There was a scattering of applause as an embarrassed Jeff walked up the side of the room to join Clive on stage. “Jeff’s been watching the game for us. So…who are the winners?”
“We had six people with perfect scores, so the winners are the three who answered the fastest. Let me call them all up, then I’ll tell you who came in first,” Jeff said. “Sort of like the Miss America pageant.” To the great surprise of the gathering he announced Agnes Capps and asked her to come on stage. She wore a smug expression as she made her way to the front. With a confident bounce she moved like a younger woman than she was.
Next was Chuck Chacko, who came up less ostentatiously and quietly stood beside the woman, looking a bit self-conscious.
“And the last finalist is Dillon Ritter. Come on up, Dillon.”
Ritter joined him with a broad grin. Once all three were there, Jeff noticed Norm move along the side of the room until he was positioned at the front, ready to move. Their agreement had been that the hacker would be announced as one of the three brought to the front of the room regardless of how they scored to make the arrest easier.
“Now, Jeff, who is the overall winner?” Clive asked.
Jeff smiled and announced that Capps had just nosed out Chuck. She grinned as several booed her while others applauded deferentially. “Thanks, everyone, for playing,” Jeff told the audience.
He stood aside as Clive closed the conference by thanking the attendees for coming and the sponsors, especially CTI, for supporting it. Jeff and the three finalists stepped off the stage and Jeff overheard Norm ask Ritter to accompany him out of the room. Ritter appeared perplexed, but Norm’s firm grip on his arm guided him out one of the room’s side doors. Everyone else was busy talking as they filed out the back of the room so didn’t notice what had happened. Jeff was glad that his plan had worked, but was sad that an old colleague was guilty.
Clive said good-bye to someone and then walked over to Jeff with a smile on his face. “Great work, Jeff! Really creative of you. I texted Daryl to tell her that you’re the man of the hour.”
As he said that, a text arrived on Jeff’s phone. “I’m told you are showing off. D.”
Jeff and Clive puzzled over Ritter’s motives for a few minutes until Norm came back in the room. “Ritter wants to see you.”
“Why?” Jeff asked.
Norm shrugged. “He says if you see him he’ll come clean. With what we have we probably don’t need that but it would be good to learn what he knows about Anonymous. I’d like you to talk to him.”
Jeff agreed, then followed the FBI agent out of the meeting room. Ritter was being held in a room not far away. At the door another agent stood as sentinel. Norm ushered Jeff in and there was Ritter seated at a table with a bottle of water in his fist, flanked by two sober agents.
“You want to see me?” Jeff said.
Ritter looked terrible, like a man about to have a heart attack. He was sweating profusely and had already removed his jacket. “Sit down, Jeff. Please.” He gestured toward a chair near him.
Jeff hesitated, than sat.
“I guess…” Ritter stopped. He lifted the bottle and took a long swallow. “I guess you’re wondering why I did it.”
“Yes, and why you attacked me. It’s been on my mind ever since I realized it was you.”
“I regret that. It was foolish of me. More than foolish, it was cruel.” He paused, then continued. “I heard through the grapevine a few days ago that you’d been hired by RegSec and I just wanted to warn you away. I worried you would find me if I’d overlooked the slightest thing. I saw you walking to the conference hotel through the alley yesterday and figured you’d go back the same way. But I’d been drinking and got carried away. I wish I’d never done it.” He dropped his head.
Jeff glanced at Norm, who nodded encouragement.
“Why did you do it, Dillon? Why’d you hook up with Anonymous?”
Ritter looked at him with sudden vigor. “I had to do something! Don’t you see? We’re being smothered by Big Brother. It’s not just the government, though that’s bad enough. It’s these giant multinationals. They bleed us dry, take our personal data, then sell it. They’re arrogant! Reginald Hinton deserves what I did to him. I hope it ruins his company!”
“You’ve never talked about any of this before. You’ve always belittled anyone with these views. Are you sure that’s really it?
Ritter hesitated before answering. “I lost a big chunk of my retirement with those clowns. I’ve still not recovered and don’t ever expect to.”
“You mentioned your divorce last night and I’ve heard that things aren’t going well for you at CTI.”
“I…” Ritter stared at the table. “I guess there’s some truth in that, too. My wife…my ex-wife…It’s been too much. The lawyers…all that money…for nothing.” He finished the water. “And you’re right about CTI. They’ve been nudging me out the door for months. I’m here at my own expense, you know that? I thought maybe it could buy me some time, let me catch up.” Then he eyed Jeff significantly. “Or maybe I’d land a job elsewhere.”
“So why throw it all away?”
“I don’t know. I honestly don’t. I just don’t know what came over me. I’d contacted Anonymous, played around with the RegSec Web site, and saw the vulnerability. I kept it to myself. When I got here I was surprised to see it still unpatched. So stupid! Why are these companies so stupid! It was like an open door. When no one else with Anonymous could get in, I just…I just couldn’t resist walking through. I figured that launching the attack from the conference Wi-Fi would give me anonymity and I guess I wanted to show Anonymous how good I was, and really, prove it to myself. But RegSec deserves it, Jeff. They deserve it!” He paused, then said more quietly, “Anyway, I’m really sorry I hurt you.”
Norm placed his hand on Ritter’s shoulder. “Steady.” He looked at Jeff. “You can go. Thanks.”
Jeff rose, took a final look at Ritter, then left the room, leaving him with the FBI agents.
The day after Jeff was home, Daryl swept into their cozy house, all aglow and looking very inviting. “Did you see?” she said, after they’d kissed. See what?”
“Someone hacked Reginald Hinton’s private e-mail account, and posted some very compromising nude photos he’d sent to one of his bimbos. They’ve gone viral!”
About the Author
MARK RUSSINOVICH works at Microsoft as a Technical Fellow, Microsoft’s senior-most technical position. He joined the company when Microsoft acquired Winternals Software, which he co-founded in 1996. He is the author of the first Jeff Aiken novel, Zero Day, and also of the popular Sysinternals tools. The non-fiction books he’s coauthored include the Sysinternals Adminitrator’s Reference (Microsoft Press) and the Windows Internals book series (Microsoft Press). He’s a contributing editor for TechNet Magazine, and a senior contributing editor for Windows IT Pro Magazine. Mark lives in Washington State.