Stealth Associates Pt. 02

"You're not wrong," she rinses and stores her Everton mug then checks the time,

"two minutes to three, shall we go then?"

It was time to go and since nobody could find a sensible reason to procrastinate, off we went. But don't get me wrong, if we could've got out of delivering this presentation we would've.

The vultures have all flocked to Colossus. Dirty Harriet's chairing the meeting while Braithwaite and Sir Tom Rushton, a senior civil servant from the MoD in Whitehall are sitting in.

So no pressure then. Let me put this in perspective, all four members of Syndicate Three are booted and suited for business. But before we can start there's the traditional homily from Swann.

"I don't think anyone should make the mistake of underestimating how important state sponsored cyberterrorism is to Russia," Dirty Harriet stares at those of us gathered round the conference table in Colossus like she was daring us to contradict her. "The Russians are all too aware that they cannot confront the West by conventional means. Instead they look for ways to weaken resolve, unity and coordination of the Western Alliance."

She pauses and reaches for her water glass and takes a sip. From this I can assume that we're in for a long haul and steel myself.

"It's not like they have some complex, carefully thought through strategy, which will eventually lead to the downfall of the West. In many ways we are victims of our own assumptions that Russians are all chess players thinking many moves ahead."

She pauses again. This time to let the impact of her words sink in. When she thinks we've got her point she continues.

"Cyberespionage through hacking and online disinformation via social media gives them leverage over the West," she lectures us, "and it fits in with their long established strategy of active measures."

"Ah yes, active measures, aktivnye meropriyatiya; political warfare as practised by the Russians since the 1920s," the Whitehall Warrior speaks. He looks like he's getting close to retirement age, tall, narrow, grey, tweedy and posh. "I seem to recall that active measures range from media manipulations to special actions involving various degrees of violence, and are used both at home in Russia and abroad."

"Indeed Sir Tom," Swann says. "However, I think we should let Syndicate Three make their presentation."

+++

26 - The Pitch

I pick up the tablet and walk to the front of the briefing room where the overhead projector's located. I tap on the screen and fire up the PowerPoint presentation.

"If the Russians are out to get access to Corax, then the reason behind this may not simply be because they want to incorporate the technology in their own UAV's," I announce, "it may be because they want to sow the seeds of mistrust abut the project with our NATO allies."

"The Americans are considering purchasing the UCAV from us, which is a first on their part. Up to now they've sold drone technology to other countries," Braithwaite says thoughtfully. "However, if there were any suspicions on their part that the Chimera AI Operating System that makes Corax so unique has been hacked, well..."

"...The deal would fall flat on its arse," Sir Tom says. "Billions of pounds worth of exports would evaporate like an ice cube in a blast furnace."

"We've got leads that can be followed up," I say, "and indirect links that point to association with the Kaminski Group, a Russian Private Military Company that has senior management who have history with the GRU."

"We've tracked down an IT company based in Shoreditch, that has a server farm," VJ announces.

"They talk about having server farm on their website," Bomber says, "but they never say where it is. Server network analysis reveals that a fair amount of priority traffic goes through The Bishop's Avenue - Billionaire's Row."

"Well, if you're going to have a server farm why not have it in the lap of luxury," Sir Tom muses.

"We think it's a squat," I tell him, "but that's still to be confirmed."

"From what I've been able to discover, it's all secure data traffic, very tightly encrypted stuff from proxy servers in Russia," VJ adds his pennyworth, "but there's also some outgoing traffic to the States. It looks like the server's the hub for X Korps."

"Can you gain access to this server?" Sir Tom asks.

"As VJ just said, this is very secure traffic, they use a variation on PGP to lockdown their network."

"PGP?" the Whitehall mandarin sounds confused.

"PGP - Pretty Good Privacy - is an encryption program used for both sending encrypted emails and encrypting sensitive files, it relies on digital public and private keys," Viki explains as if she's talking to a small child, "it's essentially impossible for anyone -- be they a hacker or government agency -- to break PGP encryption unless they have the key."

Sir Tom looks confused by what is, in fact, a fairly simple explanation. It's never good when the client looses the plot, I suspect that they're likely to lose interest in the project.

"However, it might be possible to physically access the server and download files directly, which would sidestep the need to have a key," I add, "but it'll take time to plan and organise."

"Don't worry about that, it will take a wee while for the powers that be to mull over your report," Sir Tom pauses suddenly, "I take it there is a proper written report?"

"Yes sir," Bomber nods courteously, "it should be in your email in box already."

"Thank you," he looks relieved. "As I said, it will take a couple of weeks at least for my people in London to go through your report. I'm sure you can imagine how these things go, analysis of your report and committee meetings to consider your conclusions. By the time we're ready to take any kinetic action."