Chapter 8 The Hack Attack

• Henry dashed down to the lab. It was one of those rare times anyone could see him be in the company of more than ten percent of his staff. His brother throttled behind him: another rare sight for the brothers who did not ever appear together publicly. Daniel, however, was in front of Jack, keeping up with the same pace as his boss.
• "Andre, what's the meaning of this?" Henry asked as he entered the lab.
• "Mr. Vice President," said Andre, straightening. "The hacker just left us a message. He says you have only an hour to call him before he starts giving out our company's data for free."
• "Excuse me, did you say the hacker wants me to call him?" Henry said, looking around for Zoe, who he spotted at the far end of the lab.
• "Yes, Mr. Vice President," replied Andre. "This doesn't strike me as typical ransomware. It seems the hacker isn't demanding money. Someone is trying to get your attention."
• "My attention? If someone just wanted my attention, there are several ways to get to me; why hack into our system just to get my attention?"
• "Beats my imagination too," Andre said.
• Zoe scoffed. It took her months before she was finally called for an interview at maga tech. This was exactly what fitted a man like Henry, and frankly, she felt no sympathy for him. In fact, she loved that this was happening to him. However, part of her wanted to see them triumph over the hacker. She vowed that if she could come up with a solution first, she would use it to leverage Henry's proposal.
• "Well, let's make the call and see if we can pinpoint our hackers' location," Henry said.
• Andre chuckled and said, "Forgive me, Mr. Vice President, but for someone who can do this to us, I don't think he would be sloppy enough to let us track him."
• "True," said Jack, nodding.
• "Damn it; this is unacceptable!" Henry said, throwing his hands up in despair. "What are our chances of overriding the hack?"
• "Unfortunately, the hack is targeting everything, and we've been logged out of all our systems, making it impossible to install an antivirus, assuming we're able to come up with one."
• "So the only way to stop this hack is to find the passkey?"
• "Exactly, and unfortunately, we can't attempt to perform a brute force attack because we don't know how many chances are allowed to input the right password."
• "What happens if we get it wrong?"
• "Well, that depends. For multiple password trials, such hacks are designed so that every failed password will speed up the copying process. And if it's one chance, then the hack must have been designed so that if we guess wrong, all our files get deleted, up to our backups. If I must admit, I feel our chances of overriding the hack are limited to one shot."
• They were roasted either way. Their tech data was worth billions of dollars, yet the hacker wasn't demanding such a ransom. This felt like a personal vendetta. Henry wondered who the perpetrator could be. He had so many people that hated him because of his cruel nature. However, his intuition was telling him that the hacker might be an ex-worker, but the issue was that so many workers had either resigned or been sacked from Maga tech over the years that he couldn't remember all their names. Even if they somehow found out who the hacker was, they didn't have much time.
• "How did the virus get into our system?"
• "The virus could have been attached to several things," said Andre.
• "Fine, give me the number, and I will make the call!" Henry said. "The rest of you divide yourself into two groups. One side should work with Andre to figure out the password, and the other should find a way to create an antivirus."
• Zoe breathed a sigh of relief. She hated inactions. She watched Henry disappear with Daniel and the other guy who had come with him. She wondered who he was. He seemed comfortable around Henry. Her guts told her they were related.
• "Aww, cheer up, big brother; I'm sure the hacker just wants to blackmail you for some of your money," Jack said when they arrived at the VP's office.
• Henry was overthinking the whole thing. He had not yet made the call because he had an hour to do so.
• "Jack, stop talking, please," Henry bellowed.
• "I don't know why you seem so shook up; make the damn call before things worsen."
• Henry took the phone and called the number written for him on paper. Jack was keen on listening to the conversation, so he drew closer to his brother.
• "Hello, you asked me to call! If you leak any of my company's data, I will make sure I find you and throw your ass in jail for the rest of your lifetime."
• There was a lazy yawn at the receiver's end before the hacker spoke, "Mr. Henry, you know how to play chess, right?"
• "Chess?" Henry asked, perplexed. Of course, he knew how. Was there a computer literate who didn't? He wondered, but what had that got to do with the current situation.
• "Yes, chess," the hacker said, after delaying for some time.
• "I do; what has that got to do with anything?" Henry said.
• "Let's play a five minutes game virtually. If you lose, you will hand out a thousand dollars to every one of your staff, or I will expose a few of your company's data. However, if you win, I'll give you the first letter to the password, and we will move on to the next demand. As a bonus tip, the password is five characters, and it consists of two alphabets, one number, and two symbols."
• "I don't have time for your nonsense games. Why don't you tell me what this is about?"
• "I was just bored, so I decided to have fun with the CEO of a billion-dollar company. You thought this was about you? I'm afraid I haven't even met you in person. However, I've heard stories about you, Mr. Henry, and frankly, I'm disappointed about your ethics. You can have your staff play alongside you if you aren't confident about winning me on your own. If they really want to help you. Bye for now, I've sent you a link to download and install my special chess app."
• "I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but this demand is far from it," Jack said, slumping into a chair in front of his brother. "You have no choice but to play the game, right?"
• A few minutes later, Henry, his bodyguard, and his brother were down at the lab again. Henry explained the demand of the hacker, and everyone was awed.
• "The app seems safe to install," Andre said.
• "Go ahead and install it," Henry said.
• As soon as the game was launched, the hacker sent a challenge to his opponent. Mr. Henry clicked on accept and hoped he would be playing as white. However, he was black, and he hated black. The hacker, who was white, moved his pawn from d2 to d4. Henry had twenty seconds to make his first move, or he would lose the game even before it began…
• He responded with the same opening and started white's timer. The game continued, and both kept playing within seconds of each other's move. They both had about three minutes left on the clock when black lost a castle and captured nothing in return. Henry had just lost a valuable piece, and he was spending more time thinking now. The more he spent time thinking, the more white had the upper hand to win the game since black might eventually lose to running out of time.
• Zoe, who had been observing the game and had possibly a grandmaster rating in the game, decided to leave Henry to his fate. She didn't mind if he lost since his loss would earn her a thousand dollars. However, she began itching to prove her value to everyone.
• "Sir, may I?" she said, placing her palm over his.
• Zoe's touch sent chills to him. Henry was under so much pressure that he didn't hear her address him wrongly. He let her take control of the game. When all hope seemed lost, Zoe captured one of the white knights for free. She was playing without much thinking and not long; both players' times were equally matched with one minute remaining.
• The board was almost entirely cleared of all pieces except for pawns and kings. Both players were now trying to get their pawn to the last square of the opposite side to resurrect an official. After a few more struggles, Zoe was able to land at the opponent's last square first, but right after bringing back the blacks' queen, white queened too. They were both left with thirty seconds each. It was about to feel like the longest thirty seconds in history for everyone as they all wondered if either player could checkmate or whose time was going to run out first.