Exploited
Page 39

23:22 <T0x1cwrath> There’s a file on you. An open case. Did you know that?
I dismissed it initially. I sat at my computer in my dimly lit kitchen and rolled my eyes.
23:22 <Freed0m0v3rdr1v3> Yeah, okay, so what? It’s not like they can trace my IP. I’m careful. You know that.
I had probably even smirked, feeling full of myself.
23:23 <T0x1cwrath> Minotaur20 was busted two days ago. He’s been arrested and charged.
My smirk dropped instantly.
Every cracker knew Minotaur20. He was one of the largest contributors to the Tor network in the world. It was rumored that he had helped found the Lomaxians, one of the biggest and most prolific hacktivist groups in operation. A group that I used to have a close, personal tie to.
He had been around since the dawn of the Internet. Everyone had thought him untouchable.
My email dinged and I opened it to find an email from Toxicwrath. It was a newspaper article detailing the arrest of Jonathan Lambert of Winchester, Virginia, for cybercrimes going back fifteen years.
Shit.
My throat seized and my palms began to sweat.
23:23 <T0x1cwrath> You’re on their radar. This is serious.
For the first time I took the warning seriously.
23:24 <Freed0m0v3rdr1v3> How serious?
23:25 <T0x1cwrath> Very. They’ve been looking for you for years. You have their attention.
I wasn’t stupid. I knew that my questionable deeds had caught the eye of the authorities. Several times I had even made the news, which had been a nice bump to the ego.
But it had been months since my last exploit. I figured they were off looking for bigger fish to fry.
So I had continued to plan. Lay the groundwork for my next takedown.
All the while not sparing a thought for the possible consequences.
I was so naive.
23:26 <Freed0m0v3rdr1v3> They haven’t found me yet. I’m safe.
I typed those words with more bravado than I felt. A confidence that was beginning to erode.
23:27 <T0x1cwrath> They haven’t found you yet. But they’re looking. Trust me. I need to know we’re not going to get caught. I have contacts. They tell me your case has become a priority. What are you doing to cover your tracks?
I became defensive. Angry. But it was a secondary emotion to cover the terror that now gripped me. Going to jail was not an option for me.
I couldn’t do that to Charlotte.
Or to my mother, no matter how strained our relationship.
With shaking fingers I began to detail all the ways I was maintaining my anonymity. But for Toxicwrath it wasn’t enough. He seemed to know things. Intimate things about how the FBI worked. He knew the agents. The protocols.
I figured he was someone on the inside. Or at least knew people on the inside. But he wouldn’t say. I didn’t really expect him to.
His connections were definitely keeping him off the Feds’ radar. No one but me knew that he existed.
Yet no hacker was immune to discovery. No matter how good they were. Just ask Minotaur20—the seemingly untouchable cybercelebrity.
23:30 <Freed0m0v3rdr1v3> What else am I supposed to do?
That one question changed everything.
It set me down a path that it was now far too late to turn away from.
Toxicwrath suggested I make a more personal connection. That I take a “hands-on” approach. Stop hiding behind the keyboard and find out exactly what was going on with my case.
23:35 <Freed0m0v3rdr1v3> Can’t we just hack the system? Find out that way?
23:36 <T0x1cwrath> Hacking a federal database is harder than that. Don’t be an idiot! It takes more than simple phishing or brute force to get through those layers. We have to go old school.
“We” meant “me.”
23:38 <Freed0m0v3rdr1v3> What am I supposed to do?
23:38 <T0x1cwrath> Become Mata Hari.
He couldn’t be serious. I instantly balked.
23:39 <Freed0m0v3rdr1v3> She died by firing squad. I’m not sure I’m cut out for that.
23:39 <T0x1cwrath> Then this partnership is over. It’s the only option if we want to keep doing this. I won’t hang myself out to dry unless I know you’re committed. I’ve proven myself. It’s time you do the same.
What he was talking about felt wrong. So wrong. I was not the type of woman cut out to play spy. To get close to someone for duplicitous reasons.
But Toxicwrath reminded me that social engineering was often the only way to infiltrate. To infect.
I had to catalog vulnerabilities firsthand.
I had to know how deep the investigation had gone. How close they were.
It was a matter of self-preservation.
23:40 <Freed0m0v3rdr1v3> What if I fuck it up? What if they figure me out?
23:41 <T0x1cwrath> Don’t get caught. And don’t get too close. That’s the most important thing. They are a means to an end. That’s it. Remember our purpose. Our mission.
Toxicwrath acted as though it was his mission, his purpose. The implication that I wasn’t committed chafed, but I signed on to do just as my partner asked. His reasons made sense.
When Mason was assigned my case, Toxicwrath let me know. I had a target.
A name.
Some cursory Internet sleuthing gave me a face. I found out when he moved to town. What day he started at the Richmond field office.
I followed him to work. To the bar. To the apartment of some blond bitch he was apparently sleeping with.
And I waited. I had gotten good at that over the years.
I had to find my entrance. At just the right time.
All the while Toxicwrath fed me information about my mark. He gave me the details of his past cases. The office gossip.
I knew that Mason had a partner. Another agent assigned to my case. Some basic searching revealed that Perry Winston was a joke in the Bureau. His father, a decorated and high-ranking agent, had pulled a number of strings to get his far inferior son a job out of college. He hadn’t been with the Bureau long. Only eighteen months. Though as a junior agent with little experience, he might have been a better choice. Easier to crack. I wouldn’t have to work as hard.
When I suggested as much to Toxicwrath, he shot the idea down.
22:23 <T0x1cwrath> You need someone with inside knowledge. Agent Winston can barely tie his own shoes. He wouldn’t know the first thing about what’s really going on with your case.
22:24 <Freed0m0v3rdr1v3> How do you know this? Do you know these agents personally?