Mind Trace (2 page)

Did any of that really happen last night? Maybe the
website will show some indication of what happened.

Alice found her box of spare cables and dug through it for
a suitable replacement. As she went to attach the new cable, strange thoughts
began to filter through her mind.

Revisiting the website will create an unnecessary risk.
If the server administrators are aware of the breach, they will use the
connection to trace its origin.

…Huh? Where did that come from?

Alice could not ignore the overwhelming urge to secure her
connection, although she was not sure from what at the moment.

The nature of her employment required her to have more
security in place than most people. She masked her MAC address and bounced her
ISP connection from several remote servers before terminating at her computer.
All of these measures made her untraceable for most purposes, but she found
herself aware of the many vulnerabilities in her system. In the mere span of
several seconds, she thought of at least fifteen different methods of remedying
those faults.

How do I know all that?

Something tells me that whatever part of my brain that
came from won't be satisfied until I listen.

Trying not to overanalyze her strange new paranoia, she
began to write the code as her mind dictated. Soon, she had multiple complex
scripts running to ensure that no one could trace her connection. Alice sat
back and stared at her screen in astonishment. Pages of unfamiliar code glared
suspiciously back at her.

Okay, now I'm starting to freak out… Maybe all that
sleep just gave my mind some clarity…

Oh, who am I kidding? Don't think about it right now;
focus on finding out what happened.

Somehow, despite whatever occurred the night before, her
router and modem were still intact. Alice connected the spare wire and waited
for her internet to initialize. Feelings of unease gnawed at her in the silence
of her cottage.

When her connection finally came online, Alice returned to
the email that had begun the whole affair. 

Who knew one email could cause all this? Who would have
sent such a request?

Only one way to find out…

It seemed her hands had a mind of their own as they typed
various lines of code into the prompt and compiled complex scripts from what
seemed like nothing. At first, the only information that was available was an
IP address and an empty WHOIS chart. However, a few moments later, she had all
the information she needed. Her eyes widened in shock as she made the
connection.

The email originated from a server at Cyberconn…

Before EngineerCorp had worldwide domination, Cyberconn had
been their competition. Cyberconn had several critical breakthroughs and appeared
to be the company that would come out on top.

Then, there was some kind of scandal and it was leaked to
the press that Cyberconn had been stealing ideas from EngineerCorp, and
publishing them as their own. Although it never went to trial, their reputation
never recovered from the incident. All the positive press EngineerCorp received
as the "victims" gave them the edge they needed to dominate the very
fickle market. Cyberconn still existed, if it could be called that, but were barely
staying afloat.

Did Cyberconn want revenge? What would they have done if
I handed them the key to EngineerCorp?

This is what they wanted all along. They probably sent
that email out to hundreds of people like me, hoping one of us would
unwittingly do just that.

She knew it should have been obvious the email was some
sort of fraud. However, the thought of exposing security vulnerabilities in one
of the nation's largest technology companies had overpowered her desire to be
logical. The challenge was simply too tempting.

Not only was I just tricked into hacking into
EngineerCorp, but I somehow tried to download all of their data in one fell
swoop. Great.

She sat back, amazed. Since the data had not been found on
any of her hardware, she could only assume Cyberconn's plot had been
unsuccessful. She took a deep breath, relieved.

I just hope I didn't damage anything on EngineerCorp's
servers in the process… I really should check, just to make sure.

When she brought up the address, she was faced with the
now-familiar login terminal. Before she realized what was happening, she found
her hands had already entered a username and password into the fields. The
password itself was over 30 characters.

Did I just type that? What's happening to me?

For a brief moment, she debated whether to proceed. In the
end, her curiosity got the better of her and she pressed the button to confirm
the information.

The screen flickered as it readjusted its resolution.
Staring back at her were endless tables of information inside endless databases. 
On the other side of the screen were master indexes for all the files that the
server contained. Shaking hands gripped the mouse as she clicked to open one of
the tables.

Alice was scared, although she didn't understand why. As
one of the tables opened, her heart almost stopped.

I know this... all of this information.

She opened table after table, file after file, only to
reach the same conclusion.

How can I possibly have all this information memorized?
Is it...in my head?

This is too dangerous. I have to take my computer
offline.

Alice hastily severed the connection to the server and
unhooked all the cables from her computer in a great frenzy. She had not even
noticed the burn on her hand, but it now began to throb painfully. She held up
her shaking arm, looking at her bandage covered hand.

How could this have happened? This can't be real.

Leaning against the desk, she slid down to the floor in a
heap. Alice had no idea how any of it was possible, or what any of it meant.
Her mind still seemed to be "normal," but she knew that it had
fundamentally changed. Somehow, when her hand had fallen on that cable, the
information travelling through the cable had been transferred into her brain.
As crazy as it was, it was the only theory that made any sense.

Covering her face, she shut out the light with her hands. Her
mind refused to wrap itself around the reality of her circumstances. No one
would ever believe it.

How could they?
I
don't even believe it.

***

On Friday night, somewhere deep inside the main campus at
EngineerCorp, a lowly tech named Luke was working the night shift, monitoring
the data servers. The massive computers contained all of the data on everything
that EngineerCorp governed, including all the projects, software, schematics,
and client data they were paid to manage.

The job, in itself, was not complicated. Luke simply had to
monitor the diagnostics to ensure that the servers maintained the proper
temperature, performance, and network activity.  If, for any reason, any of
these specs went outside their normal operating range, it was his job to notify
the system engineers immediately, and take any necessary steps to keep the
servers online. Their clients depended on them so they could access their data
at any time and from any remote location.

Tonight was just another normal night. The hardware
specifications were all operating within acceptable ranges, and the network
activity showed all the normal things that one would expect. After Luke
thoroughly made all his checks, he sat back in his chair and pulled out his
crossword puzzle.

Another long night in the dungeon…

His shift ended at 5:30am, and it couldn't come fast
enough.

Luke had gotten through about seven words, when he heard a
high-pitched beeping from the console in front of him.

What is that?

He looked up from the puzzle and saw that suddenly the
network activity had spiked and the indicator was now hovering in the red zone.
He panicked and almost fell out of his chair trying to reach the console.

Someone had connected to the server and was performing a
system dump across the network at an astonishing rate. The bandwidth was off
the charts. Luke quickly scanned the schedule, but there was no planned backup.
There were no planned connections whatsoever. He had no choice but to use the
little red phone next to the console to notify the engineers.

"This is going to be a long night," he mumbled
nervously as the phone started to ring.

The other end of the line was picked up almost immediately,
and a harsh voice answered.

"What is it, Luke?"

Great. Of course, Mark would pick up. That guy has it
out for everyone.

The words tumbled awkwardly out of his mouth as he
explained the situation.  Luke was only halfway done when yelling erupted from
the other end of the line, followed by a dial tone. He gingerly set the phone
down in its cradle, and started to bite his nails as he stared nervously at the
beeping indicator.

As suddenly as it had begun, the sound from the console subsided.
Luke watched in disbelief as the indicator fell back into the green zone.

Huh?

Luke had no chance to figure out what had happened. The door
to the server room burst open. An angry mob of engineers, including Mark, and
several people in suits came rushing into the room. Mark ran forward to the
console. He immediately began examining the logs and started an intense
argument with the other engineers who had formed a semi-circle around him.  Shrinking
cowardly in a corner, Luke did his best to stay out of their way.

"This was completely unauthorized activity! The
connection lasted a mere four minutes, and somehow managed to download the
entire server's worth of data!" Mark's face was turning red as he yelled.

This is not good.

"The data rate had to be astronomical to transfer all
of that information in such a short duration!"

The discussion continued in this manner, getting more and
more frenzied as the other engineers chimed in, proclaiming the "impossibility"
and "unlikelihood" of such an event. The men in suits had not yet
entered the conversation, but their faces became evermore somber as the
magnitude of the event became known.

A man that Luke had not noticed spoke up from the back of
the room.

 "Has anyone performed a trace on the connection yet?"

Everyone immediately hushed and gave the man space. Luke strained
to see his face over the group of people.

"No, sir. We were trying to assess the damage caused
by the breach…"

Mark's reply to the unknown speaker had taken on a completely
apologetic, almost frightened tone.

The man cut the him off mid-sentence. "The damage is
clearly considerable. It is more important that we find out where the
information went and try to
contain
this situation."

Each word was carefully enunciated and spoken painfully
slow, showing exactly how he felt about Mark's misplaced enthusiasm.

"Was the tech at least able to trace the connection
while it was active?"

No. Leave me out of this, please.

The group turned to Luke for the first time. The group of
men slowly stepped apart to let him see the mysterious speaker.

Luke looked up and realized now who was speaking to him.
The man was tall enough to tower over everyone around him. Jet-black hair
complemented steely blue eyes that seemed to bore a hole into whomever they
were cast upon. He was cold and calculating, never yielding to anyone.

He appeared to be in his early thirties, but Luke was not certain.
His name was Eric Martin, president and CEO of EngineerCorp.

I suppose I should start cleaning out my desk…

Eric was a living legend. He had built the company from the
ground up, and a great many of the ideas that fueled their success were a
direct product of his designs. Eric had an estate located on the campus of EngineerCorp,
and spent most of his time there in his private lab.

Much to the disappointment of the media, Eric rarely made
public appearances. He was very particular about who took his picture and when
those pictures could be taken. As a result, the few images available to the
media were mostly outdated or of poor quality. The mysteriousness of his
appearance only added to the sense of awe people felt about him.

Those in his employ knew quite well what he looked like
because he enjoyed randomly inspecting the quality of work and firing those
employees with less than perfect performance.

Eric essentially had free rein in his company and in most
of the world. The company depended on him for his impeccable guidance and
direction. His inventions were so deeply imbedded in society that all he had to
do was merely
threaten
to withdraw his support and people were willing
to do anything for him.  Even the laws on monopolies had been modified to make
EngineerCorp an exception so it could continue to function, unhindered by
regulation.

Luke looked at him in awe, and shrunk back further into his
corner.

"Nnn-o, no, sir," he stuttered. "The source
was only connected for four minutes…and I only had time to do a basic check and
notify Mark before it was disconnected…but, um, I'm sure there is a record of
the connection. We just implemented the prototype of your Traceback software on
the servers last week."

"Indeed. Pull up the data immediately then," Eric
spoke authoritatively.

Luke hesitantly crossed the room and began to bring up the
information at the terminal. After a few moments, he pulled up the record for
the intrusion.

The data was inconclusive. The signal had bounced between multiple
servers located randomly around the world. The last entry was empty, with no source
IP or MAC address. Eric was standing behind Luke, examining the data.