultra-capacitors so that they could handle more variable power demand. This would add a few hundred dollars to the cost, but he thought it was worth it for robotics applications.
Dr Springer was looking at his computer and mumbling to himself. About 15 minutes later he seemed to be getting excited.
“Barry, I haven’t finished reading through your proposal but this seems very exciting! I have no idea how you found this research and put it all together, but the potential applications are staggering…”
“I was pretty excited about it too, but I’m glad to hear you don’t think it’s complete garbage. My friends and I are hoping we might someday start a company based on this if it works.” Barry said with a grin.
“Well I don’t know much about starting a company, but I can see how this research would be incredibly valuable. I appreciate you trusting me enough to share this Barry. I think the potential value and your plan to start a company indicates we shouldn’t try to go through the typical grant program to get funding for further research.” Dr. Springer was starting to talk as fast as Barry had earlier. He continued.
“Simply amazing… I don’t even think we would need a huge budget to test some of the foundational work and build a proof of concept. Maybe 20-30 thousand dollars not counting lab time. Would you be willing to partner with me if I could provide the funding and lab access?”
Barry smiled. “I think that is a possibility. Do you mind if I speak with my partners about how much equity they are willing to share? My friends contributed to getting this going, so I need to ask them. I don’t think they will be willing to give up a controlling interest in this.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“I wouldn’t dream of trying to take this over from you.” Dr. Springer declared, looking a little offended. “You are obviously the driving force behind this. I just hope my contributions can help you succeed. I was thinking of a 10% stake for my contribution. How exciting to get in at the start of something like this!”
“We’ll let you know soon.”
Barry was practically skipping with glee after leaving the professor's office. 10% seemed pretty fair - he would have accepted a higher percent, but this would get him up and running fast. Also he respected Dr. Springer and it would be amazing to have someone like that working with him. Barry called Scott and conferenced in Matt. “So, I talked to my professor about getting some lab time. I probably should have asked you guys first but it worked out really well. He wants to help and will provide funding, lab time and his help for 10%. We might even talk him down to a lower stake, but I think he was more than fair. It would be great to have someone like that working with us.”
“That’s awesome!” Scott said. “I’ll ask Melinda today, but I think you should go for it. Since this is your company, you don’t really need to ask us but I appreciate it.”
“Dude, none of this happens without your software. I think the three of us should have a stake in the companies, but maybe the main person gets a bigger share so they are motivated to focus on that. Also we can compete to see who makes the most billions!”
“I like it!” said Matt. “How about we split 50/25/25 whatever is left after we give a share to whoever funds it. Melinda is CEO until she appoints someone else so she can get her 10,000 shares per year. I’m OK with her plan to grant shares to anyone who contributes over time. That way, ownership eventually will be shared with the people who help build the company.”
“Nice, Barry has taken an early lead. I guess the rest of us need to try to catch up.”
“That’s not going to happen.” Barry laughed. “I’m just getting started.”
----------------------------------------
Feeling the excitement of Barry’s success, Scott motivated himself to send an email to Solomon Rhodes, an inmate at the Big Spring prison who was supposed to be his IT security director.
Scott’s first attempt:
Greetings!
My name is Scott Henderson and I learned about you through a job search database. I understand you are currently incarcerated, but I am willing to overlook this if you are interested in talking about a job. This is completely legitimate and not any kind of criminal activity.
Ugh, that sounded really sketchy. He was already going to get put on some government watch list by contacting this guy. That email sounded like he was recruiting him for a heist! How was he supposed to recruit a guy in prison without it looking like he was planning criminal activity?
Second attempt:
Greetings!
My name is Scott Henderson, and I am a student at Horace Mango university. I am doing a project and thought I could get extra credit for getting a famous hacker to give me some insight. If you are available, I would love to talk to you.
Hah! That was much better. Making it sound like he was doing a school project sounded plausible and the FBI could confirm he really was a student and taking a Security class. They might still keep an eye on him, but it was a legitimate excuse to talk to Solomon. Plus, he had added some flattery to hopefully convince Solomon to reply.
He went back to some more training exercises. A few minutes later he received a reply.
Hello Scott Henderson,
I’m mildly impressed you found my contact information. Maybe I should expect to see you as a future resident of Big Spring in the near future! Just kidding - I like to mess with the government agents reading my emails. Anyway, I’d love to talk to you. This is hardly even a real prison - I have internet access and a cell phone! Anyway, give me a call - anything we talk about will be recorded, but if we need privacy, we’ll have to arrange time with a lawyer.
Regards, Solomon Rhodes
Well, that was kind of easy. Scott thought about what he could share assuming government agents were listening. He knew he couldn’t share too many details about Glitch_HR, but he could at least have a non-specific conversation with Solomon. He seemed nice enough and maybe he could provide some general advice. He called the number Solomon had shared.
“Hi Solomon, this is Scott Henderson.”
“Hey, nice to hear from someone on the outside. A lot of my old friends ghosted me once the guys in the black van dragged me away.” Solomon said with a sigh.
“So, before we get to work… I was kind of curious about why you are in prison. I understand it’s something hacking related, but it seems really weird they would let you keep internet access.”
“It’s kind of a funny story. I am kind of a hacker. I used to work on corporate security - protecting them from espionage or malware, but to be good at that job you need to understand how people will try to attack your systems. Anyway, some of the best organizations at this are government sponsored. They understand the biggest vulnerability in any system is the people who use it.” Solomon explained.
“So, did you expose some kind of government operation or something?” Scott asked.
“Fortunately not. I think they would have responded much more harshly for something like that. Anyway, I had this idea that I was never going to have the resources or flexible morality required to truly be effective at hacking. So instead, I decided to hack a Russian operation that is quite successful at this sort of thing.” Solomon said, sounding pleased with himself.
“Wouldn’t something like that have good security?” Scott asked.
“You would think. Actually, they steal so much content from so many sources it is relatively easy to hide a worm or virus in something they are stealing. It took a few tries, but I eventually got access to their systems.” Solomon continued. “Once I was in, it was a treasure trove of corporate secrets and blackmail information. You would hardly believe all the illegal stuff our politicians and business leaders are up to.”
“I have a pretty negative view of politicians, so I might not be too surprised”. Scott replied.
“Yeah, that makes sense. Anway, I had no interest in using any of that information. My mistake was I made a comment on a social media site that made a politician nervous that I knew too much. They locked me up for lying to the FBI. A totally bogus charge. They use it to keep people in jail who they want to discredit or to pressure them into giving information. It’s better than the alternative of getting killed which they might do in other countries. In case my handlers are listening, the politicians here NEVER would do that..”
“Right… so I was going to ask you about internet security for my project. Can you give me some advice?”
Scott gave Solomon a general description. He had a high value program that performed extensive searches of the internet and aggregated the data. He asked how to secure something like that.
“That is a challenge for sure. Anything that pulls data from a wide range of sources will be exposed to a lot of malicious content. You also mentioned it was running on the cloud. I’m curious if you are using a virtual private network and what kind of virus scanning you are using on the search results. What quarantine/isolation procedures are you using on the incoming data? How are you protecting your personal computer which presumably has security keys for accessing this system?” Solomon rattled off a few questions. Scott was getting seriously worried.
“Um, I may have to get back to you on that. Let’s just say I probably need to do a lot more work before I am ready to call my system secured.” Scott said nervously.
“Hrmm, it’s too bad you can’t visit in person with a laptop. I could probably show you how to set up most of that pretty quickly if the Warden gave you permission to visit me for a couple hours.” Solomon said.
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask. I’m pretty scared I’m going to fail my class if I don’t get some expert help.” Scott replied. “Well, thanks for your time and offer to help. I’ll let you know if I am able to arrange a visit.”
Scott settled his nerves and contacted the Warden of Big Spring. After introducing himself he asked if it was possible to visit prisoners and what rules he would need to follow. He mentioned he wanted to visit Solomon and get some help on a school project.
“Hah, I’d be careful letting that guy access your computer, “ Warden Davis laughed.
“I’m aware of the risk, but I don’t really have any money to steal and if I fail my class, I’m in big trouble.” Scott didn’t have to try hard to sound pathetic.
“Oh, I’m just kidding. He’s a nice guy. He’s helped me fix some issues on my computer before. If you ask me, I think they should be locking up some of those politicians instead of people like Solomon.”
“Oh, I’m surprised to hear you are so sympathetic.”
“Heh, I’m not going to let him free or anything. Still, there is no reason to assume all prisoners are scum. Sure some of them are, but there are a few here who I would have no trouble with letting them babysit my kids.”
“So does that mean you would let me visit Solomon and bring a laptop?” Scott asked, shocked it would be this easy.
“Yeah, lots of lawyers bring in laptops. It’s not against the rules except for certain prisoners flagged for denied computer access. Obviously, you can’t bring in any weapons or drugs and we are required to hold onto your wallet when you go inside. You can’t bring in cash, food or cigarettes. I’ll send you a list of other things you are not allowed to bring.”
Scott would make the long drive that weekend. He once again wondered if the recommendations from Glitch_HR were worth all this trouble.