Cyber Secure

By E Jason Williams

Cyber Secure is set in 2132 as a futuristic glimpse into IT security. It is the first book of a trilogy based upon the main characters various means of dealing with information security issues as they present themselves over the course of each book. Success or failure depends on the available tools the company can devise to watch over the entire worlds financial system and keep it safe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543435368

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 1

Timothy Frantz had always been considered a gifted student. He completed his academics by the age of fifteen, having had the opportunity to obtain information and past testing procedures to bypass three levels of early academics. At age sixteen he enrolled into higher education after taking six months to research and determine the 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 had 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. 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 do the same thing repeatedly in order to remember 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 sixteen after completing his research, having decided he wanted to direct his focus on Information Security. MIT had remained the leader in technological breakthrough and advancements. By age nineteen, he had completed his first level of degrees.

When he was not pursuing his dream, he went to local computer cafes, or cloud joint as the businesses were called in Washington State. He was active in local athletics, but was not a superstar in any one of those activities. It at least provided exercise and physical fitness; his parents were largely in favor of fitness. He did manage to fracture his wrist in football, which led to three months away from all athletic activities until the nearby medical facility determined that 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.

By age twenty, 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 wanted more than a company’s limited areas of security concerns. He did not want to be restricted to the limited information pertaining only to that single company. The cloud still lacked an overseeing agency or corporation to monitor the available information, and no company was without risk that Tim 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 this 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.All governments in all cases 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 through 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 close to his residence in Seattle. The corporation papers had already been filed and approved by the state, federal and world governments. He needed to ascertain the exact location and whether they had 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 the location almost immediately, they were located in the downtown area of Seattle, which was not more than a thirty minute drive. He was surprised to find out that open hiring for new analysts was to begin the following week. A week was not too much time to wait, and he gathered all of his information gathered as to achievements and degree papers and transferred it to his intellipad (a digital multi-purpose device). He concentrated on spending a bit more time at the local cloud joint and decided to have a chat with the budding hackers there.

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 social 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 other age groups. The budding hackers he figured, were at least close to his age and the cloud joint might be a good place to have a conversation. He went to the cloud joint after verifying he had his documentation transferred to his intellipad. The cloud joint was in close proximity to his home, and he merely walked there but would need to drive into downtown 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 event.

Timothy waited at the cloud joint for what seemed like half a day, but it was actually only two hours before the first of the budding hackers appeared and took a reserved table. It may be that few people had arrived that early in the day, now nearly 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 to 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’ll 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 friend’s was Bob. The conversation was mostly small talk for about fifteen minutes. Then Tim said something that took the conversation into a whole different direction. He said, I 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. This led to a thorough conversation on the hacking abilities and achievements of the group. Tim had figured that most of these people wanted to become known for what they did in order to become high-salaried security consultants for companies, to get the big payments for telling them how to be able to detect the intruders. He even got 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 an Information Security analyst, 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 their hack identifier. All hacker leave an identifying digital mark of ownership. This requires knowledge of the hacker or hackers from previous encounters. By diverting the hack to someplace where they would fail to achieve their objective, but would not be prosecuted for the attempt to obtain funds illegally. That made things a little less tense between them, and then the talk was more centered on how Tim got to become an analyst. He was surprised to find that 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 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 forty to fifty of the most recent articles by professionals on interviewing techniques and how to navigate through the array of questions. After scanning through all of the articles several times, Tim concluded the only bit of pertinent information was to be honest and truthful in his answers. It had never occurred to Tim to be anything other than honest, so he spent six hours coming to discover that he had gained no real insight. He did manage to arrive on time for the evening mealtime, though. He never figured out how his mother had always made such wonderful meals after spending eight hours working and still take care of the household. He thought that one of these days, he really ought to pay closer attention to see what the secret was. His mother seemed to have endless energy. He hardly ever complimented or thanked her on how good she did at keeping the house. He had not even noticed what was used to do it. He guessed 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. You always have the house clean, work a full day and then have a great dinner ready for us. How do you find time to do it all?

His mother just smiled and said, Tim, you know very well that I do not need to leave the house for my work, and the robotic sweepers take care of the majority of the cleaning. I can often start the preparations for meals while I am working. It only takes a short break from work and the cooking can all be done by computer timing. It’s just that even though the synthesized foodstuff is being promoted as more nutritious and healthy than real food, I do not enjoy the taste. I am sure it’ll 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, why have I 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 looks 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 4 a.m., which is the time set for them to operate, you have not seen them because you are asleep. It only takes them about forty-five to fifty minutes to cover the whole house. There are little hiding areas in the walls where the sweepers return and are quite difficult to find. Tim nodded his understanding and the dinner was served. He still could not understand why not once had he seen a robotic sweeper unit anywhere in the house or his room for all of his twenty years in this house.

The next week was rather fast-moving for Tim, the following day he wanted to view information on the cloud pertaining to Information Security methods and implementation. 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 read. 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. He went inside to the counter and asked, What is IG? he inquired to the young lady behind the counter. She looked shocked. As much time as Tim had spent there, she thought he was well aware of it. She said, Really? He replied, Yes really! So she told him that it was the next generation of the cloud, but instead of using cable based transmissions, it is light-speed. Addresses are handled by the transmission unit needed to send and receive light signals. This bit of information was totally new to Tim and even 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 logged on to the computer, the speeds were so much quicker than anything he had 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 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. The system had been five years into the realization of the Information Gateway (IG). Nine original companies were involved in 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 that they were called transmitter/responder units, also dubbed TRUs. It was typical of computer equipment and software makers to use acronyms for anything they could. These units were first placed into production three years earlier to get ready for the demand and were only available from a single corporation in order to ensure each had a unique ten-digit address code. This was in a hexadecimal numbering system 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 using access codes. Most of these codes changed as often as every four hours. Some Military and government data required a special device attached to the computer 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 secrecy for 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 TRUs were available only to businesses during the first six months, so they could have it ready for the masses, the article stated. That day was actually the very first day businesses could put them into use. They required a specially trained technician to install, primarily because of the unique qualities these units had 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. The cost for the basic user had not yet been determined and largely depended on how the first six months went as far as availability and 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 research and found that he had been there six 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 going to be a Security Analyst or planned to be soon. He needed to go home as the evening meal would be close to ready. He wondered how he lost track of so much time so quickly.

Once everyone was seated at the evening meal, normally a quiet gathering of the family, Tim blurted out: Has anyone seen that the IG is available 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, not yet. Tim then addressed his mother, How long have you known about the IG? His mother said it was mentioned three or four months earlier in a conference video she was required to attend. 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 full 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 forty-five minutes before getting to the now cold food. His dad had long since left the table, apparently unseen by the two engrossed in the new technology discussion.

Tim decided to help out with clearing the dishes and helped getting the cleanup done in the kitchen. It was something his mother had not seen him do or had asked him to do before. It was not that difficult to rinse the dishes and put them in the sanitizing unit.

CHAPTER 2

Tim spent a good deal of the remainder of the week gathering as much information as he could digest concerning all 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 a satellite has a number of enhancements compared to a standard orbiting satellite. First, it has 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 leading them eventually to reenter 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. The technicians can do most programming adjustments and positioning without having to physically visit the satellite. It also has an onboard monitoring system that tracks any item needing to be refreshed or inspected during the preventative maintenance visits. This includes mirrors and the condition they are in, as minute space debris can cause pitting to a reflective surface. That pitting to the surface could alter the direction of the light beams from proper position of the light beams intended denstination. In the worst case, it causes a slight change in bounce angle, requiring adjustment from the ground system. Tim also learned that each satellite has a number of adjustable mirrors to account for each and every signal angle it computes from the TRUs. It is 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 receives latitude and longitude positions from the TRUs to use for positioning the mirror for best reception and direction for the light beam to continue on to its final destination. It was amazing to Tim just how quickly these mirrors could adjust position, the article stated as much as 100 thousand 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 TRUs 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. Really large companies might have multiple TRUs, allowing everyone quicker response times. 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 a.m. and prepared to get some sleep. Of course he had difficulty actually falling asleep; he was trying to prepare himself for the 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 a.m. and never heard a robotic sweeper unit enter or leave his room.

Tim got up with the wake up call and went through the morning ritual with an energy he did not 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 on his intellipad, he unplugged the charging unit from the electric vehicle and headed toward his destination in downtown Seattle. He arrived about twenty-five minutes early. Tim decided to look around the surroundings of the office before entering the building. He noticed a sign in the lobby window advertiseing-hiring event taking place on the 34th floor of the building.

He found that his building was surrounded by other tall buildings. He could not see much from the ground level that was not blocked out by buildings. He knew the sound was nearby, but he could not determine which direction it was in or even catch a hint of the scent of water nearby. After fifteen 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 that 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 floors 34 and 35. Other elevators in the bank of ten went to a much larger floor groups, three were for floors 1 to 15, and three 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 a.m. 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 turnout, but it was a single human resources person to select a single candidate and take them to separate areas behind the partition. To call them offices would be misleading. There was no carpeting, rugs, or tile on the floors, just concrete. Large areas of open space separated the areas so no one would overhear another party being interviewed. Tim was escorted by one interviewer to a rather quickly composed 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 intellipad on the table. He did not initially ask Tim for his name. He went into who was Global Security Corporation. John said, Global Security had been in existence for a full five years and had spent the last four years getting the world’s 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 percent 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 large-fund handling organizations to determine interest in a service such as ours. The response has been well above our expectations. It has also helped us determine the amount a contract would be for each year, with adjustments after each year and essentially renegotiating contracts annually. Funding from the governments has allowed us to begin hiring around the globe. That started today in all the cities we have offices. Furthermore, Global Security Corporation has been working all along with various technological companies to ensure a smooth transition into obtaining the best technology and to work with those we will need to access. As an example, we require tapping into the satellites from time to time deployed for the Information Gateway. We needed the approval of all the organizations involved since it is not a single company.

The interviewer paused and looked at Tim. You do not seem to be unaware of the Information Gateway or IG, have you heard of it? Tim said, I only heard about it last week, but I’ve been using it since then. This actually surprised John Thompson. How have you been using it? It’s very new and only available to businesses? Tim explained: The cloud joint near my home had the IG set up and running for all its computers. Apparently they qualified as a business.. This John understood. 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 it was available to all people.

John Thompson continued to tell Tim a few smaller bits of information about Global Security Corporation. John Thompson 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 he did not feel it was in his best interest to ask, yet. After the basic company information was covered, the interview process was about to begin. Tim felt that he could answer quite a bit in terms of Information Security. He was confident in his knowledge; the help of the budding hackers gave him a big advantage.

John Thompson had Timothy Frantz disclose his full name, and immediately he accessed his intellipad. Tim was getting ready to produce his degrees when Thompson asked him, Tim, how are you in a highly stressful situations?

Tim was taken by surprise. He took a long pause before asking his interviewer to repeat the question. He did not understand what it had to do with the position of Security Analyst.

John Thompson 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, you have a Masters 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 on. John then asked, Were you not pressured to achieve so much at such a young age by parents or teachers? Tim said, I spent my academic years within my own home, using the cloud for all my studies. My parents were supportive 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 to advance in my education I chose which years to bypass to advance faster, and I have a very good memory. I believe I also compartmentalize everything well, as I never mix erroneous information, John said. I find it difficult to believe that with all you have achieved at such a young age, not once were you 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. I have never felt like I was under any overwhelming amount of pressure to achieve results other than normal. I applied myself and my abilities to achieve things faster 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 this line of questioning. Okay Timothy, I’ve 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 in comparison are Air Traffic Controller positions when they were manned by human beings. They had a high suicide rate and a large number of mental breakdowns. This was due to the overwhelming demand for the constant attention to details in airplane movements. This was especially true of large airports, where traffic was heavy and continuous. Research tells us that that position was quite easy compared to this Analyst position. Tim said, If you are trying to talk me out of applying, it is not going to work, this is exactly the type of position I am looking for. I want much more variety and I still want to learn everything I can about Information Security, not just limited pieces.

John Thompson normally had told other people about the perks or benefits of taking this particular position, in particular the ten-year of service to acheive retirement at seventy-five percent of salarywas a wonderful benefit, if the analyst could withstand the stress. 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 stated that this was exactly what he was looking for and only offered here. John Thompson knew this was the only corporation of its kind, but was baffled in conveying the drawbacks to Tim. John Thompson then asked Tim to wait for a little while. He needed to consult with some of his counterparts. Before he left the area, he asked Tim, Would you like anything to drink while waiting. Tim asked, Is orange juice available? 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 John Thompson 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 was interviewing a twenty-year-old MIT candidate with a Master’s, getting the attention of his fellow interviewers. They immediately asked when John was going to offer him a position. John informed them he was going with the standard, it’s a high-stress, high-paying ten-years-of-service-till-retirement approach. This received puzzling looks and John explained he inquired 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 ten-year service plan to achieve retirement or the pay rate, told John this was the kind of position he was looking for. His candidate did not want 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 Thompson 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 ten years of service. We have a better than average starting salary for all Analysts, and are willing to start you out at twenty thousand World Currency per month as an analyst for Golbal Security Corporation. The company also offers some wonderful benefits while you are on the premises. All food and beverage items are provided 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’ll 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, first it was readily available, as so many people are operating from a home-based position or small business. Second, 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 target 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 Information Gateway is that it currently can track information from both systems of information exchange currently used. IG will soon become the standard and quickly make the cloud obsolete. The Information Gateway is so much faster than the cloud, once you use it you have a difficult time going back to the cloud.

Tim nodded in acknowledgement of the last statement as John had forgotten Timothy was already familiar with the speed of IG. John said, It’s good that you have had some experience with IG already, Timothy. Most people have not even heard of it. It has only been in subscription trade journals for the last three years and has 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’s 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 been aware of 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 an expertise on all technology, 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.

Timothy was handed John’s intellipad to review the postion offering that Tim was fully made aware of the stress levels the Analyst position was going to involve. As a result of this stress, an excellent retirement plan was offered with the completion of ten years of service. There was only a 10 percent chance that most Analysts would be able to complete ten years of service, based on medical and psychological research performed for the company. This point was not brought up previously, but Tim figured that it made little difference. He signed the notebook box and handed it back to John, who told him one last thing that had been 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 forty analysts on three shifts running twenty-four hours a day seven days a week. There will be more than two hundred forty 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 currently 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 become 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 nodded yes.

John Thompson rose from his chair and said, Welcome aboard to Global Security Corporation. He told Timothy that he would have a formal hiring package sent to his home computer system. 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 ensure no unwanted persons would arrive on the thirty-fifth floor. You will have a retina scan taken the first day you come to work to allow access to thirty-fifth 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 to a massive white room with a number of offices in the center. The room seemed almost sterile, everything was white except for the frosted glass doors of each office area. The offices had one flat area across the back wall about thirty inches deep. Each office had a couple of chairs designed for both comfort and alertness. A series of connectors were in the center of the back wall, all color-coded.

John said, The offices were designed entirely to relieve stress, according to several studies conducted for Global Security Corporation over the last five years. From all the medical and research facilities, we’ve concluded that white is the only color that reduces stress or tension. Walls should have no pictures to detract from the serenity of the coloring in the room. Tim said, You mean even a picture of scenery 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 asked, How do you know where to go? I cannot tell the difference between a wall and a 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 on 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 fifty identical offices in this area. How do I 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 directed Tim to stand in one spot and look directly at the door, which Tim did. Although it was not clearly visible, there was a number etched into each door. It was done in such a fashion that it was like an optical illusion. Tim could only make out the number when in direct alignment.

That is some trick of 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, because of the stress levels, to expect anyone to work forty-eight hours with five days off. It would be far too taxing mentally and emotionally.

The office space is also designed with tension relief in mind. 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 intellipads. Many analysts use them to keep track of keys. They are used to find irregularities in transactions. You may also wish to use the intellipad to view information streams, although your drop down video screen would likely contain more information at a single glance. That 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. As if on queue, John spoke to the open wall and said, Computer, video screen please. A narrow hidden compartment opened and a video screen appeared unlike anything Tim had ever seen. 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 directors hierarchy diagram. Instantly a list of names showed up as if in thin air. It was truly marvelous to see. Tim had monitors at home that were relatively new, 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 walking around the entire office floor space and showing Tim each and every office, since they were all identical John Tompson headed toward the only occupied office. John could only voice activate the one office, he led Tim to the area where other offices were located. Only one was presently occupied. John announced himself, 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. They shook hands and James Preston said, Welcome to Global Security Corporation. He continued: As acting director of this office, I am one of the few people in this office who is not an analyst by profession. That may change later. 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 procedures are decided will be very limited. I can also tell you the other offices will be occupied by support personnel, one of which will be the on-site Psychologist. He 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 of this and thought the company was overdoing things a bit but saw no harm in trying to avert a problem with its people. He nodded in agreement to James Preston, and this concluded the first meeting with his director. John then took him to the area where the beverages and foods 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 clear blue. He caught a glimpse what he thought to be 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 any other food, snacks, or beverages? 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 did before. He and John 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 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 as 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 a.m. next Monday. John turned and left as the elevator doors opened and Tim got in and returned to his vehicle. The trip home was uneventful, but after three hours in the new office, he wondered if that was longer or shorter than the other candidates were there. 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 to have it fully staffed by next Monday.

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

CHAPTER 3

Tim took what was becoming his customary seat in the café and immediately started looking into information available on the (TRU). 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 in which they were placed. Much like the GPS tracking system in use for nearly 150 years, it had a way to pinpoint the exact longitude and latitude position it was placed down to minute degrees of minutes. This was to pinpoint to the satellite the exact location where the signal originated. Specifically because several units could be in use in close proximity to one another. The techonology was designed to include the TRU’s to be on a moving vessel. For the most part, this would be a ship and aircraft. The satellite would send response signals after receiving the initial signal from the TRU and find the location to be different. This process nicknamed the handshake involves short transmission sequences between the TRU and satellite to insure both are functioning correctly. It would calculate the speed and direction of the signal movement. Within three or four short send-receive sequences from the TRU to a satellite, the subsequent signal position to send the signal would be determined. As long as the vessel or aircraft moved at a steady speed, there would be no issues in sending and receiving data. The only time it might take longer was if the same satellite had to send and receive information to two moving targets.

After digesting all the position tracking information and understanding that it was nothing more than a more precise version of a GPS system, he moved on to the way it sent and received information. Unlike any of its predecessors, these are all earth-bound transmission methods. This one sends light signals to a satellite position in orbit. The light used is actually low-level laser. It is not designed to cut through four-inch thick block walls or half-inch steel plate. It will bounce off an aircraft that happens to cross its path, causing no damage to the aircraft. The laser does, however, need to be able to quickly penetrate and travel through the cloud cover forever present somewhere around the globe. The laser can burn a path through clouds of any density but bounce off most other surfaces it encounters in the direct path to the satellite. This prevents damage to the obstruction but would require a second signal transmission.

The laser sends rapid pulse transmissions which, to the naked eye, would appear solid. Since this is at light speed, the transmission duration seems quite short. Because this is at light speed, entire documents can be transmitted without paging or limited frame sizes. One of many advantages to taking it to light speed transmissions.

Tim continued to read about the transmitter/responder units to discover that they have a battery operated system at very low power consumption. The battery system can be used in areas where no immediate power source would be available. These units have an expected battery life of twenty-five years. They are also rechargeable should they be in use for that amount of time. Most homes operated 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 five, twelve and twenty-four volts. Should a negative voltage be required, a reverse transformer in the home circuitry can obtain it. This was nothing more than a simple plug in chip that could be acquired from hundreds of sources. A home owner might easily install it into the panel that had the electronic connection entering the home and sent throughout the home.

Tim thought he had spent enough time at the café that day 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 to provide information pertaining to reaching him. He wondered how they would get it to him.

Tim paid for his time, got into his electric vehicle, and went home. With the car parked in its normal place, the charger reattached, he went to his computer to check his package. When he got onto the computer, it was disappointing in the lack of speed of the IG, but he knew it would be and found he had the hiring package.

He opened the information packet and scanned it quickly to see much of the information had been discussed during the interview process. One thing he did not have from the hiring event was the board of directors information, which was present in the information package. There was a total of ten listed in a block, all of them with additional position information, such as 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 that he only recognized one name on the board of directors list, the Chief Operating Office who was also director of the Seattle office. It did say that Seattle was the headquarters 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 was that the stockholders elected the officers of the board, and that privately held meant these ten people each had a major financial investment in Global Security Corporation. He made a mental note to ask once he started his analyst position.

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

His father got to speak. I was quite young and heard of that before being 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 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’ve 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. I also remember and retain information faster 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 was younger to determine why I could learn things so quickly. I do not have a photographic memory; people with that ability need to view something only once to have it for reference any time they need it. I can only get about seventy-three percent of the information by reading it once, but if I review it two or three times, I can retain it all.

This was the first time that Tim had put to words for his parents what his abilities were. They were trying to figure out where these gifts had come from. His mother and father did not have such abilities. Each was sure their parents had no such traits, so they ruled out genetics as the possible answer. They marveled their son’s gifted abilities and noted that the other two children, who were no longer living in the house, did not display such traits. They wondered what it was that made Tim such a gifted individual when it came to applying himself to obtain and retain information. He had no outstanding athletic