"What's up, guys?" I asked with a slight hint of irritation in my voice.
The three of them exchanged glances and Sherry began. "It's about the email that you sent to the department head."
"What email, I asked." I send a lot of email and don't always remember that I sent it. But this just didn't ring a bell.
"The one in which you complained about the dismal state of our security." Sherry continued. "You said that Anjali should be fired."
Angel looked like she might cry.
"I tried to tell her that you are under a lot of pressure and you probably didn't mean it. But it was still a mean thing to do." Sherry went on. "I think you owe her and apology."
"Angel, I know you always get the blame for things you didn't do, like the tapes." I joked, "but I didn't sent that note. I don't know what is going on. But, it wasn't from me."
"That's what I said," Patience chimed in. "I told them that this was a mistake of some kind because you would never send a note like that. If you were unhappy with Anjali, you would tell her yourself. In fact, if you wanted her fired, you would fire her yourself."
"Thanks, Patience." I said, turning to Sherry. "What makes you think that I sent a note like that?"
"Because it had your return email address." Sherry replied as though it were the most obvious answer in the world.
"I see." I said, as connections were made in my mind and patterns were beginning to form. "Didn't you say that one of the tricks used by that Veracity group was to hack into the system and send email using internal user ids?"
"Of course," she said blushing slightly. She turned to Patience. "You were right. I guess I jumped to a conclusion."
"I just know Professor Wentworth a little better than you do." Patience said with calm confidence and then returned her attention to her computer.
"It looks like we might have been targeted by Veracity." I said. "The question is - How did they get into our systems and why would they come after us?"
We all sat in silence pondering the problem.
"Sherry, is there any way that Veracity could know that we are working on this problem for Intercontinental?" I began.
"We aren't working on it yet." She reminded. "I spoke to them once and you haven't returned any of their phone calls."
"Then I wonder why they hit us." I thought out loud.
"Did either of you actually see this note." I asked.
"I saw it." Angel replied.
"Did it mention you by name or did it just say the administrator or something like that?" I continued.
"No. It mentioned me by name." Angel said defensively.
"Did it say Angel or Anjali?" I asked.
"It said Angel. After all that's what you call me."
"That's right." I said. "That is what I call you. But nobody outside of this group would know that. A hacker breaking into the system wouldn't find that nickname anywhere. It had to be an insider."
A chill went up my back. We looked at each other. The air was thick with suspense. And the unspoken answer hung in the dense air - Haggerty.
Angel was the first to speak. "Why would Professor Haggerty do this to me?" she asked, once again on the verge of tears.
"Well, I can think of two reasons," I began "First, he is just making trouble. And second, he is getting back at you for exposing him about the backups. My guess is that the first is the real reason and the second is just a side benefit. The things that I don't understand are how he managed to break into the system and why he is trying to look like one of those kids from Veracity."
"Maybe that email trick is just a coincidence." Sherry offered.
"Maybe." I said but I didn't really think so.
"Alright, let's go over it the security again." I began.
"Angel, you reset the accounts."
"Yes."
"And Sherry, you had academic computing restrict the firewall."
"Yes."
"So whoever got in, managed to get inside the firewall and managed to find an account on our network."
"Did you deactivate Professor Haggerty's email account on the central computer?" Angel asked.
"No. But that isn't one our network?" I said slightly defensive.
"True." She continued. "But if he logged into the central computer and then tried to get into our network, he would have an internal IP address and the firewall wouldn't block him."
Damn, I thought, persistence always pays off - from both sides. You don't have to be brilliant to be a hacker. You just have to be persistent.
"O.K. Let's assume that he got through the firewall. How could he get into our network without a user id?"
Again we sat there in silence pondering the possibilities.
"Did you deactivate the guest account?" Patience asked without even looking up from her screen.
"My God!" I blurted out. "Angel. Remember that email? 'You are good to your guests. They are welcome any time.' Did you deactivate the guest account?"
"No." she said. "You didn't tell me to. You specifically said administrator accounts and user ids."
"And," she admitted, "the guest account never occurred to me. It's just a default account that is set up when you install the system."
"Don't feel bad, Angel. It didn't occur to me either until just now. Even with that hint, I missed that hole."
I paced for a moment trying to think through the situation. "Angel. Deactivate the guest accounts. Sherry, get over to academic computing and have them freeze Haggerty's account on the central computer."
"The thing I don't understand is how Haggerty is connected with Veracity."
I didn't get to finish my thought. The telephone rang. I picked it up. It was Jason McCarthy from Carnegie finally calling me back.
"Hi, Tad. This is Jason. I think you'd better sit down."