Chapter 922: Boss Is Offline!
It was an extraordinary day for the hacker community.
Trying to disrupt the International Lunar Hadron Collider Conference, hacker group Eagle Hunter declared cyber warfare on China.
In less than 12 hours, more than 50 website servers and domain names were hijacked, and dozens of companies reported millions of dollars in damages.
It seemed like the attacks were going to continue, and while everyone was wondering what the hackers would do next, the war suddenly ended abruptly.
Not just that, but several well-known hacker accounts went offline. It was like they vanished from the dark webs.
Especially Boss.
He was one of the top dogs in the hacker community, and the FBI had been trying to capture him for years, but their efforts were to no avail.
However, it seemed like this person suddenly vanished from the Internet. He didn’t reply to any messages, he stopped updating his personal blog, and his website went offline.
It was like he disappeared off the planet…
On a well known dark web forum.
Many scholars in the field of information technology, as well as white hats that worked for well-known technology companies, had accounts on this forum. They talked about everything from industry news to the latest technology.
Because the war between Eagle Hunter and China was such a huge event, half of the forum users were talking about it. Thus, the forum moderators decided to create a new forum channel specifically for this event…
[Does anyone know what happened?]
[It’s been almost an hour, did they give up?]
[No way, an hour ago the Chinese side was still desperately trying to stay alive. There is no reason for Eagle Hunter to retreat.]
[Does the Boss have an email? Should we ask what he’s doing?]
[Apparently, he was caught.]
The channel went silent for a while.
After a couple of minutes, someone broke the silence.
[No way, you have to be kidding me?]
[Yeah, it’s Boss! I’ve seen him make ATMs shoot out money before, and the FBI has been tracking him for years. How did he get caught?]
No one believed that this veteran hacker was defeated by someone from the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
Most people thought that even though the Eagle Hunter hackers had disappeared, they would reappear after laying low for a while.
It was almost impossible to track an experienced hacker.
Especially since Boss was a veteran hacker. If Boss didn’t want to get caught, there was no way anyone could catch him.
While everyone was talking about the Eagle Hunter members, a Los Angeles evening newspaper published their latest breaking story…
[Leader of well-known hacker organization “Eagle Hunter” has been caught!]
Once the news broke out…
The hacker community’s jaws fell on the floor!
…
Ever since the Cyber Security Bureau received that email, they strengthened their defenses and tried to investigate the origin of the email.
Even though they had many doubts about the legitimacy of the email, that was their only clue.
After Director Li saw that the email was signed by Dr. Z, he seemed to have realized something. He patted Director Hong on the shoulder and told him to investigate this email.
Even though Director Li of the State Administration for National Defense was a layman, Director Hong still took his advice.
Tracking an IP from outside the country wasn’t easy, especially without sufficient evidence. The local authorities of that country could refuse to cooperate. However, they discovered that the IP address was from a domestic location.
Director Hong immediately called the Ministry of Public Security and contacted the relevant local police station. Soon after, the hacker with the ID “Kid” was captured.
Everyone was surprised.
Contrary to the ID, the hacker wasn’t a “kid” at all; it was a middle-aged man in his thirties.
According to the neighbors, the suspect had been living there for years.
The police easily found the electronics equipment used to commit the crime in Kid’s home, as well as his personal laptop and phone.
The police found that not only was this person involved in various hacking organizations, he also had a strong hatred toward power and authority.
According to his confession, he was brought into the Eagle Hunter organization by Boss last year. He helped the organization locate and target domestic servers and was a “middle man” for cyber attacks.
As for his motive for the attacks, it was obviously because of his resentment toward society…
…
It was four o’clock in the morning, and the sun was almost about to rise.
Director Hong was drinking a cup of coffee when he looked at Director Li and said, “You know Dr. Z?”
Director Li took a sip out of his vacuum flask and said, “Actually, I’m not sure.”
You’re not sure if you know him?
“Then why were you so certain that he’s right…” Director Hong coughed and said, “Granted, you were correct. I have no intention in finding out his ident.i.ty, I’m just curious.”
Director Li: “Actually, the reason why I believed him is that he’s helped us in the past.”
Director Hong frowned and said, “Helped us?”
“That was almost six months ago.” Director Li began to reminisce as he said, “The Ares program was in trouble, and due to various humanitarian reasons, we launched a s.p.a.cecraft toward Mars…”
The entire office began to listen to Director Li’s story.
He talked about everything from the Mars landing to the colonists being infected. He even put down his vacuum flask and gestured with his hands.
When he began to hear snoring sounds, he awkwardly stopped his story…