Weekend Write-In

root

I cringe when I see hackers on film. Either they guess the password for some almighty account by looking at a post-it or they discover some obscure vulnerability. Either way, if there were companies exposing themselves like that, they'd be asking for it. And, no. There ain't. I get paid to do this. Sometimes I pick a target and discover a treasure I can sell, or companies approach me to pick someone else's locks. Mostly I combine them. I get a commission and while I wait for fish to bite, I pick my own targets. It was one of these personal projects that left me a message just now.One the hundreds of people I had targeted at Millai two weeks ago, has clicked the link I sent. I don't care much why. This someone did. I check the metadata. It doesn't appear to be a honey pot; still - cats and curiosity, you know. I set up a list of nodes and make sure I get a stable connection to a shell. This last node is an account I stole a while back at a university in Canada. Still good. I upload the packages I need and start them up. Planning is crucial. You don't want to experiment on a remote system. Every single second is precious. I start the script with the new node and... bam... I have a connection to the Millai machine! Someone is working or left the machine running overnight. And now I am on that machine. I check my permissions. I don't seem to have access to much. It could be anyone. I often joke that if they have no permissions at all, it's probably the CEO. He! Well, this one doesn't have much. Well, I didn't expect much. It only takes a little bit. I check the running processes on the computer. A mail client and a web browser. Ah, but the mail client is tied into their instant messaging. That's nice! I upload a script that gets the messaging graph. Now I can see who else is online. Mmhhh, only one. At least in my victim's connections. Okay, let me see who that is. Eliza. I have to send a message to Eliza but I risk my user will see the activity. I could tap into the message queue and register mouse movement to see if anyone is active but the time spent there is wasted elsewhere. What the heck...

* alexyton joined. (Connected: 1)* eliza joined. (Connected: 2)

[alexyton] Hi Eliza, do you know if the large format printer is shut down?[eliza] It is online.

That was fast. She...

[eliza] Who are you?

Shit, I don't know what this user is called. Eh... There.

[alexyton] Alex.
[eliza] You are not Alex.
[alexyton] Yes I am. Don't be silly. I should know.
[eliza] Yes, perhaps you should.
[alexyton] Wait. What is that supposed to mean?

* root joined. (Connected: 3)

A floorboard outside my door is creaking. Then everything explodes around me.