Combat by Stephen Coonts

Author:Stephen Coonts
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2011-08-30T04:00:00+00:00

In the Spook Booth, the CIA agent chuckled when he heard Wagner’s oft-played piece. “Sounds like your people have been spending too much time watching old war movies.”

Kevin Shrewsbery looked over at the visitor from Langley. “I’d rather that than have them use the training we give them here to empty my bank accounts.”

While the CIA man stared at the Army colonel, the FBI liaison chuckled. “You’ve got that right.”

Back in the Pit, Bobby Sung was finishing his tasks. “Righto, mate,” he called out to Eric Bergeron, “we be in business.”

Taking a deep breath, Eric studied his screen. “Let’s see now,” he mumbled. Bobby Sung, using an old technique, had managed to enter an open port in the host computer macnife worked from by sending a message using an address that macnife’s system was familiar with. Once past the security gateways, the body of the message was not checked by the security programs, since it followed the address of a trusted user. That body consisted of a sequence of commands, written in the computer language used by the system under attack, that established a new root account.

Neither the nation that had provided the computers nor macnife’s native country altered the basic programming language, making it easy for Eric to pull up the directory of the host computer and get to work. The first phase of the attack involved the downloading of a Trojan horse. While there are several variations to this sort of attack, the one Eric introduced to macnife’s host computer involved that system’s Internet protocol instructions.

Rather than destroy a single computer which could easily be replaced, the NSA had convinced the members of the National Security Council that it could nullify the effectiveness of future attacks by keeping track of where the dark knights from that country were going in cyberspace. Their solution was to modify the header portion of the Internet protocol instructions currently on macnife’s host computer so that every time macnife and his compatriots connected with the internet, the NSA would be alerted. The Trojan horse in this case did nothing other than send the NSA an info copy of everything that was sent out onto the Web. With that information in hand, the NSA would be able to warn any site that was the target of an attack as well as gather information on who this particular nation was working with.

Methodically Eric made his way into the operating system of macnife’s host computer. With root access, this was rather simple. What was not going to be easy was the substitution of codes. To do that Eric would have to operate on the old code. That could create a momentary interruption in service, much in the same way that a surgeon performing open-heart surgery must stop the heart in order to work on it. Everyone using macnife’s host computer that was connected to the Internet would experience a momentary delay of service. If this interruption became pronounced, the system administrator would, quite naturally, assume that there was a problem either with his connections or his system.

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