Marcus Sienna was the deputy director of the FBI's cyber command of the eastern United States. Janice, his secretary, was the gatekeeper for everything related to the deputy director. John was always polite and respectful of Janice's time. This kindness had gone a long way when John needed to see the deputy director on an emergency basis. Janice had been known to make agents wait a very long time before seeing the deputy director. She would prioritize the director's schedule, even if it was empty, to make an offending agent wait as long as possible.
“The deputy director will see you now, Agent Appleton,” Janice said.
“Thank you, Janice.”
“Have a seat,” barked the deputy director. “What news do you have for us in Eastern Europe?”
The deputy director, also known as the DD, was often short-tempered with direct reports. He didn't have anything to report, so John felt a little better going into his office with some actionable news.
“I have a new lead on The Collective, Sir,” John said.
“Go on.”
“I was able to intercept an encoded message using one of the network taps that we have in place,” John said. “We have them installed at several cybercafés in several suspected cities The Collective operates in. This one was in a coffee bar in Minsk.”
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“What was in the message?”
“I haven't had time to decode the message, Sir. I got the alert as I was commuting in. I was able to determine the encoding mechanism.”
When the DD said nothing, John took that as a sign to continue. “The message tripped the alert because of metadata inside the message header. A person on a watchlist sent a message to known members of The Collective. We get these all the time, but usually the message is encrypted. This time, the message was encoded with the ROT-13 algorithm, which is significantly easier to crack than standard asynchronous encryption.”
“English, please!” barked the DD.
“Think of it this way. Asynchronous encryption is similar to a lockbox at a bus station. You put quarters in (your private key), then you take the key (public facing) out of the lockbox when you have enough quarters. When you have the key, you can unlock the locker to reveal the contents at any time.”
“Can’t you just pick the lock?”
“Yes, you can pick the lock, and you may get lucky and unlock it within the first few minutes. However, usually it takes a very long time to do this,” John said. “Even with lockpicks. Or, you can break the lock with a hammer, but then you risk damaging what is protected, as well as drawing unwanted attention to yourself.”
After several long moments, the deputy director motioned for John to continue.
“Encoding is better for us because the lock is not as strong. It’s like a lock that protects a jewelry box. One strong tug and it’s open,” John said.
“This is all very interesting, Agent Appleton, but we need a solid lead. You shouldn't have wasted my time with this preliminary information,” the DD scolded. “Is there anything else?”
“No, Sir.”
“Then you better get back to it. The director has been on my ass, and we need a solid lead to move the investigation forward. Otherwise, we are going to shut you down.”
“Give me a week, Sir. You will have your leads.”
John left the office with an uneasy feeling in his stomach.