Chapter 364: Chapter 364

"Hello," Xiang Shan said, cradling his arms and greeting Hartman amiably.

Hartman, who was originally spacing out, snapped to attention. He immediately stood up and said loudly, "Yes, sir!"

"Well... I’m not your superior..."

"Leader of the Hanuman Task Group, Xiang Shan. It’s you, no mistake. For now, you are my superior," Hartman insisted.

Xiang Shan hadn’t expected the hacker to be so straight-laced. He felt a bit embarrassed and simply asked, "What are you doing now?"

"Are you inquiring about the progress of the work, sir?"

Hartman’s voice was quite loud, and several of the security department people nearby heard him. They glanced over, saw it was Xiang Shan, and decided not to intervene.

After all, Xiang Shan was indeed the boss. Plus, these days the boss had been trying all means to "exchange academic thoughts with those hackers." Now that Hartman was there, it was only natural for the boss to ask a question.

After all, there really was nothing he couldn’t ask.

"I am scanning these electronic devices, deducing the propagation of the electronic virus, sir," Hartman replied.

Only then did Xiang Shan notice that the table was indeed piled with several personal devices.

"Any findings?" he asked.

"Still scanning, sir. I just sorted out the ’whitelist’ files. I’m now analyzing the remaining suspicious targets with a toolkit," Hartman said, "Actually, I can roughly guess the method, but I won’t make a judgment before confirmation."

Xiang Shan asked, "Can you talk about it?"

"I suspect it’s a Trojan. It knows the common characteristics of research data and will search the entire computer for data that fits the characteristics, then send it to a designated location when connected to a public network. After all this, the Trojan will self-delete to avoid being detected. That’s why a check on scholars who have had data breaches would definitely not turn up the virus. But it always leaves traces."

Human immunity is divided into "non-specific immunity" and "specific immunity." Non-specific immunity clears everything inside the person that is "not self." Specific immunity, on the other hand, targets specific pathogens. Generally, after a pathogen enters the body, it is attacked by non-specific immunity. A piece of malicious RNA cannot directly enter cells, so it needs a protein shell layer—this is the virus.

Viruses and other pathogens disguise themselves to activate receptors on the surface of human cells, pretending to be substances needed by certain cells to gain entry. Viruses that multiply in large numbers will activate the specific immune system’s defenses. Helper T cells will recognize the antigens, then read the records encoded in memory T cells, and subsequently produce antigens.

This logic can also be roughly applied to computers and computer viruses. Computer systems are defined by engineers as "legal operations" and "illegal operations," with some operations being inherently difficult to perform. Malware usually cannot take effect directly. Hence, hackers give malware a "shell." A virus either exploits privileges or utilizes vulnerabilities, masquerading its modifications as "legal operations." Antivirus and analysis software can detect these "shell" codes and conduct elimination by comparing them with virus databases. Antivirus software and virus databases represent the helper T cells and memory T cells.

However, viruses written by humans are the product of intelligent design, so they often have "tricks" that organisms evolved naturally wouldn’t conceive of—such as self-deletion.

The virus will eliminate its own "shell layer" to prevent the immune system from recognizing it.

The spread of computer viruses also follows epidemiology. But a virus that "plays hide-and-seek and does not produce antibodies" will make it difficult to identify "patient zero."

However, "Aqini" seems to be able to find the "traces of virus modification"—or rather, the "records of symptoms," and then deduce the transmission path from the "records."

At this point, Hartman seemed somewhat proud, "Actually, I do know a bit about ’Zhu Rong.’

Xiang Shan found it strange, "Are you friends? Or do you have a grudge?"

"Don’t know him," Hartman shrugged. "But I’ve studied him."

"You’ve studied him? Then why didn’t you catch him?" Xiang Shan was perplexed. "If you had caught this guy earlier, wouldn’t we have avoided all this trouble?"

"I’m neither a cop nor a member of the IRS (Federation Tax Service)," Hartman found it strange as well. "Why would I arrest this economic criminal without an order?"

"Economic criminal..." Xiang Shan was completely baffled. In this hacker’s eyes, could the behavior of that "Zhu Rong" actually be summarized as an economic crime...

No... indeed, it seems to fit the definition of an economic criminal, but...

Xiang Shan asked, "Then why study it at all?"

"Hackers, well, they’re the people who find vulnerabilities in systems," Hartman said. "Some are good at discovering holes left by careless construction workers, while others prefer to dig their own holes. By following the footsteps of other hackers, it’s easy to locate these ’holes.’ I’ve specifically studied the techniques of other hackers, but I rarely take the initiative to act. Usually, I just follow behind them, looking for something I can use."

Xiang Shan had indeed heard about such things. Some small-time Black Hats, akin to pedestrian henchmen in the world of Jianghu, only learn some very basic techniques from Great Hackers. [Even they might merely use scripts written by Great Hackers, earning the moniker "script kiddie" – pests] After using certain scripts to hack into innocent websites, the trojan files those scripts generate inside the website might all have identical passwords.

These script kiddies are more like the alchemical cauldrons and puppets of their script masters. They invade innocent websites, make minor modifications to the homepage material as proof of their visit, and then proudly display their "victories" in anonymous communities to receive others’ adoration. But all this is to facilitate the secretive actions of the Great Hacker behind the scenes. For the Great Hacker, it’s all about "casting a net." Who knows when such resources might be needed?

But Xiang Shan truly didn’t know that even a hacker of Aqini’s caliber would be involved in such things...

Or rather, that even a hacker of Zhu Rong’s caliber could be treated like just another script kiddie...

"To me, reverse-engineering the trojans written by other hackers is actually a bit more interesting than breaking into a complex system," Hartman stated. "I’m not saying I’m not good at the latter. I’m quite adept at finding vulnerabilities, but when compared to other hackers, there’s not much qualitative difference. But I do enjoy figuring out the little tricks others have played, boss. The rubbish ’Vulcan’ left online, I’ve cracked most of it. I knew there were several issues he hadn’t accounted for... Many famous hackers, you think they have confessed all their crimes. Have you ever watched ’Harry Potter’? It mentions that wizards love to tease Muggles, so during the witch hunts, they would cast an Anti-fire Curse on themselves and stand in a pyre shouting for fun. Hackers standing in court might not be so leisurely, but surely they’re thinking, ’That’s all you know about me.’ I’m different..."

Hartman then realized something and stood up straight again, "I apologize, boss. I might have talked too much."

Xiang Shan didn’t particularly dis kind of person. He felt that the guy had a familiar "tech nerd" vibe about him. He waved his hand, "So you know about a lot of the crimes committed by Great Hackers? You could send them to prison at any time?"

"It’s not that exaggerated, boss. At most, I can confirm ’what this ID has done online’ or ’which IP this ID used to log in.’ Often, to convict those criminals, you have to dig out their real-world identities, or even seize their devices while they’re operating their accounts to gather evidence," Hartman admitted frankly, "In this respect, the FBI is very proficient."

As he said this, he glanced at the former FBI Monitor beside him. The former FBI Monitor actually nodded with a hint of pride.

Xiang Shan scratched his head, "But you can’t quickly pinpoint Zhu Rong’s location, can you?"

Hartman seemed surprised, "Don’t you know, boss? My main job is investigating computer virus infections, assessing the extent of intelligence leaks. As for capturing ’Zhu Rong,’ that has to wait until after this task is completed."

Xiang Shan nodded, "I thought you could lead us directly to that person through your investigation."

"Well, maybe when it’s time to catch her, I’ll be there, keeping her online by provocation or something. But, most of the time, social engineering is the best attack method."

Xiang Shan nodded, "You’re quite insightful. I thought you were very proud of your own skills."

"No, I am very proud," Hartman said. "My skills can maximize the power of social engineering. The correct order can properly harness my power." Newest update provided by n͟o͟v͟e͟l͟f͟i͟r͟e͟.net

Xiang Shan said, "So is that why you thought about... joining the military?"

"Then why didn’t you just sign up for the military like normal?"

"I have a technical advantage, but not a physical one, boss," Hartman explained. "I don’t quite understand how the normal process should work. But people like me can’t perform to the best of their abilities. Computer science is advancing very fast, and if I neglect my studies due to daily military training, I might no longer be the world’s best hacker."

Xiang Shan could roughly see why the Federation’s military personnel wouldn’t guy at all.

It would be strange if they did.

Plus, this guy didn’t even try to hide his intentions, blatantly discussing them with Xiang Shan, an "overseas boss."

Xiang Shan even noticed the expression on the face of the former FBI Monitor. He probably thought his colleague was ludicrous too. But it seemed he wasn’t allowed to speak, so he had remained silent throughout.

Hartman even happily stated, "One day, I’m going to be the Deputy Director of the FBI. With my expertise combined with the FBI’s power, I’ll definitely eradicate cybercrime within the Federation’s territory!"

Upon hearing this, the former FBI personnel finally showed a faint smile, but quickly collected himself.

— This poor child, clueless about having been ostracized...

However, Xiang Shan found he couldn’t actually dis techno-nerd.

He continued to chat with the "Aqini" for a little while.