Cyber Security Sam Book 2: The Invisible Man

By Rich Owen

The Invisible Man is a mystery, in which a bright high school boy named Sam helps the FBI and Secret Service investigate potential cybercrime. In this story, you will get an update of the status of the perp from the previous investigation in the book Time Out. Sam will also find himself working with the Secret Service and FBI on an incident that causes all teachers to not get paid. Sam later finds himself helping to solve a major bank robbery where at one point the best suspect is a ghost. After many twists and turns Sam finally garners the help of his friends to identity the perp for the Special Agents.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098357221

Book preview

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© 2021 Rich Owen All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN 978-1-09835-721-4 eBook 978-1-09835-722-1

There are Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs.

Join Sam and the other Sheepdogs

who are focused on helping the Sheep

avoid the cyber-attacks of the Wolves.

Contents

Preface

Monday Morning - Nov 2

Lunch

Science Class

After School

Mac and Bob’s

Monday Night

Tuesday Morning

Lunch

Social Studies Class

At the Bus Stop

Wednesday Morning 3 a.m.

Wednesday (at school)

Thursday

Thursday – At the bus stop.

Friday - Student Day at Salem Days Event.

Friday – Late Lunch

Saturday

Monday –at OTS Bank

Monday – at school

Tuesday

Tuesday – at the OTS Bank

Wednesday

Wednesday Night Dinner

Thursday

Friday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Preface

This book is about the continuing adventures of Cyber Security Sam and his efforts of working with the authorities to solve cybercrime. All names in these stories are made up. With one exception, Granddad, there is no relationship between the characters in the books and real people. Some places are real like Mac and Bob’s. Some places are variations on existing places, like S3 is based on Andrew Lewis High School (now Middle School).

The technology discussed in this book is very close to real. The cyber events are based on real events. You will be exposed to technical terms such as OPSSEC, SIGNT, Cozy Bear, APT, RAT and more. First read this book as a fun adventure story. Then go back and research the events, technologies, and organizations mentioned to learn the details behind the hacks.

The purpose of this series of books is to introduce people to the world of cyber security in hopes that we can continue to grow the team of people that fights the cyber-criminal. This is a hot field that has good pay and negative unemployment.

This book and the entire Cyber Security Sam™ series is dedicated to my grandchildren and to all who have an interest in protecting information.

I hope you enjoy the journey.

Monday Morning - Nov 2

"As I walk down the hallways of Salem Smart School (S3) there appear to be mixed emotions with everyone today. Friday was Homecoming. There are still banners in the hall about the game and the dance. People were all excited, but then our football team lost. I can’t believe it. We were supposed to win. We are the better team. We were even ahead 30-0 at the half, but Amanda called it. She said that we would lose and we did 30-32. There appears to be something else brewing, especially with the teachers. I just haven’t figured it out yet.

I head to my Computer Science Class, best subject ever! I know, I may be a bit young to be a freshman, but I got into this school because my world is computers and, well, I am just good at computer stuff," thought Sam.

On my way I see Bobby. He is one of the tallest students in the school and hard to miss. He must be at least seven feet tall. He is about three years older than me, but, for some reason, he still talks to me. In fact, we even hang out together. He is kind of like my big brother at school.

Hi Bobby. How is Frederica?

She was arrested a couple of weeks ago for breaking into our computer system. She hasn’t been back to school since then. It is still hard for me to believe that she did it. She was very smart and helpful. I can’t imagine her doing anything like that and besides, I would have thought she would have been more careful. I say that because I was a key part of the investigation team that gathered the evidence that they used to arrest her, thought Sam.

I don’t have time now. How about we meet for lunch at Franks? said Bobby.

Sure thing, I am off to Geography and then Math. I’ll meet you there.

Lunch

Sam was just finishing his second mini Coney Island hotdog from the four-pack at a table out front when Bobby arrived. Frank’s Franks is a unique hotdog joint. They seem to have a hotdog for whatever mood you are in. They have Foot Franks, which is a foot-long hot dog. They have the Regular Frank, which is what most people eat. For a snack, they have a Mini-Frank, which is about half the size of the regular hot dog. This is what hamburger people would call a slider. They even have a Fat Frank, which is a quarter-pound fat hot dog on a hoagie bun. You can have your choice of toppings: Chicago style, Coney Island style, or just about any way that you can think of eating a hotdog. Bobby gets a Fat Chicago dog and joins Sam at the table.

Well Bobby, how is it going?

OK, I guess.

Frederica is still so upset by the arrest that she says that she never wants anything to do with this place ever again. We had planned on going to the Homecoming Dance, but no way. Like I said she is pissed. She swears that she did not do what they arrested her for. When she told me that, she sounded real but I detected that maybe she had done something. She will not talk about any of it. She says she is trying to follow the advice of her attorney. She started back to school in Vinton today.

You know Sam, it was a bummer going to Homecoming alone, but as a senior and as Captain of the basketball team, I was expected to attend. Some of the recent graduates were there, so it was good to talk with them. There were some old people there as well, I mean really old, like over 50. I didn’t see very many people there in the range of 21-50. I guess I left about 10. I noticed that people were starting to set up in the PE field for the Salem Days Festival.

Yeah that starts this Friday, said Sam.

Sorry to ramble Sam, but Frederica and I have been together for a couple of years. Now I am kind of lost. So, how have things been for you?

Not much happening with me. This weekend Peyton and I went to Longview and played some tennis. We played against two old guys in their 30’s. That may not seem like a big deal, but we played using the old rules where you had to win by two games to win the set. We won the set 39 games to their 37. I think that I have had my tennis fix for a while.

Bobby and Sam finish lunch and head back to the ’68 bridge. The ‘68 is the bridge that was commissioned by the class of ’68. It goes over College Ave and connects our school with Ole Towne Square (OTS). OTS is a collection of vintage shops around Andrew Lewis Park. Andrew Lewis was a brigadier general in the American Revolutionary War. There is a statue of him in the middle of the park. The rest of the park is just green grass, play areas, picnic tables and benches. Gone are the harmful devices of yesteryear like the Teeter-Totter and Merry-Go-Round. On the way Sam sees Special Agent Stanley waving to him.

Map: Salem Smart School and Ole Towne Square

Hey Bobby, I just remembered that I need to pick up some nails for my dad in the General Store. I will catch you later.

OK, later! says Bobby as he walks back across the bridge.

Special Agent Stanley is sitting on a bench in front of the 5 & 10 cent store. You can buy all kinds of crazy things there, but certainly nothing for 5 or 10 cents anymore. I walk over and sit down.

Good afternoon Sir. I saw you wave. Is there something that I can help you with?

Hi Sam. No, not really. I guess you heard about the pay problems of the city?

No I had not, but does it affect the teachers?

Yes, why do you ask?

I overheard several of them talking about money problems this morning.

"Well, it appears that the payroll system of the city that tells the bank how much to transfer or deposit into employees’ accounts may have been hacked. Oh, don’t repeat that. Let’s just say that it was supposed to give the data to the bank so that the money transfers could happen on Friday and it did not. The city is smart enough to have a Red Flags program that monitors changes in financial status and when the transfer started to happen that program discovered that the money needed to fund this week’s pay was in excess of a million dollars, so the program shut down the transfer. No one who works for the city, including teachers, got paid on Friday.

The city contacted us and Data-Crackers R-Us to help them investigate. Right now we can’t find any form of break-in or why the data was wrong. The only thing that we can verify is that the data