get out
of it until they knew what was on that flash drive. And Colleen knew she was
the only friend Kathy had with even a hope of figuring it out. After a few
moments of introductory chat with her on line friends, she found one in
particular she needed to talk to.
KH12> Yo, dude, wassup?
l33tluser> Hey, KH! Boring here, just thinking about surfing
for dirty pictures.
KH12> You know I think that crap is sick.
l33tluser> Yeah, you’ve mentioned that once or twice.
KH12> Anyway, I have a question for you.
l33tluser> Shoot, I'm in no hurry.
KH12> A friend mentioned a name to me today, and I think I
remember who he is. You remember the guy who got busted for trying to hack the
FBI? Eric Harrison? Do you know if he's still in prison?
l33tluser> Yeah, I remember him, why do you ask? Come to
think of it, I do remember something about him, must've just read it a little
bit ago, let me see if I can find it."
Colleen waited patiently, envisioning her friend on the other
end of the line sorting through news web sites and looking for the story.
Minutes later he sent another message.
l33tluser> OK, yeah, here it is, early this week I read a story
about him escaping from prison. Says the authorities suspected he had help from
his hacker friends. Something about the work detail schedule at the prison
being altered.
KH12> That's what I wanted to know. Thanks l33t.
l33tluser> No worries. Why do you ask?
KH12> It has to do with that flash drive I asked you about.
l33tluser> Still mysterious, I take it. Hey, you know what I
thought of?
KH12> Nope, haven't perfected thought reading yet.
l33tluser> Seriously, it occurred to me that the file names
you told me were on it don't even make sense. Maybe the flash drive itself is
encrypted, and that's why you're not having any luck trying to decrypt just the
files?
KH12> I never thought of that. I'm going to have to do some
hacking on it and find out.
l33tluser> Hey, see? I am useful, despite what everyone
says! Catch you later, KH.
Colleen clicked an icon and started her decryption program.
The program was one she'd written herself last year, as a
project for her mathematics class. It analyzed encrypted messages for patterns
and then subjected those messages to infinite random permutations based on
those patterns until it found one that made the message legible. Too simple for
intelligence-grade cryptography, it worked for some simpler things. She called
it CodeHoover.
This time, instead of trying to point it directly at the files
on the flash drive, she simply typed in the list of all the files on the flash
drive, and set it to work. Even for modern computers, that performed millions
and billions of calculations in seconds, infinite random permutations could
take a while. In theory, of course, it could take forever. But in practice
she'd let it run overnight and if it didn't produce something by then she'd
give up.
She leaned back in her chair and let the program run, starting
a music player and turning the volume way down.
Right in the middle of her favorite love song she saw the
blinking light that indicated another message waiting on her instant-messaging
program. She clicked it, and saw l33t was looking for her again.
l33tluser> You still there KH?
l33tluser> Colleen?
KH12> Sorry, I'm here. I was distracted, what's up?
l33tluser> Listen, I remembered something else I heard a
while ago that I thought you might be interested in.
KH12> Shoot.
l33tluser> Well, this is just an old rumor I heard a year
ago, but since you mentioned the guy it got me thinking, and eventually this
came back into my mind. No one ever offered anything like proof, but there was
a rumor going around the Net back then that Harrison was working for Jakarta
when he got caught.
KH12> Jakarta? He's the guy who did the NSA hack, right?
l33tluser> Yeah, and the Pentagon web site vandalism, and
the theft of the minutes from a meeting of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of
of it until they knew what was on that flash drive. And Colleen knew she was
the only friend Kathy had with even a hope of figuring it out. After a few
moments of introductory chat with her on line friends, she found one in
particular she needed to talk to.
KH12> Yo, dude, wassup?
l33tluser> Hey, KH! Boring here, just thinking about surfing
for dirty pictures.
KH12> You know I think that crap is sick.
l33tluser> Yeah, you’ve mentioned that once or twice.
KH12> Anyway, I have a question for you.
l33tluser> Shoot, I'm in no hurry.
KH12> A friend mentioned a name to me today, and I think I
remember who he is. You remember the guy who got busted for trying to hack the
FBI? Eric Harrison? Do you know if he's still in prison?
l33tluser> Yeah, I remember him, why do you ask? Come to
think of it, I do remember something about him, must've just read it a little
bit ago, let me see if I can find it."
Colleen waited patiently, envisioning her friend on the other
end of the line sorting through news web sites and looking for the story.
Minutes later he sent another message.
l33tluser> OK, yeah, here it is, early this week I read a story
about him escaping from prison. Says the authorities suspected he had help from
his hacker friends. Something about the work detail schedule at the prison
being altered.
KH12> That's what I wanted to know. Thanks l33t.
l33tluser> No worries. Why do you ask?
KH12> It has to do with that flash drive I asked you about.
l33tluser> Still mysterious, I take it. Hey, you know what I
thought of?
KH12> Nope, haven't perfected thought reading yet.
l33tluser> Seriously, it occurred to me that the file names
you told me were on it don't even make sense. Maybe the flash drive itself is
encrypted, and that's why you're not having any luck trying to decrypt just the
files?
KH12> I never thought of that. I'm going to have to do some
hacking on it and find out.
l33tluser> Hey, see? I am useful, despite what everyone
says! Catch you later, KH.
Colleen clicked an icon and started her decryption program.
The program was one she'd written herself last year, as a
project for her mathematics class. It analyzed encrypted messages for patterns
and then subjected those messages to infinite random permutations based on
those patterns until it found one that made the message legible. Too simple for
intelligence-grade cryptography, it worked for some simpler things. She called
it CodeHoover.
This time, instead of trying to point it directly at the files
on the flash drive, she simply typed in the list of all the files on the flash
drive, and set it to work. Even for modern computers, that performed millions
and billions of calculations in seconds, infinite random permutations could
take a while. In theory, of course, it could take forever. But in practice
she'd let it run overnight and if it didn't produce something by then she'd
give up.
She leaned back in her chair and let the program run, starting
a music player and turning the volume way down.
Right in the middle of her favorite love song she saw the
blinking light that indicated another message waiting on her instant-messaging
program. She clicked it, and saw l33t was looking for her again.
l33tluser> You still there KH?
l33tluser> Colleen?
KH12> Sorry, I'm here. I was distracted, what's up?
l33tluser> Listen, I remembered something else I heard a
while ago that I thought you might be interested in.
KH12> Shoot.
l33tluser> Well, this is just an old rumor I heard a year
ago, but since you mentioned the guy it got me thinking, and eventually this
came back into my mind. No one ever offered anything like proof, but there was
a rumor going around the Net back then that Harrison was working for Jakarta
when he got caught.
KH12> Jakarta? He's the guy who did the NSA hack, right?
l33tluser> Yeah, and the Pentagon web site vandalism, and
the theft of the minutes from a meeting of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of
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