Cyber Nightmares: For The Sake Of Nine Million, Page 2

execution was enough to raise suspicion only if an intrusion was suspected otherwise it just appeared as a delay in the system. Security of the PLC infrastructure had not changed significantly in nearly the past 30 years. The overlaying infrastructure had kept pace, in the form of firewalls however once you gained access beyond the electronic front gate, it was pretty much all laid out naked to those knowing about the fundamentals of such structures. There was very little secondary security aside from some rudimentary communication protocols which were focussed on data integrity, completely oblivious to data injection as long as some fundamental checksums came up clean.

  Having investigated the threat, the board had deliberated on the course of action to be undertaken. The most obvious action was to approach CERT but that would have cost the company millions of dollars a week in lost revenue. They would have been left with no choice aside from shutting down all of their operations whilst the entire command and control network was locked down. To facilitate this, a major restructure would be required. This would not only financially cripple the company, but would also produce such a public outcry as major industries across the three states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia would be forced into emergency rationing of energy. Within three weeks, an estimated 350,000 people would be forced to accept reduced levels of employment as the industries desperately awaited the return of their vital life blood. Within six weeks, the major economic backbone of the Australian eastern seaboard would grind to an agonizingly near halt from the knock on effects, bringing the total of indirectly affected citizens to nearly 9 million.

  Technical analysis of the known attacks revealed that the PLC infrastructure attacks had been launched from two major sources, botnets and the Tor. Suspected botnet trails had raised concerns that the blackmailers were of sufficient sophistication that extra muscle might be needed. This was confirmed beyond all reasonable expectations when SQL injection attacks targeting the company financial databases were traced back to multiple confirmed Tor spawn points.

  The blackmailers had been very outspoken that under no circumstances was any government authority to be contacted. Given their display of power to date, the board decided to abide by their decree until the companies odds of success could be recovered.

  So the company had started laundering their monthly payoffs, some USD$500K, through a variety of difficult to trace, non-traditional, off the radar financial instruments. Basically large sums of fiat funds were exchanged for various MMORPG currencies for the purpose of transacting virtual goods at price extremes with designated characters through the use of unique identifiers. These transactions had been ongoing for nearly 6 months as the board sought to covertly introduce a layer of security, and retaliation, that they could bank on.

  The deployment of 'Industrial Defender' support, combined with some black hat muscle sourced from the same MMORPGs used to wash the monthly gifts, was supposed to ensure a clean break and their return to independence. Unfortunately, the program was not running to plan. Just 36 hours after the new system went live, the black hats came forward with their metaphorical caps in hand. They reported that they had uncovered whom were behind the attacks and that given their new knowledge, they were no longer prepared to undertake the companies seedier side of defense.

  These events had all culminated this morning in the Iona gas plant executing an uncommanded diversion of gas from the Melbourne line into the already peaking underground reservoirs. Isolation of the plant command and control system had been achieved through a distributed denial of service attack. The DDOS appeared to being orchestrated by at least three botnets, whom in turn, were receiving their commands from within the Tor and beyond reach of retaliation. The end result of all the unplanned gas sequestion, was the pushing of the reservoirs to the brink with only 36 hours until breaching of the safety limits.

  Chris pushed back in his chair and drew a deep breath as he raked his left hand through his hair. “So let me get this straight. You have had over six months to come clean on this and now, after it has basically blown up in your face, you come forward”.

  “We had no choice”, Michael pleaded, “I don’t think you can appreciate how much leverage they have on us. Not just our operations but the board members themselves. For the love of God, private discussions held at home have been quoted in threats!”

  Michael watched on as Chris’s companion, Tom, leaned over to whisper something into his ear. Chris’s eyes widened discernibly as the message was delivered.

  “Michael, is that your personal iPhone on the table?” Chris queried.

  “Yes…?” Michael proffered, confusion seeping into where confidence had flowed.

  “Shit!” cursed Chris as he slammed his hand hard into the desk. “How bloody stupid are you people!?! One of the first things we did was scan your iphone.”

  “You WHAT! How dare you! You have absolutely no rights!” screamed Michael.

  “Shut up and listen you fool!” quipped Chris. “We have picked up a profile that matches an evolved but rogue stuxnet variant. Everything that you do on that iPhone has been relayed to its master. Not to mention that it could also have mic and camera enabled without any visible signs.”

  “So I have been a walking bug?”, the blood draining from Michaels face, producing a greyed out ghost of the man. As the implications sunk in, his eyes focussed in on the guilty technology near his hand.

  As if sensing the scrutiny, the screen changed from the picture of Michael’s family to a skull and cross bones.

  “Chris, something is up with my phone. It has just shown a pirate skull at me.”

  “Crap! They must be active now.” Chris lurched forwards on Michael’s monitor. “Kick it into the corner. Kick it now!”

  Michael’s left hand shot forward, as his hand closed around the iPhone, he noted how hot it felt to the touch. Aggressively tossing the advanced bug into the corner, Michael instinctively sucked the burnt webbing of his hand, as he watched on in disbelief. His personal iPhone began to produce acrid smoke as it appeared to go into meltdown.

  “Their stuxnet based bug was discovered so they chose to suicide the device.”, Chris offered in response to the mounting distress he could see sweeping across Michael’s face, “Basically, they override the battery firmware whilst pushing the processor through some high demand computations. The end result is the battery goes into thermal runaway and physical destruction normally occurs within eight minutes of activation.”

  Seeking to clarify the current situation on hand, Chris moved to summarise the problem as he saw it.

  “So my fundamental scenario in front of my team right now is that you have not only lost control of your Iona gas plant, one of Australia’s major energy supply facilities, but also the associated underground reservoirs will exceed safe limits within 36 hours. On the up side, if the reservoirs do fail then it is unlikely that they will detonate but rather will randomly vent throughout an area of about one thousand square kilometres just 100 km west of the state capital, Melbourne.”

  Michael slumped in his chair and began to weep as the depth of the cataclysm dawned on him.

  Ignoring the emotional distress being expressed by the shell of a man in front of him, Chris continued to vocalise his conclusions. “The stored LNG, some 22 peta-Joules of it, equates to the same energy as a five megaton nuclear device. The less of two evils for this uncontrolled venting is that they ignite rather than simply discharge as the gas is noxious. With the amount of stored LNG, any vents that do ignite could be raging fireballs for years to come if they remain unplugged. Capping this all off, the bigger picture points to the complete economic meltdown of the eastern states as the whole energy system collapses under the weight of a demand they just can’t satisfy.”

  Michael could only nod his weary head in confirmation of Chris’s fears.

  Chris reclined whilst closing his eyes against the stabbing glare of the overhead neon tubes. “How could this day get any worse?” He mused to himself as his smart phone vibrat
ed in his suit pants pocket. Fishing it out, Chris’s thumb instinctively flicked the GUI lock across before the image registered in his overloaded mind. The skull and cross bones image was replaced with “The media knows your failure”.

  Even as the small lithium ion battery pack commenced it’s suicidal meltdown, Chris screamed and hurled his infected smart phone across the interview room.

  #####

  Thank you for taking the time to read my book. If you enjoyed it, won't you please take a moment to leave me a review at your favourite retailer?

  Thanks!

  Shayne T Wright

  About the author

  Shayne T Wright has over 20 years experience within the high tech world of the Australian based defence sector, both in and out of uniform, coupled with a smattering of exposure to next generation autonomous mining developments for super pits within Australia and the USA.

  Since a young teen, he has pursued table top wargames such as Battletech and Warhammer 40K. Always having a keen interest in all things technological, Shayne has fervently targeted his working life to reflect his interests. A desire to write short stories has always bubbled just below the surface and he now feels that the time is right for those embryonic urges to burst forward with a life of their