The Origin Point: A Future Tech Cyber Novella

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  Although the breach at Horizon had provided Apex with a trove of valuable information about COSA, she was still searching for the program's detailed development plans, especially the outreach to global leaders, businesses and other organizations capable of participating in the project. The faster GCS was able to claim more adherents to COSA, the harder the system would become to dissolve. Each entity could act as another's redundancy, making a data breach at one facility only a temporary operational blip on a company's time. Apex needed to ensure she exhausted all options to inflict permanent damage or at least debilitate an organization's COSA connections. With security at the Horizon offices re-established by Carter's cleanup, she had to consider an alternative route to GCS's confidential data, and decided one may exist through the electronic devices Julia and Marco juggled between home and office.

  In the build-out of electronic gadgetry into consumer uses, people had already sacrificed security for convenience. Even high-ranking government officials responsible for cyber security were vulnerable to the appeal of innovative personal devices rapidly adapting into popular use, at the expense of outmoded models favored by internal electronics experts championing a rigorous security blanket. Given the variety of options used to access confidential documents, Apex hoped to find a breach by cross-referencing Julia's personal mobile, tablet, home laptop and main office desktop at the State Department with the same devices owned by Marco, and identifying an opening a clever tech could enter. Government departments were notoriously weak with their technology protection infrastructure. With millions of technology jobs left unfilled by the lack of attention to science education specialties, all sectors competed for the few graduates and experienced programmers who were available to work. But a hierarchy of preference had developed in the talent search world. Qualified and coveted technologists usually preferred first to accept positions offered by innovative, driven entrepreneurs either founding their own companies or going to work for those who were coming up; next option were the established Silicon Valley technology companies and competitors in other cities who could provide sufficient benefits and steady pay along with free lunch and recreation; those searching for high salaries in exchange for time-consuming work weeks turned to management consulting and financial engineering; then the government appealed to the patriotically-driven or selected from military-mandated assignments; until finally at the end of the line all other industries, non-profits, education and other government departments waited for the few available hands who would be willing to launch their careers in organizations where neither high pay nor prestige would be readily forthcoming.

  Within the cut of desperation among the government departments, Apex expected to find a mistake. She only needed one deficient path, and she could be in on their systems within minutes. Running a series of proprietary search applications developed by her own companies, Apex leaned back to take another look at the documents Dallas had uncovered, and contemplated the uphill battle lying ahead.

  With some plans, the government would always be able to claim the conveniences and efficiencies of COSA far outweighed any potential concern about privacy. In the consumer file found among the policy documents on the flash drive, GCS was proposing unlimited access to financing for consumers who defaulted all of their personal banking and investment information to COSA. The functionality's appeal to consumers would be overwhelming. In the distant past, traders had to rely on physical property as a medium of exchange. Pure gold had been the standard used by all nations as absolute proof of financial viability. When governments determined they could print money without restraint, paper became the mechanism through which they built developed economies using only the whimsical acceptance of high finance currency arbitrageurs as the definers of fiscal value. For the future, physical currency would disappear from the public's view, and the paper dollar would be replaced with digital accounts displaying the availability of funds to pay for services using vaporous digital code as the intermediary. Under COSA, the system would extend credit far beyond the balance available in an account, without spending limits. If an individual's checking or savings balances fell to zero, the system would automatically search the entire Internet for available sources of loan funds. Based on the consumer's personal data including education, employment and prior loan histories, a program would scan thousands of offers from all forms of lenders, all over the world, and extend a line of credit or a short-term loan. The consumer's pre-defined prerequisites, from a cap on the amount borrowed or annual interest rate, to the location of the funding institution, would define the parameters for an acceptable lender. Once the account received approval, before the next bill was due, the system, without input from the consumer, would transfer the funds, and spending could continue with impunity.

  'This will be the ultimate crutch,' Apex thought. 'On this governments would grab every last consumer. Who wouldn't want access to an endless stream of funds?' The proposal did include the need for qualifying criteria and interest rate controls. But for a consumer who previously had no access to credit, the system would provide an automatic, no document, no approval, no wait lifeline, even at a 400% annual interest rate. Apex shuddered. Borderline financially safe consumers would succumb to the offers in the name of security and desire at the same time. Apex imagined the excitement around the release of the application, rolled up with these features designed to simplify a life and remove all known sources of financial stress with the click of an 'I Agree' button.

  'These plans are a diabolic mix of efficiency and the invasion of privacy at the same time. Online education, sexist code rules, drones...' Suddenly Apex recognized an option she had not yet contemplated in her attempt to infiltrate FedSec. 'Drones.'

  Turning to her laptop, she began searching for the home addresses of Julia and Marco. Julia's address was not in the files Apex had co-opted from Horizon, but remarkably Marco's was, and with his coordinates, Apex realized she had another opportunity. Maybe she could enter Marco's home with a drone, use the machine to locate his cell phone and directly access FedSec through his personal device. Looking next at available drone sales options, she selected a model available through an online-only outlet, paid for overnight delivery and waited for the machine to arrive.

  Commercial drones were generally considered toys for hobbyists extending the reach of model airplanes by adding a camera to provide a literal bird's eye view to humans on the ground. But the media and the public widely speculated on the myriad potential additional uses for the devices in tasks from search and rescue to childcare. The only limitation was government regulation, which, as always, lagged behind the actual real-time uses people were already practicing. The drone Apex ordered was shaped like a mini-helicopter with a flying saucer belly, and equipped with a camera for remote viewing, and two claws for grasping objects. After assembling the loose parts, Apex tested the machine in her small living room. Placing her mobile on a table, she stood across the room and looking only through the camera's video feed, flew the drone to hover over the surface, and attempted the manual manipulation to pick up the device using the grasping claws. A second later, she lost control and dropped her phone to the floor. "Damn," she remarked aloud as she set-up to try again.

  As night turned into early morning, Apex ran the maneuver over and over again. Placing the cell phone at different angles and on varied surfaces, she made certain the claws could quickly grasp the object and hang on for an extended time. As the sun began to rise, she concluded her skill was sufficiently perfected. The grasping claws were an unfamiliar, added feature requiring additional practice to raise the probability of success. But as she crawled into bed, another thought drifted wearily into her mind. 'I hope Director Manuel sleeps with the window open,' she told herself before succumbing to slumber.

  Departing for D.C. after 1 am, Apex drove the lightly-trafficked streets into the city and left her car parked in a vacant lot three blocks from Marco's buildi
ng on the edge of Mount Vernon Square. Scouting the location, she noted the nearby rooftops and calculated the ease of access based on residential traffic and security controls. For her task, she would require limited observers and compliant overnight guards, but D.C. was blanketed in surveillance cameras and vigilant eyes. Carefully scouting for two available rooftops near his building, one to hide the drone, and the other to hide herself, she selected views, which on sight did not appear to cross any lines capable of triggering an alert before she could complete her task. Separately, she hoped Marco preferred to doze with fresh air, but as she trained binoculars on his condo's exterior, she realized the windows were closed. Scanning over to his balcony, she zoomed in and discovered he, probably without realizing, appeared to have left the door open. 'That will do,' she contentedly thought. Satisfied with her physical surveillance, she returned to College Park to await the ideal night for executing her plan.

  Around 2 am on the night of her attempt, Apex arrived on foot to the quiet street running along one side of Marco's building. The early morning hour was not quite late enough to be devoid of all human presence. But walking within a cover of trees, Apex decided the few people milling around were unlikely to notice her. Most were drunken college students or drug-affected homeless wanderers. With the neighborhood's close proximity to well-touristed zones, a few late night strollers would not represent a threat to her personal security. Intending to avoid being seen launching the drone, she made her way to the rooftop garden of the building where she would hide, and activated the drone, which had been carefully hidden a day earlier on another building's under-utilized rooftop. For both entries, gaining access to the roofs had only taken a few minutes of eyelash-batting pleas. D.C.'s obliging building security guards conveniently had only helpful aid to provide to a purported tenant who claimed to have lost her key.

  Using binoculars to peek through Marco's blinds, Apex determined he was asleep. Comfortable she had her opening, she accessed the drone's remote control and manipulated the machine off the roof and towards Marco's balcony. Too late, she realized the balcony door was closed. She had not practiced opening a door with the claw and worried about the add-on feature's pulling strength. But with a closer inspection, she noted the door was only aligned with the doorframe and not secured at the latch bolt. Locking the claw on the handle, she required only a slight tug to pull the weight all the way open. Smiling with relief, Apex flew the drone into Marco's apartment. Looking at the camera feed, she scanned the common areas, maneuvered into his short hallway, and seeing another open door, flew into his bedroom. The drone was not one hundred percent silent, and Apex had no idea if Marco was a heavy or light sleeper. But she would not wait around to find out. Inside the bedroom, with street lights from outside beaming strips of brightness across his walls, she immediately scanned his side table for the phone, which was openly displayed where he could reach for it, but also, to her alarm, plugged in.

  "Crap," she cursed. The claws would have to hold their own against a cord plugged in to a wall socket. The feature had the clasps for grasping but may not be able to defeat the resistance created by a connected cord. Moving the drone over to the table, she easily used the claws to pick-up the phone as she had practiced, and started to fly away, cringing for the moment the cord would yank back on her pull, which was only a minute later. Thrusting up her drone speed, and the noise, she moved the machine back and forth with abrupt jerks trying to wrench the plug from the socket or alternatively from the phone. After three attempts, she opted for maximum speed and with one last tug the cord released from the wall, but the plug abruptly dropped onto the side table with a clang as the metal end hit a glass of water.

  Marco stirred and sat straight up in bed. Quickly adjusting his eyes to the darkness, he caught sight of the drone flying out of his bedroom, clasping the phone in its claw, and dragging the dangling electric cord like a tail waving good-bye. He leapt out of bed.

  "What the..." Marco yelled, chasing after the drone. As the machine raced to the balcony, Marco tried to reach forward and grasp the cord, but the drone slipped through the open door and took off straight up into the air while securely holding the phone in its grasp.

  Apex had planned to land the drone in the empty parking lot where she had parked the car five blocks away, and she ran to the location while listening for the sounds of sirens building towards Marco's building. Arriving at the lot, she maneuvered the drone down, grab Marco's phone, and threw the drone and phone cord into the car trunk. Flipping open her laptop, she hurried to use the phone to enter FedSec's computer system before Marco could reset all the security codes and trace the phone's location. With perhaps seconds to spare, she was in at FedSec and downloading the detailed preliminary plan for COSA and the President's briefing papers for the G8 Summit. Triumphantly, Apex shut down her computer. Opening the car door, she dropped the phone on the ground and smashed the device five times with a sledgehammer. Satisfied, she raced out of the parking lot and drove back to College Park with her captured personal copy of the elusive details for the most comprehensive electronic surveillance plan ever developed.

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