Virus by J. E. Stock

Author:J. E. Stock [Stocke, Joseph E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781664178960
Publisher: Xlibris US
Published: 2021-07-14T04:00:00+00:00

11

The South China Sea

Commander Dawson receives a message requesting an explanation for his actions. Clearly frustrated, he says, “Tell them I’m doing my job; I’m defending Americans and American interests.”

A short while later Dawson receives another message. He says to the exec, “I’ve been relieved; you’re in charge.”

“I fully support you, so they’re going to have to relieve me also.”

“No, this is all on me. Especially now, we need as many good men as possible in leadership positions.”

The exec understands and shakes his head in agreement.

Washington DC

It is morning, and Bobby is eating some cereal while he is working on his computer. Jennifer awakens. She walks over to Bobby and greets him, “Hard at work already.”

“The early hacker gets the password.”

“That looks good; I think I’ll have some.” Jennifer gets some cereal also and sits next to Bobby. “So what are you trying to do?”

“I’m just doing a little prepping to infiltrate the spooks.”

“And how are you planning to do that?”

“Remember the SolarWinds hack?”

“Of course, but they’ve had years to clean up their systems.”

“They cleaned what they could find, and the hackers left plenty of obvious things for them to deal with, but that was all to divert attention away from the real long-term strategy of putting in place deeply hidden backdoors, which they can use anytime they choose to access the most sensitive and secure systems.”

“But wasn’t that a Russian government-run operation? Why would they give access to you?”

“They wouldn’t, but hackers are naturally a bit devious and often looking to make a buck, or millions of bucks.”

“So how would you find them? How much would it cost?”

“Finding them is not too difficult; you’ve obviously heard about the dark web. But negotiating a deal with them is a bit more challenging; they want a lot of money, which I have, plus confidence that their backdoor won’t be compromised or resold.”

“But they’re not just out there advertising on the dark web for anyone to see.”

“You are correct.” Bobby points at his screen. “To access the dark web, I use the Onion browser; it’s still the best Tor-powered browser.” The dark web pops up on Bobby’s screen, and he copies a URL into the browser. “I got this from one of my contacts; that’s what I was doing earlier.”

A website pops up on his screen, offering computer security services. There are numerous options available and Bobby clicks on a tab specifying “Ultra-premium Level Personal Consultation,” and the response is a request for the payment of ten thousand dollars in Bitcoin and an IP address. Bobby provides both, with an automated Bitcoin calculator determining the exact amount of Bitcoin required for a payment of ten thousand dollars.

Jennifer asks, “Now what?”

“Now we wait while they evaluate my IP address; they want to make sure I can be trusted, that I’m a real hacker, not a government agent, and that I can act professionally so as to not compromise their backdoor.”

“Ten thousand dollars is really cheap for the ability to access government websites.”

“The ten

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