Top 8 by Katie Finn Page B

and blinking occasionally.
    Technically, Dell was doing an elective in computer studies, but everyone knew the reality — Dr. Trent had figured out that it was a lot cheaper to employ a student for credit than have to pay a professional to fix the school’s computer glitches. So Dell got two free periods a day to keep PHS wired.
    Dell looked like he spent most of his time down in the computer lab, or at least out of the sun. He was shortish and pale and seemed to wear mostly black. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him out of a hoodie. His hair was tangled and dread-y, and stood up in many directions, apparently of its own accord.
    â€œSo here’s the thing,” I began.
    â€œYour Friendverse was hacked,” he said without looking up from the monitor of the desktop he was rapidly typing on.
    â€œYes!” I said, relieved I didn’t have to give the speech again. “How did you know that?”
    â€œWord gets around, Madison.” He paused in his typing and looked at me. “I mean, you misspelled the name of the town we live in.”
    â€œ I didn’t,” I reminded him. “Someone else did. And you need to tell me how this happened. I mean, how could someone have done this?”
    â€œIt’s not that difficult,” he said, going back to typing. “I assume you have only the standard security measures in place?”
    â€œUm, yes?” While I was better with computers than Ruth was, I could really only do the most basic stuff, and when something went wrong, I tended to give my laptop to someone else to fix rather than trying to figure it out myself.
    â€œThat’s probably your problem there,” he said. “Personally, I have a 128-hex encryption on all my passwords, and I’ve been doing the same thing for Dr. Trent. It’s the only safe way to go.”
    â€œDoes my computer even have that option?”
    â€œIt can,” he said, walking over to a laptop and powering it up. “Was your password easy to guess?”
    â€œNot that easy,” I said, thinking about how many possibilities that existed for each person’s password.
    â€œWell,” he said, shrugging, “you can’t hack into Friendverse and change people’s profiles. They have firewalls even I don’t know how to touch.”
    â€œHave you tried?” I asked, joking.
    â€œSure,” he said, completely serious. “The only way to get known in this business is to show people the weaknesses in their defenses so you can tell them how to build them up. But Friendverse is solid.”
    â€œSo someone just guessed?” I asked, surprised and disappointed. I had been hoping that we’d have uncovered some kind of hacking trail that would have led us to the hacker, who we would then bring to justice.
    â€œMost likely,” he said. “Unless someone had access to your computer when the hacking happened.”
    â€œNo,” I said, “I was away.”
    â€œThen someone probably just guessed,” he said. “I mean, they’d have to know the e-mail address you use to log in, and probably something about you. And afteryou’ve tried to log in unsuccessfully three times, Friendverse shuts the profile down until you answer an e-mail from them. So they would have had to have a pretty good idea.”
    â€œHmm,” I said, pondering this. I’d always figured that the hacker must have known me pretty well— they’d known too much information about my life, and had been able to convince people that they were me — but this really drove it home. Who was it?
    And more importantly, would I ever find out?
    The first bell rang, and Dell began shutting down his various machines. “Well, thanks,” I said, heading for the door.
    â€œCertainly,” he said. “How’s the MacBook holding up?”
    â€œFine,” I said. “Except I still can’t type Q ’s.”
    â€œBut who needs