Cyber Secure

By E Jason Williams

Cyber Secure the first of the Cyber trilogy is set in the year 2132 and based upon one of IT's biggest shortcomings. The main character enters IT security with the very first Security Company whose sole purpose is to protect everyone's financial well-being with everything done by means of computerized tra

• Language: English
• Publisher: WordHouse Book Publishing
• Release date: Sep 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781685470111

E Jason Williams

Cyber series is written under a pen name, the author spent over thirty of his professional years directly involved with IT and every possible division or department involved in information technology. Cyber Kill is based upon my imagination and foresight into the needs of responsible IT everywhere.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Timothy Frantz had always been considered a ‘Gifted’ student. He completed academics by the age of 15, having had the opportunity to obtain information and past testing procedures to bypass 3 levels of early academics. At age 16 he enrolled into higher education after taking 6 months to research and determine what career opportunities he wished to pursue.

Computers were used everywhere and had become as much a part of life as food was for nutrition. His academic studies were all performed from home with the use of a computer, this is where all of his textbooks, as they were still called, were found and no paper was ever actually read. The Internet evolved into the cloud and Timothy never really concerned himself about who came up with that name, for the amount of information that was on it. He merely accepted the name and pulled up as much information as he could devour and he had a voracious appetite. It was one of the reasons he had advanced so quickly in his academics. The information available was seemingly infinite, once he even got scanned pages of the very first bible ever printed for an academics project. He believed he learned to use a computer before he ever took his first steps, but his mother assured him he was taking steps at least a week before he found the computer.

Timothy Frantz possessed an excellent memory, so he never needed to repeatedly do the same thing, to remember the pertinent details. It helped to scan the information two or three times to remember all the details.

Since he could obtain his entire education from home without ever setting foot on a campus, he chose to enroll in MIT at 16 after completing his research and having decided he wanted to direct his focus on Information Security. MIT remained the leader in technological breakthrough and advancements. By age 19, he had completed his first level of degrees.

When he was not pursuing his dream, he did go to local computer cafes or cloud joints as was the local nickname in Washington State. He was active in local athletics, but was not a superstar in any one of those activities. It did at least provide exercise and physical fitness; his parents were largely in favor of fitness. He did manage to fracture his wrist in football, which led to 3 months away from all athletic activities until the nearby medical facility determined, it was fully healed and not going to cause any other issues. Of course, football was removed from his athletics, mostly at the insistence of his dear mother. He already accepted the fact that he would never be a highly paid professional athlete, in any of the major sports.

At age 20, Timothy Frantz had earned his Master’s degree in Information Security and it was time to put all of it to good use. Every company in the world had need of Information Security, but Tim did not want to deal with just a single individual company’s one or two areas of concern. He did not want to be restricted to only limited information pertaining to only that single company. The cloud still lacked an overseeing agency or corporation to monitor the information available on the cloud, and no company was without risk that he was aware of. He had heard rumors from the cloud joints where he met a number of people, including a group of budding hackers, looking for what they called easy money. They had no desire to go through all the necessary steps to earn a living. They were rather small time and had managed to acquire enough world currency to get by. Tim, was not an active participant in this group, but more an observant bystander, learning many tricks used to infiltrate small investment firms and financial businesses. He did not employ these techniques personally, but it helped immensely in learning things to watch for in security to prevent hackers from achieving their goals. The rumors were rather fast and furious about a new government agency being formed to monitor and prosecute hackers for illegal activities, and that had the budding hackers a little concerned. Rumors are what they are, rumors, if it was a government agency, then each country would need its own agency. As usual with governments, by the time jurisdiction was settled, the criminals would be difficult or impossible to track down. He had also heard of a different approach though the media on the cloud and wanted to see if this was going to unfold soon, or take years to come about. Inside of a week his questions were answered, and much to his surprise the Headquarters for the new Global Security Corporation was going to be located right near him in Seattle. The corporation papers had already been filed and approved by the state, federal and world governments, he simply needed to find out the exact location, and if they have a hiring policy in place.

When he got up the next morning, he started immediately checking into the cloud to find out where the global security company was located. He found it almost immediately, they were going to be located in the downtown area of Seattle, which was not more than a thirty minute drive. He was surprised to find out open hiring for fresh new analysts was going to begin next week. A week was not too much time to wait and he got all his information gathered as to achievements and degree papers. Went to get copies made. He concentrated on spending a bit more time at the local cloud joint frequented by the budding hackers and decided to have a chat with them today.

One disadvantage to spending all your school years inside your own home, was a lack of social interaction with other students and people in general. His skills were neither the best nor the worst, as he had at least participated in athletic activities and had some interaction with other people in his own age group, not so much with all age groups. The budding hackers he figured were at least close to his age and might be a good place to have a conversation. He went to the cloud joint after getting his documents copied, he did not want to lose the originals and did not really know how many he might need, so he settled on only 5 each. The cloud joint was in close proximity to his home and he merely walked there but would need to drive into Seattle. He was hoping to give it a trial run tomorrow to get an idea on time and distance. He also wanted to make certain of the exact location so as to keep from wasting time getting to the open hire date.

Timothy waited at the cloud joint for what seemed like half a day, but really was two hours before the first of the budding hackers appeared, and took up what was like a reserved table for them. It may be that few people had arrived this early in the day, which was now getting near lunchtime for many. Soon after a second member appeared and took up a seat with his friend and co-hacker. Timothy decided to go over and say hello and see how they responded. To his surprise the first one that had entered said, How are you, I have seen you plenty of times, care to sit with us for a bit. Timothy said, Sure I will join you for a bit, by the way my name is Tim. The first one said he was not real good about remembering names, but his was Mike and his other friend was Bob, the conversation was mostly small talk for about 15 minutes. Then Tim said something that took the conversation into a whole different direction. He said, I do want to thank you guys for all I have learned from you when I have been here, even if you were not aware of me at the time. That got a long and thorough talk on the groups hacking abilities and minor achievements. Tim had figured already most of these people want to become known for what they did in order to become consultants to companies, to get the big payments for telling them how to be able to detect the intruders. It even got him an invitation to the group, which then led to a bit of a let down to the budding hackers group. Tim told them he was actually an Information Security analyst, which he had not even gotten to the hiring date, and was grateful for all he had learned from them, as a means to know what triggers to look for when analyzing information. That made the budding hackers a little more apprehensive as the pair now wondered if they were about to be busted. Tim assured them he was not authorized to do anything more than analyze information. He told them if he ever encountered a company that had their signature, he might defuse it by diverting the hack to someplace where they would fail to get the objective, but would not be prosecuted for the attempt. That made things a little less tense between them, and then the talk was more centered on how he got to become an analyst. He was surprised to find the hackers were actually a few years older than he suspected, he was much younger than they thought possible to be a master degreed information security analyst. Nothing more useful was really discussed over the next hour and no one else joined them. He bid his farewell and went to the house to get back onto the cloud, to find more information that might aid him in getting to work soon.

He found 40 to 50 of the most recent articles by professionals on interviewing techniques, and how to navigate through the array of questions. After scanning through all the articles several times, Tim concluded the only bit of pertinent information he gained was to be honest and truthful in his answers. It had never occurred to Tim to be anything other than honest, so he spent 6 hours coming to discover he gained no real insight. He did manage to get to the evening mealtime though. He never figured out how his mother had always made such wonderful meals after spending 8 hours working and still take care of a household. He thought one of these days he really ought to pay closer attention to it and see what the secret was. To Tim, his mother seemed to have endless energy, he hardly ever said anything about how good she did at keeping the house. He had not even noticed what was used to do it. Guess he would have to ask that too.

He headed to the dining area where his mother was setting out the evening meal, and his father was already seated awaiting the first serving. He took his expected seat and said, Mom I got to hand it to you always have the house clean, work and then have a great dinner, how do you find time to do it all?

His mother just smiled and said’ Tim, you know very well I do not need to leave the house for my work, and the robotic sweepers take care of the majority of the cleaning. The meals I can often start the preparations while I am working, it only takes a short break and the cooking can all be done by computer timing. It is just that even though the synthesized foodstuff is being promoted, as more nutritious and healthier than real food, I do not enjoy the taste. Which I am sure, will improve in the years to come. As for now the computers still have the correct cooking times for real meats and vegetables which I will always try to have. Tim replied with, Mom, I had no idea we had robotic sweepers and computerized cooking in the kitchen, but you still do an excellent job at keeping everything up and making such wonderful meals. Still if we have robotic sweepers, how come I have never seen them, they invisible too? His mother replied first with a short laugh and then said, No the robotic sweepers come out very late, normally after everyone has gone to sleep, so the house will look the best when you first get up. They are whisper quiet, so you may never hear them and there are sensors on every door to allow the sweepers to enter a room with a closed door. It triggers the electronic lock to open, and since at 4AM which is the time set for them to operate, you have not seen them because you are asleep. It only takes them about 45 to 50 minutes to cover the whole house. There are little hiding areas in the walls the sweepers return to and are quite difficult to find. Tim nodded his understanding and the dinner was served. He still could not understand why not once, he did not see a robotic sweeper unit anywhere in the house or his room for all of his 20 years. Which all were spent in this house.

The next week was rather fast moving for Tim as the next day after trying to view different information on the cloud, he went back to the cloud joint to see a huge sign out front that took him by surprise. ‘IG is HERE’ is all the sign said. Tim did not know what IG was. For as much time as he spent looking through information on the cloud, he thought he should have some general idea. So today he went inside and up to the counter and simply asked. What is IG? he inquired to the young lady behind the counter. She looked rather shocked for as much time as Tim had spent there, she thought he was well aware of it and all she said was, Really? He replied, Yes really! So she told him it was the next generation of the cloud, but instead of using cable based transmissions, it is light speed. Addresses are handled by the unit you need to send and receive light signals. This bit of information was totally new to Tim and still he being well up on all the latest in computer technology, he knew he had to find out more. He asked the young lady behind the counter if all the computers here were able to use it. When she said they were he ordered some computer time to do the research.

For his next shock of the day, as soon as he logon on to the computer, the speeds were so much quicker than anything he ever dealt with. He could not fully believe what he was seeing, but he liked it. His first research was into the IG, which was the newest name for the cloud, but now was simply called Information Gateway. At least this made far more sense to him than The Cloud. Since information was what this was all about in the first place. He then continued to dig up as much information as he could to discover. The system had been 5 years into the realization of Information Gateway (IG). Nine original companies were involved into getting satellites first launched and then positioned around the globe, to allow for connectivity anywhere on the planet. They also planned on having maintenance crews capable of keeping the satellites in position, refueled and preventative maintenance to have them in orbit for a very long time.

He continued to retrieve information to find the information on the units designed to send and receive information. He found they were simply called transmitter/responder units, also dubbed TRU’s, it was typical of computer equipment and software makers to use acronyms for anything they could. These units were first placed into production 3 years ago to get ready for the demand, and were only available from a single corporation in order to insure each had a unique 10 digit address code. This was in a hexadecimal numbering systems allowing for more addresses than ever before. This took the address workload off of the computer systems used to keep the information, and make it available to all those who could access it. Some companies and corporations restricted access to their systems to those who have the correct access codes. Most of these codes change a minimum of daily some as often as every 4 hours. Some Military and government data required a special device for access that only the devices kept the code changes with each access. These companies and governments wanted to maintain secrecy in their respective endeavors. Government did not want to share military advancements, while companies wanted to stay on top of their latest advancements, whether technological or medical.

He then tried to find out how to acquire a TRU and whether or not it was something he could afford and install himself or if it required a trained technician, and the answer was not to his liking. First the TRU’s were available only to businesses during the first 6 months, so they could have it ready for the masses as the article stated. Today was actually the very first day businesses could put them into use. They did require a specially trained technician to install, primarily because of the unique qualities these units have in relationship to the satellite positioning and laser system used for light speed transmissions. They required very little power, and could even run on battery if a power source was not close to the outdoor location required, to make contact with its satellite. Cost for the basic user had not yet been determined, and largely depended on how the first 6 months went as to if the units would be available and at what cost. It made no mention of the home based businesses that were a part of so many households in this century. He had lost track of time during his researching and found he had been there 6 hours. He never even saw the hackers enter or leave while he was engrossed in all this information that he should have known about long before now. At least Tim thought he should have, since he was the going to be a Security Analyst or planned to be soon. He needed to go back home as the evening meal would be close to ready. He wondered how he lost track of so much time so quickly.

At the evening meal, which was normally a nice quiet gathering of the family, Tim blurted out once everyone took a seat. Has anyone seen the IG is here and can it be obtained here since this home is used for business too? His dad just looked at him like he was speaking a foreign language, his Mom said simply not yet. Tim then addressed his mother, How long have you known about the IG? His mother said it was mentioned 3 or 4 months ago in a conference video, she was required to attend and it was basically about the necessary changes needed by the corporation to adapt to the new technology. In addition, an interim period before the whole world had the IG, as there would be two networks to use. One being the current cloud, the second being the IG which she thought was Information Gate or something like that. Tim said, The proper name Mom is Information Gateway. She also said the company would have far less equipment needs once the cloud was eliminated, because the new Information Gateway would take over all the addressing to connect one location to the other. It was a most unusual dinner from most nights. Tim and his mother talked for nearly 45 minutes before getting to the now cold food, and dad had long ago left the table.

Apparently, Dad leaving the table was unseen by the two engrossed in the new technology discussion. Tim decided to help out with clearing the dishes and helping get the cleanup done in the kitchen. It was something his mother had not seen him do or asked him to do before. It was not that difficult to rinse the dishes and put them in the sanitizing unit to remove later.

CHAPTER TWO

Tim spent a good deal of the remainder of the week getting as much information as he could digest concerning all the aspects of the IG. This included as much understanding of the satellites and the transmitter/responder units as well. Also, the address scheme and how it was going to remove the task from the computer systems themselves.

By the week’s end he felt he could answer almost as many questions on the new technology as he could on information security. He learned that the satellites had a number of enhancements from a standard orbiting satellite. First it had small propulsion engines to allow it to be adjusted from time to time to counter any gravitational affects it might encounter. Most satellites usually have degrading orbits that eventually lead to them reentering the earth’s atmosphere where they often burn up as they descend. They also have onboard systems that allow them to be accessed by the company that launched it. They could do most programming adjustments and positioning without going to it. It also has an onboard monitoring system which tracks any item that will need to be refreshed or looked at during the preventative maintenance visits. This includes mirrors and the condition they are in, as minute space debris can cause pitting to a reflection surface. That could degrade from proper position of the light beams. Worst case it causes a slight change in bounce angle making a need to adjust it from the ground system. Tim also learned that each satellite had a number of adjustable mirrors to account for each and every signal angle it computed from the TRU’s. It was also able to direct the signal to other satellites in order to send its light beam to its correct destination. These mirrors were on a positioning system that got latitude and longitude positions from the TRU’s, to use for positioning the mirror for best reception and direction for the light beam to continue on. It was amazing just how quickly these mirrors could adjust position, the article stated as much as 100,000 times per second. This was to account for the massive numbers of people that were eventually expected to use the Information Gateway, as the cloud would become obsolete.

He also found out that by using the TRU’s as the addressing unit the system the cloud used, would eliminate the need for a large amount of space consumed by each system, just for addressing purposes to send and receive information. In the long run it would be a great deal more effective and less costly to the company or corporation in amount of computer storage it would require. For really large companies they could have multiple TRU’s to allow everyone quicker response times. Although, he also learned that a single TRU could perform 50 thousand light transmissions in a single second. He also found himself spending far too much time at the cloud joint. That moniker was now outdated. He liked the speed he could get from IG compared to home, which had always been fine in the past.

It was now close to time to get rested for tomorrow when he planned to be at the open hiring event downtown at precisely 9 A.M., when it got underway. He set the computer wake up call for 7 AM and got himself prepared to get some sleep. Of course, he had difficulty actually falling asleep, he was trying to prepare himself for questions and answers he expected to hear. His mind would not relax and his body did nothing to counteract his brain. He finally fell asleep about 3 AM and still never heard a robotic sweeper unit enter or leave his room.

He got up with the wakeup call and went through the morning ritual with an energy he did not really feel after a restless night of sleep. Tim got a little bit of breakfast and finished getting dressed in a suit and tie. With his copies of degrees and achievements in hand, he unplugged the charging unit from the electric vehicle, and headed toward his destination in Downtown Seattle. He arrived about 25 minutes early. Tim decided to look around the surroundings of the office before entering the building. He did notice at least a sign in the lobby window showing-hiring event taking place on the 34th floor of the building. He found his building was surround by other tall buildings. He could not really see much from ground level that was not blocked out by buildings. He knew the ocean was nearby, but he could not determine which direction it was in or even catch a hint of the scent of water nearby. After his 15 minutes of quickly checking out his immediate surroundings, he also noticed a few places of business he might like to visit when he got to come to work. He had every expectation of being hired, he never even considered he would not be offered a position.

He entered the building and found the elevator to the 34th floor, he was surprised to see a single elevator that only went to 34 and 35. Other elevators in the bank of 10 went to a much larger floor groups three were for floors 1 to 15 and 3 more to 9-25 while the last group of three went to 20 through 33. He got out on the 34th floor and was struck by the fact there was only a single area partitioned off to hold temporary offices, the rest of the floor was barren. There was only a short line of applicants and Tim thought this was in his favor as he obviously was the best candidate. He entered the line and waited the three minutes until the 9 am hour arrived.

At the top of the hour a group of people emerged from behind the partition and it seemed that there were at least twice as many of them as candidates. They looked a little disappointed at the turn out, but it was a single person to select a single candidate, and take them to separate areas behind the partition. To call them offices would be totally misleading, there was no carpeting or rugs or tile on the floors, just the poured concrete. Large areas of open space separated the areas; this was so no one would overhear another party being interviewed. Tim was escorted by one to a rather quickly made up meeting area where there was a table and two chairs, at least they were comfortable chairs. The interviewer started by introducing himself as John Thompson and placed an electronic computerized pad on the table. He did not ask Tim for his name at first, he simply went on about who was Global Security Corporation. John said, "Global Security had been in existence for a full five years and had spent the last 4 years getting the world governing bodies to comprehend the need for a global information security group. Our purpose is to monitor and protect all the businesses large and small from a single source. In the last year we have received agreements from 75% of the major governments and funding to further progress from many of them.

Also, during the last year, we have been contacting major financial businesses and other larger fund handling organizations to determine, how many would be interested in a service such as our. The response has been well above our expectations. It has also helped determine the amount a contract would be for each year, with adjustments after each year and essentially renegotiating contracts. Funding from the governments have allowed to start the hiring phase of all our office around the globe. That started today in all the cities we have offices. Furthermore, Global Security Corporation had been working all along with various technological companies to insure a smooth transition into obtaining the best technology, and to work with those we will need to access. As an example, we required tapping into the satellites from time to time deployed for the Information Gateway. The interviewer paused and looked at Tim and asked point blank, You do not seem to be unaware of the Information Gateway or IG, have you heard of it? Tim said, I only heard of it since the end of last week, but also have been using it most of this last week. This actually surprised John Thompson, which brought him to ask, How have you been using it, since it is very new and only available to businesses? Tim explained, The cloud joint near home, had the IG set up and running to all its computers and apparently they qualified as a business." John Thompson did not understand the cloud joint terminology and Tim explained it was an information café, as they were more formally known. This John did understand. He thought it was a very wise move by the Information Gateway people, to allow many people to have access through such businesses. This would help increase demand once available to all people.

John continued to tell Tim a few smaller bits of information about Global Security Corporation. John failed to mention its owners or any of the upper echelon of the Corporation. Tim did not know if this was intentional or an oversight, but did not feel it was in his best interest to ask as of yet. The basic company information had concluded and the interview process was about to begin. Tim felt he could answer quite a bit in terms of Information Security. He was confident in his knowledge, especially with the help of the budding hackers giving him a big advantage.

John got Timothy Frantz to disclose his full name and immediately John accesses his computerized pad. Tim was getting ready to produce his degrees when John asked him simply. Tim, how are you in a highly stressful situation?

Tim was taken by surprise and took a very long pause before asking to repeat that, since he did not quite understand what it had to do with Security Analyst.

John repeated the question and once again Tim paused before he stated, In all honesty, I do not ever recall being in a stressful situation, much less a highly stressful one. John was now surprised and said, According to these records I have, you have a Master’s degree in Information Security, are you not a little young for a degree of that level? Tim said, I may be younger than most but certainly not the youngest ever. I might have had a degree several months earlier, had I not taken so much time deciding what I wanted to concentrate my efforts toward. John then asked, Were you not pressured to achieve so much at such a young age by either parents or teachers? Tim said, I spent my entire academic years within my own home, using the cloud for all my studies. My parents were supportive, helpful and guided me through my choice in studies, but no one ever pressured me to do anything. I had a thirst for information and only I set my own goals by. I chose which years to bypass to advance quicker and have a very good memory. I believe I also compartmentalize everything quite well, as I never get erroneous information mixed together. John said’ I find it difficult to believe that with all you have achieved at such a young age, you not once were under any stress. Do you understand what stress is and what affects it can have on a person? Tim said, I believe stress is high amount of pressure to get results for an action or process within a certain time frame, in some cases less time than normally allowed. As to myself, I have never felt like I was under any overwhelming amount of pressure to achieve results other than normal. I simply applied myself and my abilities to achieve things quicker than expected.

John still could not determine if he had an anomaly or someone who was immune to pressure situations. At this point, John had to get to the point of all this line of questioning. Okay Timothy, I got to level with you, this line of questioning is necessary because the Security Analyst positions in this organization, are going to be of the highest stress levels of any job in known history. The closest thing known is Air Traffic Controller positions when it was manned by human beings. They had a high suicide rate and a large number of mental breakdowns. This was due to the overwhelming demand of the constant attention to details in airplane movements. This was especially true over large airports, where traffic was heavy and continuous. Our research tells us that position is a walk in the park compared to this Analyst position. Tim simply said, If you are trying to talk me out of applying here it is not going to work, this is exactly the type of position I was looking for, where I was not limited to keeping track of a single company’s funds or investments. I want much more variety, and still want to learn everything I can about all Information Security, not just limited pieces.

John normally had told other people about the perks or benefits of taking this particular position because a 10-year service to get retirement was a wonderful benefit. If they could withstand the stress and last a whole ten years. This young gun with impressive credentials was not given that information, and still would not be talked out of this type of position. Instead, Tim came out and stated this was exactly what he was looking for and only offered here. John knew this was the only corporation of its kind, but how to convey the drawbacks. John then asked Tim to wait here for a little while, he needed to consult with some of his counterparts. Before he left the area, he did ask Tim, Would you like anything to drink while waiting. Tim thought a bottle of orange juice would be good and asked John, Would orange juice be available here. John said,Timothy, you would be surprised what we have here. John left and returned quickly with a small bottle of orange juice and left again to talk with his fellow interviewers. Tim sipped from his juice bottle and JohnThompson gathered up three of his fellow interviewers to discuss the prospects of hiring Timothy for his first paying job.

John Thompson told the other three he had a 20 year old MIT Master’s degree individual in interview right now. This got the attention of his fellow interviewers quickly, and immediately they asked when John was going to offer him a position. John then informed them he did not go about this interview in the normal, ‘it is high stress and high pay 10 years of service to get a retirement approach.’ This got puzzling looks and John explained he inquired on how his candidate handled high amounts of stress. He then informed him that his overachieving candidate had never felt he was under any stress ever. This approach was to feel out the candidate, more than just tell him what kind of stress he would be under. Even after all that his candidate, who still had no idea about the 10 year plan or the pay rate, told John this was the kind of position he was looking for. His candidate did not want just to deal with one company’s financials or investments he wanted more diversity. Everyone in the room told him they would hire him in a heartbeat. With that John returned to the area he left Tim in and took his seat again.

John then moved his chair closer to Tim and said, Timothy, because this job has stress levels unlike any other position in the world, we offer a great retirement plan with the completion of 10 years of service. We have a better than average starting salary for all Analysts, and are willing to start you out at 20,000.00 World Currency per month. The company also offers some wonderful benefits while you are on the premises. All the food and beverage items are provided for by the company without charge. They are kept completely stocked with daily deliveries. That means everything should be fresh as well. There is one item you need to read before you are expected to give an answer, and of course your signature will be required as well. Once we have gone through that, John continued, I would take you up one floor to the real office space you will be working out of. This floor is as you can tell is not normally used as office space, although Global Security Corporation leases this floor as well. The reason for this office space, it is readily available, as so many people are operating from a home based position or small business. It is also for security purposes. One floor up is some of the most sophisticated technology available in the world, all for the single purpose of detecting security problems in the information world. We will work with the satellite companies, almost any business that handles large amounts of currency, even some smaller ones to track investment funds. Since financial businesses are the most likely victim of hackers looking for a big score, that is a prime focal point. Every business has some financial investments and transactions to cover payroll and operating expenses. The good thing about the Information Gateway is it currently can track information from both systems of information exchange currently used. The IG will soon become the standard and quickly make the cloud entirely obsolete, for as long as it has served the information world. The Information Gateway is just so much faster that once you use it, you have a difficult time going back to the cloud. Tim nodded totally in acknowledgement of that last statement as John had forgotten Timothy was already in touch with the speed of IG. John said, It is good you have had some experience with IG already Timothy, most people have not even heard of it. It was only in subscription trade journals for the last three years and not made public knowledge. The primary reason for it not being public was to allow all businesses to have it up and operational before the public got access to it. There were plenty of companies to get business started and they could only produce so many transmitter/responder units in any given month. Mostly it is because of the addressing being turned over to the transmitter/responders units. None of this is coming as new information to you is it Timothy? Tim told John, I spent several days researching it when it took me by surprise at the cloud joint. I felt like I should have known about it before seeing a sign, since as an Information Security graduate part of my function is to be aware of technology. I did not have to be an expert on all of it, just know what it was for and IG was totally unheard of until last Monday. John was impressed by this young gun’s total dedication to what he applied himself to.

Timothy was handed John’s electronic notebook to look at essentially, that Tim was fully made aware of the stress levels the Analyst position was going to involve. As a result of this high stress an excellent retirement plan was offered with the completion of 10 years of service. There was only a 10% chance that most Analysts would be able to complete 10 years of service. This was not brought up previously, but Tim figured it made little difference and signed the notebook box and handed it back to John. John told him one last thing that again was not mentioned. The information world is in prime time every hour of every day. Somewhere on this planet it is always prime time, he told Tim. As a result, this office will have a total of at least 40 analysts on 3 shifts running 24 hours a day seven days a week. There will be more than 240 people working from this location in order to track information around the world at all hours. Most of the transactions will be perfectly normal and acceptable business. If you have done any security work there are certain keys that you will look for to find a transaction that may not be legitimate. John said he was not an analyst himself but was told most analysts know of some of the keys, and few know all of them. You will need to rethink how you have used computerized systems up until now. I have told you we use the latest and greatest technology available for the specific purpose of stopping illegal transactions. We will go up one floor shortly but as of now the offices are unoccupied. Officially Monday of next week is the first day of operations here in headquarters. The first candidates will be given a choice of shifts, you will be one, and then as the shifts are filled, the last candidates will be given a shift to work. We are currently authorized by this government and all the governments where offices are located to use Semi intelligent computer systems. Our computer systems are voice activated and as the systems becomes more advanced, upgrades will be made for additional functions. John asked Tim, Are you ready for the next floor tour? Tim was more than ready but simply gave the yes nod of his head.

John rose from his chair and said, Welcome aboard to Global Security Corporation. He did tell Timothy that he would have a formal hiring package sent to his home computer system before he got home. They went to the lone elevator and it was then that John said, This area is going to be empty once the hiring is completed, we leased this floor as an additional security measure to insure no unwanted persons would arrive on the 35th Floor. You will have a retina scan taken the first day you come to work to allow access to the 35th floor. You will need to allow the scanner in the elevator to verify it is you before the elevator will arrive on this floor. The elevator opened up to a giant white room with a large number of offices in the center as you enter the 35th floor. The room seemed almost sterile; everything was white except for frosted glass doors on each office area. The offices had one flat area across the back of it from wall to wall about 30 inch deep. Each office had a couple of chairs that were designed for both comfort and alertness. A series of connectors were in the center of the back wall, all color-coded but no labels.

John started by saying, The offices were designed entirely to relieve stress, according to several research studies conduct for Global Security Corporation over the last 5 years. Universally it has been concluded that white is the only color that reduces stress or tension from all the medical and research facilities we contacted in performing these studies. They also concluded that walls should have no pictures to take away from the serenity of the coloring in the room. Tim said, You mean even a scenery picture is too much for the setting of this room? John told him in accordance with the studies it was. Tim looked down the hallway and next asked, How do you know where to go, I cannot tell the difference from here what is wall and what is door? John started walking down the hallway and stopped in front of the first frosted glass door. Tim stood next to him and saw you can only tell when directly in front of the door. Next Tim said, Okay, when directly in front of the door I can see where the glass door is from the wall. There must be 50 identical offices in this area, how do you know which is which and where I should go when I start my first day? John inched over and signaled Tim to do the same with a hand gesture. Tim did not really see anything obvious and John started to laugh a bit. It take a little getting used to, he said, I was not too observant myself when taking the tour. He then pointed Tim to stand directly in a spot and look directly at the door, which Tim did and although it was not blatantly viewable there was a number etched in each door. It was done in such a fashion that it was like an optical illusion, you could only make out the number when in direct alignment with it like tunnel vision.

That is some trick for glass etching, Tim said. Anything else you guys have hidden in there or are all these rooms identical in every way. John said, Each room is identical, we ask nothing be hung on the walls since you will be sharing it with at least two other people one person for each shift. We are trying to figure out how to get 24/7 coverage but it seems unlikely we can expect anyone to work 48 hours with 5 days off just because of the stress levels. It would be far too taxing mentally and emotionally.

The office space is also designed with tension relief in mind and the platform on the back wall, will serve as a desk, as well as a place to put your personal electronic items you might wish to bring with you. Such as computerized electronic pads. Many analysts use them to keep track of keys used to find irregularities in transactions. You may also wish to use the pad to view information streams, although your drop down video screen would likely contain more information at a single glance. That kind of intrigued Tim who asked, What about the drop down video screen? John had chosen this office because he could activate the screen here by voice command. Like on cue, John spoke to the open wall and said, Computer, video screen please. A narrow hidden compartment opened and a video screen unlike anything Tim ever saw, sort of appeared. Sort of appeared was because the material was very thin and nearly transparent until it had images or information to display. John continued to talk to the wall and said, Computer please bring up the board of director hierarchy diagram. Instantly a list of names showed up as if in thin air. It was truly marvelous to see for Tim, since he had monitors, which were relatively new at home, but nothing like this. His were wafer thin but still had visible case lines around the edges and did not come close to appearing to be in thin air.

Instead of going around and showing Tim each and every office, since they were all the identical. John could only voice activate the one he led Tim to the area where other offices were located. Only one was presently occupied. John announced himself and opened the door and said, James Preston I would like to introduce you to Timothy Frantz. James Preston rose from his chair extended his hand, Tim did the customary handshake and James Preston said, Welcome to Global Security Corporation. He continued with, As acting director of this office, I am one of the few people in this office who are not analysts by profession. That may change later on where the director might be a security analyst professional to better assist and direct the activities of this office. As for now, I have an extensive background in organizing and acquiring good talent in business endeavors; but this company presents some additional challenges. There is no other business like it. I do not claim to be a security analyst by any means, and will oversee operations here, but my input as to how and why will be very limited. I can also tell you the other offices will be occupied by support personnel, one of which I deemed necessary is the onsite Psychologist who will be available for those who need to find ways to talk about and analyze the stress they are under. This is a paramount support function for this and every office we have in the world. We need to make sure the analysts have the best available assistance easily accessible.

Tim considered all this and thought the company was overdoing things a bit, but saw no harm in trying to avert a problem with its people. He simply nodded in agreement to James and this concluded the first meeting with his director. John then took him to the area where the beverages and food were and the large windowed area overlooking the Seattle Ocean view. From up here it was absolutely breathtaking as the light surf broke in the distance and the water appeared to be a perfectly clear blue. He did catch a glimpse of a couple of dolphins playing in the water just at the end of his viewing distance. John Thompson said, It certainly is a wonderful view of the area is it not? Tim agreed fully. John then asked, Tim would you like anything else from the large array of food, snacks, and beverages and we can sit for a few more minutes before I go on to my next candidate. Tim decided to try a small cup of coffee, something he never really did before. He and John just sat looking at the panoramic view of Seattle and the ocean area. Tim said, I find this view more serene than the bright white everything room. He found his first cup of coffee to be a little more bitter than he would have expected; but overall, it was something he could get used to. It did require some sweetener and maybe a little cream before he could get used to no additives like his parents did at home. The coffee was pretty good even if it would take a little bit of getting used to, it was nice to know he could find some beverage to use in his time in this sterile office space. John escorted him to the elevator and said, See you at 8 AM. Next Monday. John turned and left as the elevator doors opened and Tim got in and returned to his vehicle. The return trip home was uneventful, but he was in the new office for almost 3 hours, wondered if that was longer than or shorter than the other candidates were. He thought about how many people they had to hire by next Monday, and he doubted that the numbers were going to be overwhelmingly in Global Security Corporations favor.

Tim decided to head to the Information café instead of returning home for a change of clothing. He had done his research into the Information Gateway and understood quite a good deal concerning the Satellites. Now it was time to see what he could learn about the transmitter/ responder units. Although he has to pay for time at the cloud joint, using the home computer was just not so good anymore. He wished he could get the Information Gateway (IG) setup up for his home. It had taken about 30 minutes to get to his destination.

CHAPTER THREE

Tim took what was becoming his customary seat in the café and immediately started looking into information available on the transmitter/responder units (TRU’s). The first bit of information that he found dealt with the onboard positioning. Since these units could be placed anywhere in the world, eventually they needed a way to accurately relay the precise location they were placed. Much like the GPS tracking system used for about 150 years or so, it had a way to pinpoint the exact longitude and latitude position it was placed down to minute degrees of minutes. This was to provide the satellite the exact location it was placed or where the signal came from. It was planned to allow for the transmitter/responders units to be on a moving vessel. For the most part this would be ocean ships and aircraft. The satellite would send response signals after receiving the initial from the TRU and find the location to be different. It would calculate the speed and direction of the signal movement. Within three or four short send receive sequences from TRU to Satellite the position next to send the signal would be formed. As long as the vessel moved at a steady speed, there would be no issues in sending and receiving data. The only time it might take longer than that was if the same satellite had to send and receive information to two moving targets.

After digesting all the position tracking information, he found and understanding it was nothing more than a GPS system, he moved on to the way it sent and received information. Unlike any of its predecessors, these were all earth bound transmission methods, this one sends light signals to a satellite position in orbit. The light used was actually low level laser. Low level as it was not designed to cut through 4-inch thick block walls or half inch steel plate. It would bounce off an aircraft that happen to cross its path, causing no damage to the aircraft. The laser did however need to be able to quickly penetrate and travel through cloud cover that would forever be present somewhere around the globe. The laser could burn a path through clouds of any density but bounce off most other surfaces it could encounter in the direct path to the satellite. This prevented lost signal transmissions.

The laser sent rapid pulse transmissions that to the naked eye would appear solid. Since this was at light speed, the transmission duration would seem quite short. Because this was at light speed entire documents could be transmitted without paging or limited frame sizes. One of many advantages to taking it to light speed transmissions. He continued to read about the transmitter/responder units to discover they had a battery operated system at very low power consumption. The battery system could be used in areas where no immediate power source would be available. These units had an expected battery life of twenty-five years. They were also rechargeable should they be in use for that amount of time. Most homes today were operating on the three most common direct current voltages, as opposed to the years of using alternating current. The voltages used were the major one still used in computers and other computerized electronics. These voltages are positive 5, 12 and 24 volts. Should a negative voltage be required a simple device in the home circuitry could obtain it. It was simply called a reverse transformer. This was nothing more than a simple plug in chip that could be acquired from hundreds of sources. A home owner could easily install it into the panel that had all the electronic connections entering the home and sent throughout the home.

Tim found he spent enough time at the café today and would continue his research at home. It was considerably slower, but he needed to access his hiring package information. That was going to be sent to his home although he was never asked for that information. He wondered how they would get it to him. Tim paid for his time and got to the electric vehicle and went home. With the car parked in its normal place, the charger reattached, he went to go check his package. When he got onto the computer it was disappointing in the lack of speed of the IG, but knew he would be and found he had the hiring package.

He opened the information pack and scanned it quickly it to see much of the information was items that were discussed during the interview process. One thing he did not have was the Board of Director information, which is present in the information package. There was a total of 10 listed in a block, all of them with additional company position information, like Chief Operating Office and President of this and that. The information also included a list of major office locations but none of the smaller locations mentioned by John Thompson. Tim found he only recognized one name on the Board of Directors list, and it was the Chief Operating Office who was also director of the Seattle office. It did say that Seattle was the Headquarters location for all of Global Security Corporation. It showed James Preston as the Chief Operating Officer. Nowhere did it say if the corporation was a publicly traded company or privately held. The biggest difference being that the stockholders elect the officers of the board, and privately held meant these 10 people all had a major financial investment in Global Security Corporation. He made a mental note of it to be asked once he started his analyst position.

At the dinner table he let his parents know he was going to be starting his first job next Monday. They gave him all the accolades parents give their children, even if this one was 20 years of age. He told them he would be using the absolute latest technology the world had to offer, included voice activated semi-intelligent computers. He then told them how much he was going to be paid and both jaws dropped in unison to the floor, or so it seemed. He looked questioning at them and asked, Is that too little for what I am going to be doing? His mother gathered up her ability to speak before his father could and she said as calmly as she could. No dear, that is just your first job and you have been given more money in a month than your father and I bring in together by a large margin, what kind of company is this? He said it was the first international information security company designed to spot and report potential financial thefts through the information network. They did ask a lot about handling high stress levels and said something about air traffic controllers job being a walk in the park compared to the analysts position. Again, mouths moved and no words came out from his parents.

His father got to speak and said, I was around before that was completely computerized and they had a lot of mental breakdowns in that type of position. Do you have any idea how many problems too much stress can cause for a person? Tim said, I know what stress is by definition, but do not think I have ever experienced it. Almost in unison both parents shook their heads and his mother said, I know we never pressured you in your education, but surely something pushed you to advance so far in less time than most others. Tim said, "I just did what I was capable of doing when I applied myself to it. I also remember and retain information quicker than most and do not have to repeatedly go over the same things. I am not sure if compartmentalize is a good term, but I do not get things mixed together. I even researched the term photographic memory when I