Online Life

Chapter 16 - Babe

After Claire's promise to Ashton, they both fell asleep, emotionally exhausted from the days events.  Claire slept peacefully for the first time since sleeping by the fire place.  She didn't have one dream during the night and only woke in the morning when she heard a knocking at the door.  The door opened slightly and Officer Riley peaked around the corner.

"I know its early Claire, but can I come in?  We need to talk." Officer Riley asked but was making his way into the room, accompanied by someone Claire had yet to meet.  Claire was rubbing the sleep from her eyes and Ashton was slowly waking as well.  "Officer Riley?" Ashton was asking in dismay.

"Good morning Claire, Ashton.  This is Officer Sanders.  He is the one I spoke of yesterday.  We had to come and see you first thing this morning.  We have some news in regards to your laptop." Officer Riley said as Officer Sanders took Claire's laptop out of her case.  Claire couldn't help but notice how handsome Officer Sanders was.  Surprisingly much younger than what she anticipated for a detective.  Perhaps only Twenty five if that.  He was fairly tall, on the slim side with short blonde hair.  What caught her attention the most, was the way he carried himself.  He exuded cool confidence, almost with an edge of conceitedness.  She felt intimidated by the attention he seemed to command.

"Nice to meet you Claire, Ashton." Officer Sanders came over to the bed and shook both their hands.  "Officer Riley has given me a brief background of your case, and I'm sorry for what you have been going through.  Unfortunately... I don't come bearing good news.  Your laptop has been breached and from what I can tell it doesn't look good." Officer Sanders was shaking his head in disappointment.

"But I don't understand Officer.  How could this person get into my computer?" Claire couldn't understand how this could be happening.

"There are many ways a person can hack into another computer.  This appears to be the work of a Black Hat Hacker.  Some of the worst and most intelligent hackers.  His work is virtually undetectable, but there are a few trace signs he has left behind."

"But how could he get into my computer?" Claire asked, needing answers.

"This guy, his name is Trojan?" Officer Sanders smirked while shaking his head.  Claire knew the multiple meanings of the word.  Now Claire knew that it was also a virus as the officer explained it to her.  Claire felt as if she was being lectured by Officer Sanders.  "Did Trojan ever send you a link to anything?"  Claire knew that he had.  "Ya, on occasion he did.  They were harmless things, nothing bad." Claire was trying to defend her actions, but knew she must have done something wrong.  "Hackers are good at that Claire.  Hiding viruses, malware and worse in harmless looking links.  You won't even have a clue what's going on behind the scenes."

Okay Officer, cut to the chase.  What are we faced with here?" Ashton said, visibly showing his anger that was brewing inside.

"Well for starters Ashton.  Claire's computer has a R.A.T.?" the officer exclaimed, not looking the least bit intimidated by Ashton's tone.

"A R.A.T?" Claire looked at Ashton in confusion.  Ashton looked just as confused back.

"Short for Remote Administration Tool hack.  It gives the hacker remote access to your computer.  They can use your computer and do anything to it.  Such as turn your video on and off." Claire's heart dropped, knowing now that he was in fact watching her.  "You also told Officer Riley that you deleted him from your account, but then he was there again.  This tells me that he knows your password.  Hackers can easily get ones password by Key Logging.  Key Logging is the process of capturing another users key strokes.  He would therefore be able to see everything that you type into your keyboard.  When you log into any site, and enter your username and password, he instantly knows that information.  My suggestion to you is to change all your passwords, and make them lengthy with random numbers and letters, also using caps.  For example a good one would be R28dyQ7Fmn.  The longer and more random, the harder it is for programs that hackers use to decode your password." Officer Sanders had her laptop open and was opening a few programs.