The Algorithm Man: The Cerberus Solution

By J. Salvatore Domino

The Algorithm Man, Teddy “A-Man” Douglas, is back with the second in the series of entertaining stories. His newest whodunit, The Cerberus Solution, finds the “A-Man”, taking on his latest challenge by unraveling a Cyber Attack on large corporate network.

Working alongside his team of partners, A-Man does battle against a devious hacker that has found a weakness in the company’s network security.
Follow along as Teddy “A-Man” Douglas as he uses his advanced mathematical algorithms to decode complex malware, decipher intricate computer virus schemes and secure even the most sophisticated computer networks.

Teddy and his associates will level the playing field against some of the world’s most sophisticated treasure hunters. It is an entertaining look at modern cybercrime.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J. Salvatore Domino
• Release date: Nov 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463063873

J. Salvatore Domino

J. Salvatore Domino is an author and blogger based in Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S.A.Best known for his non-fiction work and technical documents, he has found writing fiction to be more fun.His stories run the gamut from cozy to dark. But his goal is always the same. He likes his readers to escape into an entertaining story where fiction and reality converge. His characters, whether you love them or despise them, often mirror real life.Join him for a few minutes or several hours of enjoyable leisure.

Book preview

The Algorithm Man -

The Cerberus Solution

J. Salvatore Domino

Copyright ©2019 Joseph Salvatore Domino

All Rights Reserved

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Still the one

Chapter 2 - The Lotto Look

Chapter 3 - It’s a Common Name

Chapter 4 - I Know You

Chapter 5 - The Cerberus Solution

Chapter 1

Still the One

This case frustrated Teddy in a way no other case he remembered had in a long time. It was Friday; he had been working all week without a breakthrough.

His Cyber Patterning Algorithms have never failed before. His entire reputation. Even the future of his company, C.P.A. Inc., could be in jeopardy if he doesn’t come up with a comprehensive solution. As it is, he is going to have to ask for more time and fifty more billable hours. Another week over his estimate.

But the worst part may be that he has failed to live up to his name as the A-Man, America’s Cyber Sleuth.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t shut down the malicious software that the hackers had placed. He could do that in a matter of minutes. The problem is that it just keeps regenerating itself. Then it starts the whole network intrusion all over again.

This was one of the more complex and effective Cyber-Attacks that the A-Man had ever witnessed. The hackers had not only successfully penetrated the computer network of his client, Advantage Investments, but they had also succeeded in stealing thousands of dollars from accounts being maintained by Advantage on behalf of their investors.

The attack was using the classic Salami Slicing technique, a form of Penny Shaving. In this scenario, the hackers transferred small amounts of money, usually a fraction of a cent, into a temporary account. When the account reached a predetermined value, they withdrew the balance and sent it to a remote location somewhere in the world. Once they transferred the money, they deleted the temporary account leaving very little evidence of the crime.

This episode was reminiscent of the famous 2008 attack where the hackers created and closed more than fifty-thousand accounts under phony names. They were able to withdraw a large sum of money from a national financial institution. They were never caught.

Since Teddy’s computer-based analysis tools were not solving the puzzle, it reduced Teddy to using old-fashioned, brute force methods to try to find out where the hackers were initiating their probes and where the money was being directed. He had spent all week collecting samples of the intra-network traffic from Advantage’s routers and printing them out on paper. He would then place them on the large conference room table stacking them neatly in numerical order, placing each datagram on top of the previous one. He was hoping that the stacks would end up equally, ten for the first datagram, ten for the second, and so on. But each time he captured a new event, there was different information. One pile would have ten messages, another eight, still another only six. To make matters worse, the sizes of the packets within the datagrams were also changing.

Damn it, he grumbled. How in the hell are these guys doing this? I am not making any sense out of these transactions? He was at his wit's end.

A few moments later Susan Meeks, Advantage’s Network Manager, appeared at the doorway. Susan and Teddy were old friends. Their friendship went back to their college days when Susan and Teddy often worked together on group projects. After graduation, Teddy went to work for the I.R.S., and Susan went on to get her Master’s Degree. Susan graduated cum-laude, and Advantage immediately hired her. Her brilliance allowed her to move up quickly through the ranks to become Advantages National Network Manager. Her staff, which grew quickly, numbered more than forty. They were comprised of a combination of technical and administrative personnel.

As so often happens