Read Online The Origin Point: A Future Tech Cyber Novella by Case Lane - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Case Lane
Tags: Speculative Fiction, cyber, speculative science fiction, future fiction, cyber security, cyber thriller, future thriller, future tech, techno political thriller, speculative thriller
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nor see, but one standing up for their rights and fighting
around their powerlessness. As the government began its movement
towards solidifying COSA, Apex and independent technologists like
her would arise from the public and private ranks to enforce a
rational accounting through their technical capabilities. Her
colleagues were having their own meetings and making independent
plans to stop COSA before the system could be implemented. Their
number one weapon would be advanced technology, including the
brainpower to 'outcode' government operatives. The only question
was when, and where should they start to deploy.
*
"An errant flash drive?" Julia questioned
Marco in a gray-walled windowless room. "The whole incident was a
set-up from the beginning?"
"It's possible," Marco replied leaning back
into a sofa and putting his feet up on the table in front of him.
They had retreated to the basement of FedSec's main office building
where secure rooms with recording devices and video cameras were
available for discussion of classified topics. A clock on the wall
displayed the time as 1:10 am. Marco had entered the facility
minutes earlier to personally access the room's operations and shut
down the listening and viewing recorders for their conversation.
"We need a new place to work."
"Impossible to move at this point. Besides
the issue is not the building, the attack was against our servers
and software. We'll have to fix Horizon."
"Fix Horizon? Some hacker could have lined
the server rooms with damaging code aimed at not only listening to
us but also stealing every file we have. He probably already has
every file we have."
"You think we are too far along with the
build-out at Horizon to take another course of action?"
"With our plans?"
"Yes."
"Well we would have to stick with the main
concepts, the core structure we had decided on is definitely far
enough along. But the details, no."
"Hmm, don't you think a hacker only wants
the details? Wouldn't they already be suspicious we were working on
global surveillance tracking? Conspiracy theories often have a way
of actually being true."
"He may have been suspicious, but now the
rumors have been confirmed."
"That's okay, as long as they don't have the
details. We can change the specifics now and throw off the
advantage they thought they had obtained by stealing from us."
"I don't know. How differently can you code
a program to do the surveillance work we expect?"
"Coding is not my area of expertise. But we
can have our Silicon Valley friend take a look for us, and let us
know if we are okay to move forward or if we have to start again.
He could also check the physical Horizon infrastructure and confirm
if we really have to worry about moving."
"If you are speaking about the friend I
think you are speaking about, contacting him would be extremely
risky. He said we should only reach out in a genuine emergency.
People cannot know his connection to us and to this program."
"We have an emergency. A hacker has
infiltrated Horizon and possibly all of the Horizon files. Our
plans are in jeopardy. You have quality people working on a
possible breach but you do not have the depth of technological
prowess our friend can access. He has a team capable of conducting
a much more thorough search than your analysts to uncover if we are
truly at risk."
"Maybe we are better off not playing that
card right now. We can fix a potential breach ourselves. We are
going to need our friend in the future if this situation becomes
volatile. I do not want to cry wolf."
"We are not crying wolf. We already know the
system has been attacked. What are you really afraid of?"
"Being hasty."
"Or being exposed for having made a
mistake?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You took a flash drive from a reporter and
put an access file directly into Horizon's system."
"Be careful with the words you are using,
Julia."
"I'm only wondering if the real reason you
are reluctant to contact our friend is because you
around their powerlessness. As the government began its movement
towards solidifying COSA, Apex and independent technologists like
her would arise from the public and private ranks to enforce a
rational accounting through their technical capabilities. Her
colleagues were having their own meetings and making independent
plans to stop COSA before the system could be implemented. Their
number one weapon would be advanced technology, including the
brainpower to 'outcode' government operatives. The only question
was when, and where should they start to deploy.
*
"An errant flash drive?" Julia questioned
Marco in a gray-walled windowless room. "The whole incident was a
set-up from the beginning?"
"It's possible," Marco replied leaning back
into a sofa and putting his feet up on the table in front of him.
They had retreated to the basement of FedSec's main office building
where secure rooms with recording devices and video cameras were
available for discussion of classified topics. A clock on the wall
displayed the time as 1:10 am. Marco had entered the facility
minutes earlier to personally access the room's operations and shut
down the listening and viewing recorders for their conversation.
"We need a new place to work."
"Impossible to move at this point. Besides
the issue is not the building, the attack was against our servers
and software. We'll have to fix Horizon."
"Fix Horizon? Some hacker could have lined
the server rooms with damaging code aimed at not only listening to
us but also stealing every file we have. He probably already has
every file we have."
"You think we are too far along with the
build-out at Horizon to take another course of action?"
"With our plans?"
"Yes."
"Well we would have to stick with the main
concepts, the core structure we had decided on is definitely far
enough along. But the details, no."
"Hmm, don't you think a hacker only wants
the details? Wouldn't they already be suspicious we were working on
global surveillance tracking? Conspiracy theories often have a way
of actually being true."
"He may have been suspicious, but now the
rumors have been confirmed."
"That's okay, as long as they don't have the
details. We can change the specifics now and throw off the
advantage they thought they had obtained by stealing from us."
"I don't know. How differently can you code
a program to do the surveillance work we expect?"
"Coding is not my area of expertise. But we
can have our Silicon Valley friend take a look for us, and let us
know if we are okay to move forward or if we have to start again.
He could also check the physical Horizon infrastructure and confirm
if we really have to worry about moving."
"If you are speaking about the friend I
think you are speaking about, contacting him would be extremely
risky. He said we should only reach out in a genuine emergency.
People cannot know his connection to us and to this program."
"We have an emergency. A hacker has
infiltrated Horizon and possibly all of the Horizon files. Our
plans are in jeopardy. You have quality people working on a
possible breach but you do not have the depth of technological
prowess our friend can access. He has a team capable of conducting
a much more thorough search than your analysts to uncover if we are
truly at risk."
"Maybe we are better off not playing that
card right now. We can fix a potential breach ourselves. We are
going to need our friend in the future if this situation becomes
volatile. I do not want to cry wolf."
"We are not crying wolf. We already know the
system has been attacked. What are you really afraid of?"
"Being hasty."
"Or being exposed for having made a
mistake?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You took a flash drive from a reporter and
put an access file directly into Horizon's system."
"Be careful with the words you are using,
Julia."
"I'm only wondering if the real reason you
are reluctant to contact our friend is because you
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