The Sixth Day (A Brit in the FBI #5)(53)
Mike said, “Did you know Heinrich Hemmler and Chapman Donovan, the other two murder victims?”
“I knew of them, only. Terry was always a friend to Radulov. Had me in to do security for the Ministry. Something like we’re about to do here. You’re having problems, I take it, with this ransomware attack?”
Harry said over his shoulder as he closed the door, “You could say that. All of you, please sit down.”
Mike and Nicholas took a seat on the couch, Ardelean sat opposite.
Harry pulled up a chair. He looked at them all, steepled his fingers, and waited. “This situation is perturbing and unexpected.” He said nothing more. It was one of his father’s favorite tactics, one he’d used on Nicholas as a boy when he’d committed a sin. Sure enough, he’d always jumped into the silence and confessed.
Right on cue, Ardelean splayed his hands and started talking. “I know this breach has been a disappointment to you, but I will remind you that MATRIX is still recognized as the best cybersecurity system on the market. It’s Radulov’s flagship, and I’ll stake my life on it.
“You’ll be relieved to hear we’ve located the issue internally, and it’s been addressed. I have a press briefing this afternoon to explain how we’ve answered the breach.
“In the meantime, we’ve pushed a new software update to our servers. I’m happy to put the update into your system myself, so you can be assured everything is safe and working properly again. Collectively, we apologize for any issues you may be having, and we would like the chance to make this right.”
“All well and good, Mr. Ardelean, and we appreciate your willingness to hurry a patch.” Harry sat forward. “However, I’m sorry to say a simple update won’t do the job. We believe someone has gotten inside your software and is spying on the Home Office. After the incidents of the past few days, we must conclude this is much larger than a ransomware attack. We’ve had three assassinations on our soil, the attempted murder of my son here just today, and now we find out all our servers are infected.” He paused. “As a matter of fact, we are investigating the MATRIX software attack as the link among all these things.”
Nicholas thought the look that registered on Ardelean’s face was sheer horror. Getting on the wrong side of the Security Services wasn’t a path for success; to have Radulov tied to the assassinations would be his downfall, whether he had anything to do with them or not. That Ardelean planned to go public with this breach was the smart thing to do, and would probably restore confidence.
Harry continued, “I see we’ve surprised you with this information.”
Ardelean sat forward, his hands clasped between his knees. “You have. Mr. Drummond, let me assure you there is no way our software could be hacked and used to spy on you. I wrote the code myself. It’s built to protect against that possibility. There’s no way.”
Nicholas said, “Yet it’s happened. Someone is inside the system and is tracking us. And, quite possibly, was tracking the victims who were assassinated, as well.”
He didn’t mention Adam was currently reverse-engineering the code to find where the spying was coming from. He wanted to see what Ardelean had to say first.
“Why would anyone do that? Well, all right, certainly there are nation states who would be very interested in the information in your servers. Everyone knows Russia and North Korea are pushing malicious code into every computer they can. But that’s why you use MATRIX, sir. We take every precaution to make sure none of the components of the software can be tampered with.” He paused. “The assassinations. You honestly think they’re tied together? That something in your servers was stolen and, as a result, these people have been killed?”
He was shaking his head, back and forth. “It is difficult to accept. I will personally start an investigation—another investigation—immediately.”
Harry said, “That would seem the proper course. You say you addressed the issue of the ransomware in MATRIX, Mr. Ardelean—”
“Roman, please.”
“Roman. How, exactly, did you address the breach that led to the ransomware attack? Because clearly someone got inside your code, or else they wouldn’t be able to hold all these computers hostage. And if they can see what’s inside them—”
“I’ll be honest, Mr. Drummond. The ransomware, we already know that breach was the Russians. We were able to trace the upload to a flat in Kiev, and the hacker was arrested by the Russian authorities. We issued the patch the moment we saw the breach, and trust me, it’s secure as ever now.”
That’s not right. Why is Ardelean lying? Nicholas said, “If one hacker can get in, so can another.”
Or the same one. Temora, Temora. “No, no, we’ve locked it all down, pushed out a special update. And I’ve personally offered a bug bounty to my employees to see if any of them can penetrate the new software. And I have some of the best talent in the world on my team.”
Harry said, “I wish we were as certain as you, Roman. As it stands, the Home Office can’t take any chances. We’re going to have to explore the security of MATRIX and make recommendations on our findings.”
Roman looked over at Nicholas. “Have you found something else? Something in the code we’ve missed?”
“No. Not yet.”