Rose turned her attention to the window. “They think the move is risky. I’m not sure I’m okay putting my time and effort into something so high profile.”
I frowned. “But you assured me they’d be on board. Thatyouwere on board with this.”
Rose faced me again, her eyes serious. “I’m only looking out for you.”
I turned back to the computer, shutting her out. “I don’t need you to look out for me,” I said coldly.
—
Toxicwrath’s use of a place name I wished never to think about again left me feeling cold.
I had stared at the email wondering why Key West.
What did it mean to him?
It could mean so many different things.
I had found the chat room and relayed what I had discovered at Mason’s.
Toxicwrath was pleased with my results.
I wanted to feel proud of my success, but I couldn’t summon the emotion.
Toxicwrath and I concocted a plan that was a lot like playing tag. Only we planned to never get caught.
We’d feed Mason the information he thought he wanted.
Only it was wrong. So very, very wrong.
Now we were laying the groundwork for the biggest exploit I had ever attempted.
Toxicwrath gave me some background on Virtuant. He knew detailed information about the CEO, Douglas Howard. According to the media, he was one of the youngest CEOs in history, having risen within the organization very quickly, before finally being appointed to the top position at the age of twenty-nine.
From the hundreds of pictures on the Internet, I could tell that Douglas Howard was an attractive man with classic all-American good looks. He seemed more at home on a sailboat than in a boardroom. From all accounts he was well liked and extremely smart. He had made his name creating the groundbreaking app ParentSmartz, which gave paranoid helicopter parents the tools to track their child’s movements in real time with interactive monitoring. It opened the door for dozens of GPS-based applications that were meant to keep kids safe.
22:01 He’s bad news. It’s all an act.
Toxicwrath was very clear about this. I wanted details before I made the leap. I had laid the groundwork for the hashing attack. We were lucky that Virtuant used such an easy system to crack. Stealing the passwords wouldn’t be difficult. I had already engineered a dictionary attack and the salting would be ready to go any day.
I was testing the process in a sandbox Toxicwrath had set up. There would be no mistakes.
But I still had major issues with not knowing the particulars.
22:02 I can’t find anything that indicates he’s on the same level as our other targets.
Then Toxicwrath had sent me links to stories about hacking groups that stole technology and sold it on the black market. Another link gave me an article about a young techie whose app, which had just found several major corporate funders, was destroyed by an anonymous cracker.
Link after link detailed shady and nefarious behavior of hackers stealing and destroying people’s hard work. Hackers pilfering technology for personal gain.
22:11 I don’t understand. What does this have to do with Virtuant?
22:12 They’re all Douglas Howard.
I had been dumbfounded.
22:12 Douglas Howard is responsible for these attacks? Each one?
22:13 Yes.
