Heart-Shaped Hack(34)

“What if I give you some of my own money? I have plenty.”

Kate shook her head. “I can’t.” Maybe she was being stubborn and ungrateful, but how could she feel like she was accomplishing her goals if Ian swooped in every month with a bag of cash, stolen or otherwise?

“Don’t you think your clients are deserving of the assistance they receive, regardless of where the money comes from?” Ian asked.

“Of course I think they’re deserving.”

“Well, if you won’t take money from me personally, then we’re back to me playing Robin Hood.”

She exhaled, torn between her decision not to accept his help and her desire to see her clients with the things they needed.

“Think of it this way,” he said. “Wouldn’t you rather see your clients benefit from the money instead of the thieves who stole it from people whose Christmases will probably be shitty this year because of it?”

“You make a valid argument.”

He pointed his fork at her. “Exactly.”

“Well, maybe I wouldn’t struggle with it as much if you told me more about it.”

“What do you want to know?”

“How does it work? When I asked you if there was a difference between hackers and cyberthieves, you said there was. What did you mean by that?”

“There are two kinds of hackers—white hat and black hat. The white hats are hackers who hack for good—like me. We hack into things, but our goal is to figure out how to keep everyone else out. The cyberthieves, or black hats, hack for malice or greed. They’re the ones who introduce the malware that causes harm and launch attacks that cripple websites. They hack into Home Depot and Target, and they help themselves to your credit card information when all you were trying to do was buy a drill or paper towels and laundry detergent.”

“Clearly you don’t know how to shop at Target. There are way cooler things to be found there than paper towels and laundry detergent.”

He laughed. “Duly noted.”

Kate poured more syrup on her french toast. “When I asked you why you didn’t return the money to the people it had been stolen from, you said it wasn’t that easy. Why not?”

“Once the credit card numbers are stolen, they’re bundled and sold to people called carders. The carders then use the numbers to make new cards to buy merchandise that will be returned to the store for a refund or sold, possibly overseas. At that point, there’s no way to recover the merchandise or the cash. Most people—after canceling their cards—will hopefully receive compensation from their credit card company or get the charges reversed. But sometimes it takes a while to get everything sorted out, and for those who need the available credit to get them through to the next payday, or to buy food or put gas in their car, it can cause real hardship.”

“So where do you go to steal the money back?”

“Right into the carders’ bank accounts usually. Some of the more prolific thieves have hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting in them. I don’t take a large enough amount at one time to raise any red flags, but even if they noticed the money was missing, they’re not going to do anything about it—other than be very pissed—because they don’t want to draw attention to their own illegal activities.”

Kate was dumbfounded. “Hundreds of thousands?”

“It’s not uncommon. Even a black hat who only dabbles is likely to have more cash than he could ever hope for.”

Kate was silent for a moment.

“What is it?” he said.

“I’m sorry, I just… I got a visual of you all sitting around in front of your computers wearing little hats.”

“That’s very cute.”

“So what color is your hat when you take the money from black hat hackers? Is it gray?”

“Yes. Gray hat hacking is typically done in the name of goodwill even though it’s often illegal. My hat is gray whenever it suits me.”

“I had no idea this whole culture even existed.”

“People wouldn’t sleep as well at night if they knew what hackers were capable of.”

“Then I guess I’ll sleep extra soundly when the best hacker of them all is in my bed.”

“In case you weren’t already aware, I’ll be in your bed on a regular basis from now on.”

“Lucky me,” Kate said, smiling. “As for the ‘appropriating,’ your arguments are very persuasive. But it still goes against everything I believe in when it comes to the law. We don’t get to mete out vigilante justice no matter how defensible it seems.”

“It’s an ethical quandary for sure, but not one I happen to struggle with. I have no trouble playing Robin Hood. I don’t keep any of the money for myself. I don’t want it, and I certainly don’t need it. I do it because taking the money from thieves and giving it to those who are more deserving makes me feel like I’m playing an active part in offsetting the wrongdoing.”

“I can understand that,” Kate said.

“You know, the babies don’t really understand Christmas. As long as they have enough to eat, they’re in good shape. But the younger kids…”

“Don’t you dare,” Kate said.

“What? Mention that little boy I saw you holding on your lap? The one with the Curious George hat you were feeding chocolate to? And he has, what? Two sisters?”