Bad Good Bad: Special Edition Read online

  Toshiro: “No Kim. Thank YOU for giving me the opportunity to meet your friends. It was an honor for me. I had as much fun as they had.”

  Kim: “I know what you are trying to do here. You know how much I want this job. I don’t want you to sacrifice your career to accommodate my ambitions.”

  Toshiro: “Kim, I don’t want you to sacrifice your career either. Sincerely, I was thinking about this while I was watching the crowd enjoying themselves tonight at Social. I like Social, it’s a fun place. I need to talk to Amanda about this, but maybe I could take a break from Voilà! here and there, spend some time here in Portland with you and experiment at Social with Leon. It is not uncommon for chefs to share their time between a few restaurants. And that may actually fit well with the academy concept I discussed with you mother.”

  I move across the water, I want Toshiro to hold me in his arms. Tonight I am the happiest woman under the stars.

  Chapter 9

  March 31. Big day today, the official start for Neocuris Pro, day 1. April’s fool day tomorrow, but we don’t care. Nothing is going to stop us. Toshiro is in town for the big day. Our startup is the hottest one in the valley.

  I got to spend some time in March with Bianca. I think we will become friends. She is very sharp, brilliant. She is 32, fairly young to be an executive. She wants to take me under her arm. I think she really wants me to be successful.

  Eric is a little bit concerned about something that started to happen around the vault last week. I walk into the New Forensics campus, soon to be converted into the Neocuris Pro headquarters. Kevin and Eric are waiting for me in the conference room, together with Kamal.

  Eric: “Have a seat Kim. We have been waiting for you to start.”

  Kim: “Sorry I’m late. I had to deal with some paperwork for my new apartment. The landlord was late.”

  Eric: “No problem. I had to talk to Kevin about something else anyway, so don’t worry. Kamal, why don’t you kick this off?”

  Kamal: “Sure. Thanks Eric. So basically, I think Neocuris is being attacked again. But it is a different type of attack. Some patients have been complaining over the last few days about delays while using the app. We do see some latency when we look at the performance indicators. We cannot correlate that with normal activity. Something is going on.”

  Kevin: “We suspect a DDOS like attack. Distributed Denial of Service. Some bogus traffic is being generated between a number of app instances, and the vault. This is kind of moving around the map. The security analysts at New Forensics are investigating.”

  Eric: “At Neocuris they are investigating on their side as well. Kim, Kevin, I know you have been experimenting with the local mode for a week now, but maybe we need to consider the option of you two becoming active again. I have been active for the last few weeks, and I have been connecting into somebody. I am not yet sure who that is. It could be the same person I was connected to in the fall that was trying to fry my brain.”

  I am a little bit reluctant to become active again. But I know I can switch back to local mode anytime, right?

  Eric: “Kim, Anima says that since you and Kevin were able to connect into each other at one point, that this will come back. The paths are still there in your brains. It’s like putting down the instrument for a few months, it will come back quick once you get back to it.”

  Kevin reaches to me with the finger extended, he fakes an electric shock. Inside joke. I guess it is funny in our heads. We both laugh. Eric and Kamal don’t look sure if they should be laughing too.

  Chapter 10

  April 4. We had the launch a few days ago. Toshiro left on April 2nd, after spending some time at Social with Leon and Sarah. I won’t see him for a couple of weeks, but we will call each other every day. He cannot be away from Voilà! as much as he wants. He told me that the new chef he is training will soon be able to run the show when he is out of town. So he will be able to spend more time with me. Amanda and Cristina plan to visit me in Portland in the spring.

  I walk into the conference room with Anima. After I told her yesterday that something was different in the vault, that I could slowly reconnect with Kevin, but that I could not experience the tuning in anymore, she wanted to talk to me.”

  Anima: “Kim, I have a possible explanation about what is going on. I believe the tuning in experience you described to me was supported by the bot, which was later used for the January attack. It would make sense based on Kamal’s team findings about the way it works. I believe you were able to tune into the virtual patient that is the bot, resolve Kevin, and then connect to him. But once you got the connection established with Kevin, you did not need the bot anymore for that one. So that is why you are in the process of reconnecting to Kevin, and vice-versa.”

  Kim: “But Kevin is also able to reconnect back to me. Did he also figure out how to connect into the bot at one point?”

  Anima: “I don’t think so. He did not need to. I suspect that once you tune in and connect into somebody, you expose yourself, you open a path, a path that the target can use to connect back into the source.”

  Anima: “I talked to Eric also. He thinks he can connect back into maybe the same person he was connecting into back in November. He says he thinks he is active again.”

  Kim: “Maybe that same person is behind the new attack?”

  Anima: “Eric does not think so. He is not exactly sure why, but he does not feel that this is the case.”

  Anima: “I believe you may have been part of a small group of interface users who have been able to leverage the bot. Together with whoever was responsible for the January attack. That is how you got to Kevin probably.”

  I walk out of the conference room with Anima. Eric is down the hall, walking fast towards us.

  Eric: “Can I talk to you both right now?”

  Kim: “Sure. Anima, ok for you?”

  Anima: “Yes.”

  We walk back into the room. Eric shuts the door behind us.

  Eric: “Well, it is getting worse. Performance is down the drain now. The news is out that Neocuris is potentially the victim of a second attack. We don’t need that. Not now. We need to do something.”

  Kim: “Do you believe it is the same person that was involved with the January attack that is behind this new one?”

  Eric: “Actually, no. And this morning, after the information about the potential attack was announced in the media, I believe he tried to say something to me. I sensed some good intentions. It does not really make sense to me. I could also make out the word ‘reactivate’.”

  We all pause for 10 or 15 seconds.

  Anima: “The bot. He wants the bot to be reactivated maybe.”

  Eric: “Why? We don’t want that thing to be reactivated.”

  Kim: “Anima has come up with a possible explanation for why I do not experience the tuning in or scan part anymore. It was the bot. Maybe he wants to access the tuning in feature again?”

  Eric: “Let’s get Kamal and Kevin in the room. We need to talk.”

  Kim: “Are you thinking about reactivating the bot?”

  Eric: “We need to consider all options. I have a feeling that he wants to help us. But I don’t believe we want to go as far as reactivating the bot. Kamal and teams have made more progress with the reverse engineering work. However there are still some components that they don’t fully understand.”

  Anima: “Also, let’s not forget that this ‘hacker turned potential helper’, he was responsible for the original attack. We do not know what his real intentions are.”

  Eric: “I agree. We don’t want to play the Russian roulette with this bot thing.”

  Chapter 11

  April 6. I wake up in my apartment. I grab my phone and I switch my mode from local to active. I can sense Kevin is active too. But I sense something bad has happened. I don’t like that feeling. Some noise. The tuning in is back! Did they decide to reactivate the bot? Why did they do that? Why didn’t they warn me before?

  I quic
kly shower, grab something quick to eat, and I try to get to the office as fast as possible. 8 o’clock I get in. 8:15, Kevin arrives.

  Kevin: “I had a bad feeling this morning when I turned myself active. Like something happened to you. I called the team, they are on their way. Anyway with the ongoing attack, Kamal was here at 7.”

  Kim: “Kevin, the tuning in is back. Who reactivated the bot?”

  Kevin: “No. The bot has not been reactivated. Not that I am aware of.”

  Kevin’s face is turning white.

  Kevin: “Despite some discussions about the pros and cons of reactivating the bot, even within the context of the ongoing attack, Kamal, his old Neocuris team, and the New Forensics team decided that efforts should be concentrated on identifying the source of the DDOS attack. We cannot trust the bot to help us at this point. We don’t see how it could help us.”

  Kevin: “Let’s go find Kamal.”

  We walk to Kamal’s desk.

  Kamal is wearing his headset. He is looking at his dashboard. He is analyzing some logs.

  Kamal: “Hi Kim. Hi Kevin. And yes something is going on. We are investigating. We spotted a peak of unusual activity this morning, on top of the DDOS traffic that is still happening. We seem to recognize the signature of the bot. But the bot has not been turned back on.”

  Kim: “Tuners are back. Tuning in has been reactivated.”

  Kamal: “We did not allow for that to happen. I mean we did not reactivate the bot. It is another bot we are dealing with. With a slightly different signature. We are narrowing down right now on a specific set of servers. I am working with Neocuris and New Forensics on this. New Forensics reported the unusual activity pattern at 6 o’clock this morning.”

  Kevin: “Kamal, you are saying the signature is similar but different, right? Any idea what is going on?”

  Kamal: “We have a couple of clues. First, this looks like a separate, simpler both, that was hidden elsewhere, waiting for a trigger to become active. Second, if the tuning in is back, the tuning activity itself is different.”

  Kim: “The tuning in is more noisy than I can remember. It does not feel organized.”

  Kamal: “Maybe it is affected by the attack.”

  Anima and Eric join us now.

  Eric: “Kamal, What’s going on?”

  Kamal: “We have a new bot in the vault. We are trying to track it down, and at the same time we are still trying to stop the DDOS attack.”

  Eric: “That’s great. A coordinated attack now!”

  Kim: “The tuning in is back.”

  Anima: “Did we reactivate the bot?”

  Kevin: “No. Kamal says it is probably a different, simpler one.”

  Kamal: “We are closing in now. The security teams are confident they will isolate and deactivate the bot within the next 2 hours.”

  Kevin: “What about the DDOS attack?”

  Kamal: “We are making progress on that front too, but it is slow. We mitigated some of its effects, performance is a little better than yesterday, but we still have pockets of slow communication here and there. They are trying to narrow down the sources for the attack, but it is a moving target so far.”

  Eric: “We will let you work with the security teams. Let’s have a checkpoint at 10.”

  Kim: “It is as if the tuners are celebrating the return of the bot. But it feels disorganized.”

  Anima: “They are probably rusty.”

  …

  10 o’clock. I am in the conference room, with Kevin, Eric, Kamal and Anima.

  Eric: “Kamal, can you please provide us with a quick update.”

  Kamal: “We are getting closer. The teams need more time, but we are down to a few servers now that are potentially compromised by the new bot.”

  Clarence enters the room.

  Clarence: “Have you seen the news? It looks like the police busted some data center in Atlanta. The media are making the connection between the arrests and the DOS attack.”

  Kevin: “Kamal, are you aware that New Forensics or Neocuris reported anything to the authorities?”

  Kamal: “No. I don’t even think we were looking in that direction.”

  Eric: “Well, hopefully this is it. We need this non-sense to be stopped.”

  Kim: “I don’t think the tuning in is on anymore.”

  Eric: “What?”

  Kim: “Yes, it has stopped. It just did.”

  Kevin: “One down.”

  Kamal: “Two down. DDOS has been stopped as well.”

  Eric: “What does that mean?”

  Kevin: “Kamal, do New Forensics or Neocuris has something to say about what is going on?”

  Kamal: “They seem surprised too. I don’t think we stopped either the bot or the DDOS.”

  Kevin: “The timing is too perfect. Maybe all 3 events are directly related.”

  Eric: “Maybe this new bot has something to do with the arrests and the end of the DDOS attack. Maybe the January attacker is really turning into a helper.”

  Kamal: “This is one possible explanation. Otherwise it is a strange coincidence. We are back to normal it appears at Neocuris.”

  Eric: “Hey, maybe what I sensed when he contacted me was true. Maybe he is really trying to help. Let’s keep an eye on the situation. Let’s have another checkpoint at 11:30.”

  Kamal: “Sure thing. We also have some logs around the new bot that we are investigating right now. We have isolated the bot to one server, and we are monitoring any suspicious activity around it. It looks like it decided to shut itself down, at least partially. We will try to get a good signature of this new bot and make sure there is nothing else like it hiding elsewhere.”

  Kevin: “With 2 similar bots now, hopefully our reverse engineering experts will be able to establish a more generic signature to be able to spot other variants that could be hiding somewhere else.”

  Chapter 12

  I am back at my new apartment. It is 6 pm. I need to figure out something for dinner. I am not really hungry though.

  Things have stabilized at the office. We had the checkpoint meetings at 11:30 and in the afternoon, but no new incidents. Kamal, Kevin and the security teams were still trying to digest all the logs and dissect the new bot they found when I left the office.

  This place feels so empty, without Toshiro with me. I put my mobile phone on the coffee table. I push the curtains, watch the street outside as if I am expecting Toshiro. This is ridiculous. I feel like a little girl waiting for Santa to come down the chimney. Toshiro is probably busy at Voilà! right now. He won’t be able to call me for at least another 2 hours. Make something up girl, stop torturing yourself. Make time go faster.

  I grab my board. Maybe I can go check the skate park that is near my new apartment, and find something to eat on the way. I believe they have the lights on at night until 9 pm.

  I am catching some presence now. It is distracting me. Maybe I should just switch to local mode. The good thing about local mode, I can disconnect my app from the vault without having to turn either my phone or wifi off. Toshiro can still call me or text me or email me.

  I am catching something different, all of a sudden. It is standing out. I get off my board. I go sit on a bench from where I can watch the kids go for the half-moons and pull out the grabs and flips. Maybe I am getting old for this sport. Some of the kids are clearly ahead of the game, ahead of me. And I don’t have a small board with me to attempt any of these stunts. I pick a bench that is far away from the ghetto blaster so I can concentrate better on the signal.

  “Follow me.”

  I turn around. Nobody is near me. I am pickup this up from the vault, clearly. This is not from Kevin. Our potential helper? I am trying to focus on the presence, but it fades away.

  I wait, but nothing more. Now I feel hungry. I spotted a little corner store on the way here. I jump on my board, circle around the skate park, and start to head back to the apartment.

  I spot this corner store again. I walk in with my board unde
r my left arm. I say hello to the man behind the counter, but he does not answer me back. He is just watching me, as if I am about to steal something. I scan the shelves for anything edible. I am not inspired. I settle on some turkey wrap from the fridge. I make the decision that I only want the first half, that the other half will go straight to the bin. I just want to put something in my stomach at this point, something not too unhealthy. I pay the man. He is still looking at me like I am here to eat his profits.

  I am back at the apartment now. 9:30 pm. My phone rings, it’s Toshiro.

  Kim: “Hi Toshiro.”

  Toshiro: “Hi Kim. I am so glad to finally be able to call you and hear your voice. It was a busy night at Voilà!”

  Kim: “Give me a second, I have something to turn off.” I switch myself to local mode.

  Kim: “I am all yours now my darling.”

  Toshiro: “How was your day? You and your friends were probably very busy at the office. I heard on the news that Neocuris had been affected by an attack. I also heard that it has been remediated, and that the bad guys got arrested.”

  Kim: “Yeah, we are happy that it is now over. Hopefully. We are just days into launching Pro, we don’t need bad publicity. I am back at the apartment, but it feels so empty without you.”

  Toshiro: “I wish I was in Portland with you again. I can’t wait to hold you in my arms.”

  Kim: “How is Amanda? I tried to call her yesterday, but I got her voice mail.”

  Toshiro: “I think see was out shopping and dining with Cristina before Cristina headed back to Los Angeles. Amanda is thinking about my idea of investing into Social. When Cristina is back, they both plan to come visit you in Portland.”

  We talk for an hour. It feels so good to hear his voice. I don’t want to hang the phone. But we are tired, we need to rest. Big day tomorrow.

  Chapter 13

  I am back at the office. 9 am, we have a meeting to discuss the attacks that are apparently over for good. I enter the conference room. Clarence follows me in. Eric, Kevin, Kamal and Anima are already seated.