Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 640 Don't Want This Order, Just Wait And See

Tang Huan's disciple is named Rich Skrenta. He is very young and is still in college. However, after careful training, he can still be independent in the field of computer security.

Back then, Rich Skrenta was a brat. He dared to think of a way when he was in middle school. He flew from Pittsburgh to Las Vegas to visit COMDEX by himself. The compiled ElkCloner virus was copied into the latest Fangyuan personal computer to observe the reaction, and as a result, people were turned upside down and the world was in chaos.

Due to the attention of the media, Tang Huan did not deal with this little thing. Instead, he sent him to Cupertino, Silicon Valley, for a visit, while notifying his parents to lead him.

However, after Tiancai and the bear child became one, their thinking became more and more different from ordinary people.Rich Skrenta, who was overwhelmed by the dazzling technology of the Cupertino R&D Center, clamored to learn from Tang Huan as a teacher.

It must be admitted that all living beings in the technical field are divided into three, six or nine grades, each with its own position. Even if most people are smart, they are still only suitable to work as blue-collar workers on the assembly line, while those who have both talent and personality A small number of people are suitable to stand in the front and serve as captains, turning creativity and execution into development capabilities.

Tang Huan saw that Rich Skrenta had the qualifications of the latter, coupled with the media's fanning the flames, he half-pushed and acquiesced to this matter.

It is conceivable that Rich Skrenta's life path has naturally undergone a major turning point when he got into this relationship with the Silicon Valley tycoon and the richest man by chance. For the most important thing for young people to strive for-opportunity, you don't have to worry about it since then up.

Tang Huan did not misjudge Richie Skrenta. He was indeed a talented person. He had honed his skills in the emerging field of computer security.

The story of this naughty kid’s rapid transformation into a true technical elite just reflects a phenomenon in the IT industry - those who have ambitions do not grow taller, and those who do not have ambitions live hundreds of years. Many outstanding achievers are so young that people are envious.

The team led by Rich Skrenta, whose members also included two researchers from Symantec, was characterized by its high energy. After arriving at the computer room of Pacific Telecom, it immediately entered into working mode, burning the midnight oil and working through the system logs. Wait for clues to start investigating.

Because he knew that his teacher wanted to know first of all the extent of malfeasance committed by Pacific Telecom in this safety incident, Rich Skrenta suddenly sent over the results of the preliminary judgment.

The computer system has this advantage. No matter how carefully it is disguised on the surface, the binary data inside does not lie. Pacific Telecom does not dare to pretend to be wrong by deleting it. If it does, the nature of the accident will change again, and it will be fine. Something happened!

According to Rich Skrenta's judgment, Pacific Telecom is indeed a little wronged, and its engineers are still very serious about their work. The problem is that the transition from the old mainframe system to the more advanced Fangyuan server system requires a complex Although the security policies are similar, there are still obvious differences in the specific implementation methods.

The compromised mainframe is about to be decommissioned, and the data involved is being migrated to the Fangyuan server in stages. It may be for the convenience of work, so that there is a loophole in the permission configuration at the connection point of the difference system, which is already a short board.Then he was taken advantage of by the hacker.

After Tang Huan saw this result, he couldn't help grinning, because it was not far from the outside world's discussion, and it might be used by some competitors to make a big fuss.

Since AT&T was split into "one big and seven small", Pacific Telecom has become the most noticeable of the seven gourd babies.

Compared with the other six small Bells, Pacific Telecom is much more aggressive in its development. One of its major manifestations is that it actively develops new businesses and has tasted great sweetness.

For example, Pacific Telecom overcame various technical difficulties and took the lead in implementing the caller ID function, which immediately scratched the user's itch, and made the previous investment get a good return. Even other telecommunications companies did not hesitate to introduce this at a high price in order to save time. sets of proven successful application scenarios.

Caller ID is just a small test for Pacific Telecom. Its bigger move is to fully introduce the most advanced digital communication technology, and then cooperate with banks, insurance companies, public service companies and other units to provide users with information query services.

In terms of network construction, Pacific Telecom is also significantly faster than its peers, especially the speed of data connection services. In just a few years, it has been popularized from the original 300 bit rate to 1200 bit rate and 2400 bit rate. The central area reached a bit rate of 4800, and even the test area reached a bit rate of 9600.

You know, although the demand for data services is increasing day by day at this stage, telecommunications companies tend to prefer a solution - don't you dislike the slow network speed, then apply for a few more lines.

As a result, telecom companies are making more and more money.

But Pacific Telecom ignored this ready-made method of making money, and always strived to achieve the fastest speed on one line, which made it very difficult for colleagues in the industry, as if they were not kind to users.

According to the evaluation of observers in the communication industry, although Pacific Telecom claims that its intensive upgrade, after the initial equipment investment, is more concentrated on the software level at the office end, and the cost control is more reasonable, but the investment of hundreds of millions must be there. .

More importantly, the current new communication technology represented by ISDN is in the ascendant, and even the European side is ready to fully implement it, which makes the industry keep a cautious attitude towards the future direction of network development.But Pacific Telecom buried its head and tried its best to expand the traditional network. Aren't you afraid that it will be difficult to turn the ship's bow and lose everything?
In addition, Pacific Telecom's early and full-speed entry into the cellular phone business was also seen as an erratic risk-taking move.

However, the western United States is Pacific Telecom's territory. People can do whatever they want without paying attention to such doubts. They still go their own way and become a unique star in the telecommunications industry.

Now Pacific Telecom can't play high-cold, your system has been hacked, how can you put on airs, the guy who usually feels that Pacific Telecom breaks the rules and makes everyone passive, can't help but gloat.

Of course, as a listed company, Pacific Telecom's stock price will inevitably be affected.

Seeing this situation, Pacific Telecom's board of directors couldn't sit still, and quickly suggested to Tang Huan: "Mr. Chairman, you should go back to the headquarters in San Francisco. Let's hold a meeting to discuss it."

How could Tang Huan be willing to disrupt his rhythm?So he calmly asked Chuck Smith, CEO of Pacific Telecom, to send a message: "You are responsible for the specific work, and don't make any mistakes. As for investors' doubts about our future development direction, I will wait until I go to the Hannover Industrial Exhibition After the game is over, it just goes away."

The members of the Pacific Telecom board of directors who had gathered at the San Francisco headquarters were not so easy to appease. Seeing that Tang Huan was staying in New York and unwilling to move, they flew to the eastern United States and persistently sent the meeting over.

Tang Huan couldn't laugh or cry, couldn't even wait a few months?Alright then, let's all sit together, drink tea and crack sunflower seeds, chatting and chatting.

In fact, it is impossible to become a director of a large company with a market value of tens of billions of dollars without having a strong government.The reason why they came all the way here was to see with their own eyes whether Tang Huan was really so stable.

However, when they saw their chairman of the board of directors calmly playing bowling with a group of dolls in a club, everyone was still shocked—how much nerves were needed for this!
In this way, the board meeting, which was originally planned to be serious and tense, turned into a lively and interesting leisure activity.

Soon, another piece of fun came over.Rich Skrenta, who went to Pacific Telecom to investigate and evaluate security incidents, unexpectedly met the hacker who hacked Pacific Telecom's mainframe on America Online's BBS, and started to do it.

It can only be said that the thinking of hackers these days is relatively simple - if you don't show off, you will feel uncomfortable, and if you don't show off, you will die. Maybe this person is more extreme, and he talked a lot in the original forum forum, and even let it go He said: "I know, maybe Pacific Telecom and even people from the FBI have already squatted here. If you have the ability, you can follow me. I also heard that the richest man is very skilled. I don't know if he has changed. It became 'once'. I captured your telecommunications company, why don't you show up in person and let's play together."

Seeing that the other party dared to challenge his teacher, Rich Skrenta quit, and immediately said: It is not enough to kill a chicken with a sledgehammer, it is enough for me to accompany you, and you are not qualified to challenge my idol.

These two people had such an argument in the forum, which immediately attracted a large number of users who were using other AOL services to watch. People didn't feel sorry for the expensive Internet connection fee, and they stared at the screen The text scrolls, for fear of missing such a fun new thing.

In fact, Rich Skrenta and the hacker with the ID Condor were spitting at each other in the forum. It was not boring, it was also a kind of fighting.

Just like last year in the popular kung fu movie "Heroes of Fist of Fury" in the United States, Fumio Funakoshi played by Yasaki Kurata and Chen Zhen played by Li Lianjie deliberately used aggressive language to try to disturb each other's mood before their martial arts competition.

The same principle applies to confrontation on the Internet. After you come and go, you can speculate on the opponent's thinking and behavior habits to a certain extent, and then help the next competition on the target host agreed by the two parties.

In the final analysis, the game of network security is a battle between people, so it is an extremely complex system engineering. If you only understand the technology, you will fall into the inferior position.

Rich Skrenta took the lead in throwing the bait to Condor: "You must also understand that the mainframe you entered before is a mainframe that is about to be eliminated. So, even if you get control of it, it doesn't necessarily mean that you have This ability is most likely encountered by you during the handover period of the system change. Now, we choose a host of the Fangyuan server system as the battlefield, do you dare to compete?"

Under the "live broadcast", Condor was obviously unwilling to back down, so after setting some conditions, he accepted Rich Skrenta's invitation, and the two of them officially engaged in direct confrontation——Condor is the spear of attack , Rich Skrenta is the defensive shield.

After Tang Huan got the news, he felt it was quite funny, but he did not stop Richie Skrenta's approach. The quality of Gein's personality was too important for a person to stand alone. His cheap apprentice practiced his skills through actual combat. , but it is also a rare opportunity.

In addition, Tang Huan also hopes to catch this lawless hacker—Nimma, there are so many telecommunications service providers in the United States, and there are seven local Bell companies alone. Why do you only focus on Pacific Telecom?Now that everyone has formed a bridge, it is time to discuss the truth.

"How did you get to know the other party?" Tang Huan asked in a relaxed tone on the phone.

"Not a lot, but not too little." Rich Skrenta replied maturely: "According to my judgment, this hacker whose ID is Condor should be about the same age as me, and his position is very likely to be In Los Angeles. I've set up the 'honeypot' and it's up to the other side to do it."

Los Angeles is one of the top three metropolises in the United States. If you want to find someone in this area, it is not an exaggeration to say that you are looking for a needle in a haystack.

Tang Huan didn't say much, but just reminded: "Remember, you are not fighting alone. There is a strong backing behind you. If you need any resources, just ask."

Richie Skrenta finally couldn't suppress the excitement in his heart and said quickly: "I have used the latest computer security research results. Although Condor is arrogant, I feel like it is... He humped an active little white mouse back and forth."

"You maintain a good mentality." After Tang Huan encouraged his disciple for a few words, he hung up the phone and asked John Chambers, who walked in with a serious face, "What happened?"

"Unfavorably affected by the information leakage accident of Pacific Telecom, which widely used Fangyuan servers, we were out of the order competition for the computer system of the stock exchange." John Chambers replied with a heavy tone.

After listening to the other party's explanation, Tang Huan smiled coldly, "It's no big deal, we don't want this order, the future will last forever, just wait and see!"

(End of this chapter)