“Relax.Take a breath,” said Abe.“We just want to know if you recognize the charges.”Except the boys didn’t relax.They were getting more and more upset by the minute.
“We were just playing the stupid game on our phones, waiting for the time to leave for school.These ads kept popping up and we deleted them.I swear!” said Cooper.
“Just take a breath, Cooper.You too, Quinn.We’re not angry.We just want to know what happened,” said Abe.“How could you have possibly rung up more than three-thousand dollars in charges on your phone without knowing it?”
“Dad, that’s what we’re telling you,” sniffed the young man.“We were just playing one of the games on our phone and these ads popped up.We cleared them out, closed them, and that was it.The only reason I know that was the problem, is I remember the name of this one.”He pointed to the bill and Abe nodded.
“Okay, we’re going to call the phone and credit card company and submit for fraudulent charges and then Hiro and the boys will try to track this down.”
“Dad,” said Quinn staring at Nate, “I’m so sorry.You know that Coop and me are responsible.We were just playing that stupid game!”
“Quinn, it’s okay son.We know you didn’t do this intentionally.We’ll figure it out.”
When Hiro and AJ walked into the room with the boys’ phones, they had that look on their faces like something else was wrong.Something serious.Something that no one wanted to hear.
Hiro nudged AJ who stepped forward with a frown.
“We’ve got a problem.And when I say ‘we’, I mean more than just us in the room.And as good as we are, I’m not sure we’re going to be able to make it go away.”
CHAPTER THREE
“Slowly.One more time for the less tech savvy in the room,” frowned Luke rubbing his forehead.
“Most hackers come in through a ‘backdoor’.An imaginary door that’s easier to get through than just trying to guess your password.These guys were sophisticated.They got in, got all the kids passwords, and all your banking information.We’ve frozen everything and we do mean everything.All of our banking, credit cards, debit cards, everything.
“Jean and the finance team are working on assigning new account numbers and passwords.Money was transferred into dummy accounts, then we opened new accounts for everyone and immediately moved it back.All passwords will be seventeen characters, numbers, and letters.No fucking around,” said Hiro.
“What actually happened?” asked Joseph.
“When the kids were playing, which kids do on these games, ads started to pop up randomly.They immediately hit their pop-up blocker, as well as initiated the extra security on their phones.Good move on their part, by the way.
“When the hackers realized that they weren’t going to be easy pickings, they placed a virus in the ‘x’ box that closes the ad.When the kids hit it to close it, it initiated a scan of their phones.”
“Son of a bitch,” muttered Abe.
“It doesn’t appear that they got any addresses, contacts, that sort of thing.Because the game was web generated and we block anything coming in from the web without authority, they had to go around it to get to the credit card that is used for phone purchases and billing.”
“This is sophisticated,” frowned Cam.
“Very.We’ve blocked everything from them but you can tell they were pissed.They were attacking those phones with everything they had at their disposal.The game also is one of the most violent games I’ve ever seen.Our phones have strict limitations on what the kids can see and it did its job.But again, those hackers were pissed.”
AJ walked toward the projector and laptop at the front of the room and pulled up the game site.
“Don’t worry.This is blocking everything on their end, other than what I want to show you.You can see that it does the usual.It asks for a name you want to use in the game, a password, etcetera.Then, after you’ve done that, it asks for the credit card information.
“Most kids, and I’m sorry to say, most adults are going to give clues in their online name and password, that will help the hackers get into the credit card or banking information.”
“Why?” asked Hex.
“Because we look for the easy way out.Always,” said AJ.“We tend to use the same passwords for lots of things and it’s the most dangerous thing we can do.”
“You’re paying them again?” asked Luke.
“Relax,” said Hiro.“This is an account set up by Jean with exactly the amount needed to pay for the game.Then he’s going to close it.”He hesitated and then smiled.“Now.”
“Okay, so what is so dangerous about this game?” asked Luke.A splat of blood appeared on the screen, so life-like that several men jumped.“Fuck!”
“Sorry,” said AJ.“I should have warned you.The graphics on this are so realistic I actually wondered if they’d filmed this live.It’s not.It’s just very good.That’s the first thing a kid sees.Blood on the screen.Then it’s lost limbs, shots to the head, decapitations, even rape.”
