mizunoyoroko
Inactive Member
((continued from: Mission 1: Finding the Hand that feeds))
"Hmm," muttered Nobutora, forgetting his surroundings for a moment. He plunged into his terminal, trying to detect whether the faulty queries and lost data sets were the result of defensive systems or just bad luck.
Looking at the results a few of the errors did indeed seem to be genuine bad luck, there were about 4 however that the answer wasn't so clear for. It seemed that there were defensive programs on the 4 that just stopped existing right before the scan would reach their respective section of the network. There wasn't enough data available to interpret the results much further than that.
He furrowed his brow in frustration. If this turned out to be an automatic system, that was one thing, but if not... If because of the attack they were discovered... But that was neither here nor there for the moment.
Pulling up some of the pre-prepared search algorithms and invasion programs, he input the parameters of the missing files and set them to work. He sat back and waited; working properly the the registry logs should be stripped and analyzed within minutes.
As expected, the logs were quickly stripped and checked for any tell-tale signs that the computer had been set to detect. Everything checked out, except the modification dates of teh registry. Search algorithms revealed that the values had been edited at some point, and forced to look like they hadn't.
Nobutora nodded as the information flickered on the terminal. Satisfied, he activated the next layer of the search program. It would follow the path of the registry changes, trying to reveal the location of the missing data, and should it be blocked would reveal the location of the defensive programs.
The program couldn't discover the location of the missing data, it did find however the terminal at which the changes were made. This terminal was one of the same terminals which reported an error during the network scan.
"So it looks like we've been detected after all." Quickly injecting the assortment of last resort programs into the system, Nobutora targeted the terminal. The only hope now was to cut off the terminal by brute force, cut the user off at the virtualization layer, and take control of the system personally.
It wasn't hard for the programs to take control of the terminal, although as they did so a program ran with an undecipherable name and obfuscated code. An error identical to the one that occurred during the system scan also occurred when Nobutara seized control of the terminal.
With the same error occuring, there was little else to do but back up the physical memory of the terminal to PANTHEON and leave the system. Taking one last look at the error, Nobutora hit the key to terminate the search protocols.
The programs automatically shut down, first terminating in such a way to remove all signs of their existance. Indeed, they actually made the incursion look like an error in the system management itself. Finished with the attack, Nobutora sat back to take a look at the information now stored on PANTHEON.
His first interest was the terminal user. In normal operations, the user would be tagged by an internal number. Finding the code quickly stamped on the terminal's memory, he cross-referenced it with the corporate identify logs also stripped from the system.
As soon as Nobutara hit the key to disconnect, the monitoring programs that monitored the netowork flooded the screen.
Nobutora shrugged. A virus based back-hack wasn't too unexpected, especially given the level of sophistication already demonstrated in defending against his attack. Checking to make sure the automated systems had cut off his terminal from the network, he turned towards the secondary system he already had in place.
From behind a highly encrypted network shield, the second terminal had been remotely monitoring the entire attack, just in case such a thing happened. He had already terminated the attack programs and severed the connection so there was no real reason to try to infiltrate the system again anyways.
Instead, Nobutora left the search for the user's identity to run independently while examining the logs on his first, compromised system manually. The nature of the virus and what it was looking for might tell him something about who was running security on the other side.
The virus continued to rummage through the local files on the laptop, it took longer on the files containing decryption algorithms before proceeding. Several times it was blocked access to various areas since it lacked a password, however later it would try again and succeed. The virus appeared to be completely adaptive, even taking in the information it had processed and applying it. After thirty seconds the virus split into two processes, one worked at the filesystem as before, while the other began working on trying to operate the wireless communications device on the laptop.
Nobutora was a little surprised at the sophistication of the virus. True, it was too much of a generalist program to really excel at data mining, but it's adaptive properties definitely suggested it was professionally made. It's attempts to operate the wireless communications hardware was a little worrisome too.
Nobutora was confident that the system defense would hold, but just in case, he pulled the network card and activated his defensive systems as well, having them jam the wireless bands locally. His hardwired connection to PANTHEON would be undisturbed, and with physical access to the compromised system removed and all other communications jammed, the laptop couldn't communicate.
While the virus happily finished processing the last of the files Nobutara's search for who's terminal that computer belonged to brought up a hit. The terminal was operated by Sukimade Iro, one of the suspected terrorists. As this search returned that, the infected computer stopped flooding the screen with files and promptly restarted.
He flagged the terminal ID and turned his attention back to the compromised system. Leaving the back up system to continue monitoring, he began looking through its directory, looking for damage or any remnants of the virus. He also went into the wireless software to put a full, coded ID lock on it. There was no sense letting some dormant portion of the virus hop back onto the network and report its findings later. To be sure, Nobutora fully intended to destroy the laptop once he was done analyzing it, but a little professional paranoia had never let him down before.
The file structure of the hard drive had been trashed, instead it appeared that every file that was required to operate had been rewritten. Now each file was a disgusting mesh of every other file, to operate the machine there were pointers within each file that would send it to another file at a random line in the code, process a little there, shoot off, shoot back, all seemingly at random. Nothing was stored in it's proper directory, in fact everything was in a single directory as well as several text files that upon examination were usernames and passwords, as well as the keys to algorithms that the machine had used or made use of.
Yoshiko had been watching Nobutara work for a little while before approaching him. "How's it going Yamamoto-Hei?" Yoshiko asked.
Nobutora looked up in a surprise, focused as he had been on his work. "Aside from a few defensive actions, I was able to completely copy the targeted network and the associated systems to PANTHEON. Of immediate note to our investigation is that my primary attack system was back hacked with a professionally made virus.
"It is likely the work of some other intelligence agency. Moreover, the locus of most of the defensive actions was manually activated from a terminal operated by one of the terrorists, Sukimade Iro. The virus managed to severely damage the laptop, but it was isolated and monitored against just such an occurrenceHowever, ma'am, since our attack was detected, I would hesitate to call this a success."
"From Sukimade Iro's workstation? You have that copied right? Maybe we can he left something on his workstation that we can grab from the copy on PANTHEON." Yoshiko suggested, These guys might be better off than we thought they were. the neko thought before asking Nobutara one last question, "Could this do anything to PANTHEON if it were not isolated?"
Nobutora shrugged as he pulled up the data on the back hack. "The virus is highly adaptive, but PANTHEON's automated systems and operators are extensive and well prepared. But it really is a non-issue as the laptop has been cut off entirely from communication, both wired and wireless. Moreover, the memory space in PANTHEON the data was copied to has been individually quarantined and firewalled, both from the rest of the network and the other segments of copied data. In short, no ma'am. The odds of PANTHEON being affected in any way are exceedingly low."
There were no virus alerts to plague Nobutora when he pulled up the data. The information on the computer seemed to be fairly routine, mostly projects that Iro was assigned to work on. However, the device history showed that the device that had been disconnected right before the network sweep had been connected multiple times before. It also showed that the device drew more power than other devices.
"Ma'am, the more I look at information around Iro's terminal, the more suspicious it gets. It now appears he is running non-standard devices in the work place. I will try to pick out any information from the system analysis." He paused for a moment, activating the standard data sweep of all the information copied to PANTHEON.
Now he would have to wait for the results, which would probably be available in a few hours, what with the amount of data collected. "If the data security demonstrated during our attack is any indication though, it may be that we will need a physical effort to secure the device and its data. We'll know more when the analysis comes back from PANTHEON."
The datasweep prioritized the device first then would move onto the other areas of the computer. From the information recieved from the sweep all that could be determined was that it was a standard memory stick, but drew more power than usual. Logs indicated the presence of an autorun file as well as data flow logs seemed to indicate that programs were executed from the drive but it was unable to determine what program. Unfortunately anything else would have to wait until the full sweep was completed.
"Shosa, based on analysis of the information already available, I do have to advise that direct action is taken to secure the device operated from Iro's terminal. Based on the nature of the back hack and the information security procedures taken to protect the data, I must conclude that Iro is receiving assistance from an established intelligence agency.
Nobutora reviewed the data again as he spoke. "While there is not sufficient data to provide a numerical probability, at this time I would surmise that the memory device likely contains data critical to our investigation. It's acquisition ought to be a primary objective of immediate direct action."
"I'll have Yamamoto-Hei, Rokunohe-Hei, and Eika-Hei see if they can pick it up somehow." Yoshiko responded before relaying the orders to the pair.
"Hmm," muttered Nobutora, forgetting his surroundings for a moment. He plunged into his terminal, trying to detect whether the faulty queries and lost data sets were the result of defensive systems or just bad luck.
Looking at the results a few of the errors did indeed seem to be genuine bad luck, there were about 4 however that the answer wasn't so clear for. It seemed that there were defensive programs on the 4 that just stopped existing right before the scan would reach their respective section of the network. There wasn't enough data available to interpret the results much further than that.
He furrowed his brow in frustration. If this turned out to be an automatic system, that was one thing, but if not... If because of the attack they were discovered... But that was neither here nor there for the moment.
Pulling up some of the pre-prepared search algorithms and invasion programs, he input the parameters of the missing files and set them to work. He sat back and waited; working properly the the registry logs should be stripped and analyzed within minutes.
As expected, the logs were quickly stripped and checked for any tell-tale signs that the computer had been set to detect. Everything checked out, except the modification dates of teh registry. Search algorithms revealed that the values had been edited at some point, and forced to look like they hadn't.
Nobutora nodded as the information flickered on the terminal. Satisfied, he activated the next layer of the search program. It would follow the path of the registry changes, trying to reveal the location of the missing data, and should it be blocked would reveal the location of the defensive programs.
The program couldn't discover the location of the missing data, it did find however the terminal at which the changes were made. This terminal was one of the same terminals which reported an error during the network scan.
"So it looks like we've been detected after all." Quickly injecting the assortment of last resort programs into the system, Nobutora targeted the terminal. The only hope now was to cut off the terminal by brute force, cut the user off at the virtualization layer, and take control of the system personally.
It wasn't hard for the programs to take control of the terminal, although as they did so a program ran with an undecipherable name and obfuscated code. An error identical to the one that occurred during the system scan also occurred when Nobutara seized control of the terminal.
With the same error occuring, there was little else to do but back up the physical memory of the terminal to PANTHEON and leave the system. Taking one last look at the error, Nobutora hit the key to terminate the search protocols.
The programs automatically shut down, first terminating in such a way to remove all signs of their existance. Indeed, they actually made the incursion look like an error in the system management itself. Finished with the attack, Nobutora sat back to take a look at the information now stored on PANTHEON.
His first interest was the terminal user. In normal operations, the user would be tagged by an internal number. Finding the code quickly stamped on the terminal's memory, he cross-referenced it with the corporate identify logs also stripped from the system.
As soon as Nobutara hit the key to disconnect, the monitoring programs that monitored the netowork flooded the screen.
Suddenly Nobutara's screen blacked out before a list of files flooded the screen. The files were all files contained on the laptop.alert said:
Nobutora shrugged. A virus based back-hack wasn't too unexpected, especially given the level of sophistication already demonstrated in defending against his attack. Checking to make sure the automated systems had cut off his terminal from the network, he turned towards the secondary system he already had in place.
From behind a highly encrypted network shield, the second terminal had been remotely monitoring the entire attack, just in case such a thing happened. He had already terminated the attack programs and severed the connection so there was no real reason to try to infiltrate the system again anyways.
Instead, Nobutora left the search for the user's identity to run independently while examining the logs on his first, compromised system manually. The nature of the virus and what it was looking for might tell him something about who was running security on the other side.
The virus continued to rummage through the local files on the laptop, it took longer on the files containing decryption algorithms before proceeding. Several times it was blocked access to various areas since it lacked a password, however later it would try again and succeed. The virus appeared to be completely adaptive, even taking in the information it had processed and applying it. After thirty seconds the virus split into two processes, one worked at the filesystem as before, while the other began working on trying to operate the wireless communications device on the laptop.
Nobutora was a little surprised at the sophistication of the virus. True, it was too much of a generalist program to really excel at data mining, but it's adaptive properties definitely suggested it was professionally made. It's attempts to operate the wireless communications hardware was a little worrisome too.
Nobutora was confident that the system defense would hold, but just in case, he pulled the network card and activated his defensive systems as well, having them jam the wireless bands locally. His hardwired connection to PANTHEON would be undisturbed, and with physical access to the compromised system removed and all other communications jammed, the laptop couldn't communicate.
While the virus happily finished processing the last of the files Nobutara's search for who's terminal that computer belonged to brought up a hit. The terminal was operated by Sukimade Iro, one of the suspected terrorists. As this search returned that, the infected computer stopped flooding the screen with files and promptly restarted.
He flagged the terminal ID and turned his attention back to the compromised system. Leaving the back up system to continue monitoring, he began looking through its directory, looking for damage or any remnants of the virus. He also went into the wireless software to put a full, coded ID lock on it. There was no sense letting some dormant portion of the virus hop back onto the network and report its findings later. To be sure, Nobutora fully intended to destroy the laptop once he was done analyzing it, but a little professional paranoia had never let him down before.
The file structure of the hard drive had been trashed, instead it appeared that every file that was required to operate had been rewritten. Now each file was a disgusting mesh of every other file, to operate the machine there were pointers within each file that would send it to another file at a random line in the code, process a little there, shoot off, shoot back, all seemingly at random. Nothing was stored in it's proper directory, in fact everything was in a single directory as well as several text files that upon examination were usernames and passwords, as well as the keys to algorithms that the machine had used or made use of.
Yoshiko had been watching Nobutara work for a little while before approaching him. "How's it going Yamamoto-Hei?" Yoshiko asked.
Nobutora looked up in a surprise, focused as he had been on his work. "Aside from a few defensive actions, I was able to completely copy the targeted network and the associated systems to PANTHEON. Of immediate note to our investigation is that my primary attack system was back hacked with a professionally made virus.
"It is likely the work of some other intelligence agency. Moreover, the locus of most of the defensive actions was manually activated from a terminal operated by one of the terrorists, Sukimade Iro. The virus managed to severely damage the laptop, but it was isolated and monitored against just such an occurrenceHowever, ma'am, since our attack was detected, I would hesitate to call this a success."
"From Sukimade Iro's workstation? You have that copied right? Maybe we can he left something on his workstation that we can grab from the copy on PANTHEON." Yoshiko suggested, These guys might be better off than we thought they were. the neko thought before asking Nobutara one last question, "Could this do anything to PANTHEON if it were not isolated?"
Nobutora shrugged as he pulled up the data on the back hack. "The virus is highly adaptive, but PANTHEON's automated systems and operators are extensive and well prepared. But it really is a non-issue as the laptop has been cut off entirely from communication, both wired and wireless. Moreover, the memory space in PANTHEON the data was copied to has been individually quarantined and firewalled, both from the rest of the network and the other segments of copied data. In short, no ma'am. The odds of PANTHEON being affected in any way are exceedingly low."
There were no virus alerts to plague Nobutora when he pulled up the data. The information on the computer seemed to be fairly routine, mostly projects that Iro was assigned to work on. However, the device history showed that the device that had been disconnected right before the network sweep had been connected multiple times before. It also showed that the device drew more power than other devices.
"Ma'am, the more I look at information around Iro's terminal, the more suspicious it gets. It now appears he is running non-standard devices in the work place. I will try to pick out any information from the system analysis." He paused for a moment, activating the standard data sweep of all the information copied to PANTHEON.
Now he would have to wait for the results, which would probably be available in a few hours, what with the amount of data collected. "If the data security demonstrated during our attack is any indication though, it may be that we will need a physical effort to secure the device and its data. We'll know more when the analysis comes back from PANTHEON."
The datasweep prioritized the device first then would move onto the other areas of the computer. From the information recieved from the sweep all that could be determined was that it was a standard memory stick, but drew more power than usual. Logs indicated the presence of an autorun file as well as data flow logs seemed to indicate that programs were executed from the drive but it was unable to determine what program. Unfortunately anything else would have to wait until the full sweep was completed.
"Shosa, based on analysis of the information already available, I do have to advise that direct action is taken to secure the device operated from Iro's terminal. Based on the nature of the back hack and the information security procedures taken to protect the data, I must conclude that Iro is receiving assistance from an established intelligence agency.
Nobutora reviewed the data again as he spoke. "While there is not sufficient data to provide a numerical probability, at this time I would surmise that the memory device likely contains data critical to our investigation. It's acquisition ought to be a primary objective of immediate direct action."
"I'll have Yamamoto-Hei, Rokunohe-Hei, and Eika-Hei see if they can pick it up somehow." Yoshiko responded before relaying the orders to the pair.
