The Hypogeum Ch. 04-05

He could hear the edgy whispered exchanges between the programmers as they compared notes or discussed the project via the headsets that each wore. However, he ignored the murmured conversations around him and turned his attention back to Jenkins, "Get a move on then."

The anxious Eric led his boss to his own cubicle were he sat down at his terminal and placed his own headset on his head. The murmuring around the room died down as Jenkins spoke into his microphone, "Attention all stations. Attention all stations. Integration to begin on my mark. Attack teams stand by. Trojan team to wait. Defensive teams to wait."

He turned his attention to his screen and began to type instructions to the mainframe computer. Once done, he covered the microphone with his hand and said, "Sir. The routine is integrated. With your permission I'll begin."

The head of WinCom nodded his assent and stood watching the proceedings, he didn't understand the technicalities involved, but he was eager to see how DataVault and especially Hypogeum performed in this the final testing phase before the product went on the market.

Jenkins once again faced his computer screen and spoke into his headset, "DataVault initiated on testing server one. Attack teams, begin intrusion attempt."

Several of the people in their cubicles started busily tapping away at their own keyboards. Nothing much seemed to happen and Sir Nigel whispered impatiently to Jenkins, "What's happening?"

Once again, Jenkins covered his microphone and answered, "Some of the boys are playing attacker and are attempting to interfere with the normal running of DataVault, and they're trying to hack the mainframe to gain information or inject malicious software into it."

A puzzled expression crossed Sir Nigel's face, "What are you talking about? I know DataVault does its job, it's been tested extensively already!"

"Yes Sir, but not with the Hypogeum installed. We need to make sure that the stealth coding doesn't interfere with the normal running of the program."

"Oh, and does it?"

"I'll know in a few minutes Sir."

Sir Nigel shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he watched Eric Jenkins reading the lines of text that scrolled down his screen. When the programmer turned towards him and covered his microphone once more, "Phase one completed. DataVault has proved unbreakable."

"How can you be so sure? It's only been a few minutes."

"Sir, we have assembled a team of some of the best programmers in the country and each of them has a number of some of the most dangerous and destructive viruses and Trojans available. In addition, it would appear that DataVault is also able to continue protecting against a DOS attack."

"What's a DOS?"

"Denial of Service. It's when a group of hackers try to overload a server by bombarding it with requests for information, in an attempt to push the data flow beyond the capabilities of the connections. It's all to do with the bandwidth-"

Angrily, Sir Nigel growled, "Spare me the techno-babble Jenkins! Does DataVault do what its supposed to or not?"

Meekly, Eric answered, "Yes Sir."

"Good! Move on to phase two."

Eric didn't answer, but merely turned back to face his screen and once again tapped a few commands to the mainframe via his keyboard, "Starting phase two. DataVault installing on to server two, New York office... Done... Trojan team begin intrusion, defensive team watch your boards," then he sat back to wait.

Once again, Sir Nigel could only watch and bridle against the seeming lack of activity within the room, "Well?"

Eric ignored him and spoke once more into his microphone, "Trojan team, report," he paused a moment and tilted his head as he listened into his earpiece before saying, "Sir, remote connection successful. We now have control of the New York server."

Sir Nigel was nonplussed, "So? What now?"

"What I mean Sir is that we can now take complete control of the computer systems in the New York office from this room. Shall I show you?"

The old man nodded and watched as Eric's fingers flew over the keyboard, "If you look at my screen you should be able to see a nice view using the video conferencing facilities of the New York office."

He paused and leaned slightly to one side so that his boss could look in at the computer screen and see for himself the boardroom table and the large plate window behind it, with the view of the Manhattan skyline beyond. Sir Nigel was a little confused and also somewhat peeved at the triviality that Jenkins was showing him, "So what? I've seen used this system myself. What's so special about it this time?"

Eric allowed a slightly condescending tone to enter his voice as he adopted the air that experts everywhere took, when explaining something of their field to laymen, "It is different this time Sir Nigel, because we have bypassed the usual line of communication with New York and are controlling their video-link directly," he raised a hand to forestall his boss before the old man could speak further, "I mean, Sir that I have used this fairly simple example to show how we can affect any part of their operation, without their consent... Shall I proceed to phase three?"

"Yes. Continue please."

Jenkins spoke into his microphone, "Defensive team. Any activity on your boards?"

Another short pause and he spoke over his shoulder, "Defensive team reports no visible activity, so we can be assured that if they can't see it, then no normal IT team will either."

Turning his attention back to his terminal, Jenkins said, "Assuming full control of server two... Beginning subjugation of processing tasks... Done. Defensive teams, begin counter measures." Yet again, Jenkins sat back in his chair and watched lines of code flow up his display.

After a few minutes, he said, "Report."

There was a satisfied grin on his face when he told Sir Nigel, "100% success, Sir. We took control of server two and set it to calculate Pi to the last possible digit, which is of course impossible, so the processor will continue ad infinitum, taking up all of server two's time and resources, until we tell it to stop."

Sir Nigel replied, "And?"

"And... The defensive team couldn't tell we had subverted their system until it was well underway, also they have been unable to regain control and are helpless to stop it," he smiled warmly, "Congratulations Sir. It works perfectly."

Sir Nigel smiled back at Jenkins, but his smile was less friendly, more predatory and it made a Jenkins shrink a little in his seat.

The old man said, "Good work Jenkins. I'll see that you and your team are suitably rewarded."

The way he said it, made Eric Jenkins uneasy, very uneasy indeed.