The Two Sided Coin: Log 3: Damage control

[x-invisiblegirl.livejournal.com]

Arriving back at the mansion Hope goes to Doug for help.

"Doug, Doug? You in there?" Hope rapped her knuckles sharply on the door of his office. "Doug?"


"When am I really anywhere else?" Doug replied from inside. "Except, y'know, the times when I'm off traveling the world to meet new and interesting people...or in the city doing Hellfire things...or...okay, valid question, never mind. But yes, I'm in here, Hope." Her voice sounded tense, so even before she opened the door and came in Doug had shifted his attention to whatever situation she was bringing to him.

With a sigh of relief, she pushed the door open and hurried inside. Once in front of his desk, she didn't quite know where to start though. "... I am afraid I am in trouble, Doug."

Tightly clasped hands, unconscious fidgeting...Hope was definitely worried about something. Doug waved a hand at a chair. "Sit down," he said, intentionally pitching his voice in a slower, more soothing register. "Start at the beginning."


"Let's just say that apparently I have been adding corporate espionage or something like that to my skill set, if I have to believe HR department. My authenticator was used to access certain information I had no place of being and I have been suspended till it all can be figured out. I know it was not me." Hope explained.


"-Your- authenticator was used?" Two-factor authentication was used to avoid just this sort of problem. Still, Doug of all people knew that no security method was truly foolproof and unbreakable. He didn't even bother questioning Hope - he believed her when she said it wasn't her, and her body language was sincere. She had no reason to lie to his face when she needed his help like this. "Okay, so either someone stole your authenticator off your person, or they have the ability to copy it through some kind of man-in-the-middle attack..." He tapped his finger to his cheek. "But method is secondary to motive. Why you? What kind of information are we talking about?"


"They would not say anything more then that is was sensitive information about the company. And I have been wondering the same thing. As Mr. Keller's PA I do have some access to the things he has... that is all I could think of... But that is not what I am worried about... They have my laptop, which also has some mansion related things on it." Hope winced.


"...oh dear." That was very bad indeed. Doug winced as well, already trying to figure out how to compartmentalize and potentially retrieve the laptop. "What things, exactly?" he asked. His tone was stern, but not unforgiving. "Be precise."


"Mostly it are loose references to events, powers and people in my emails. They are not on the laptop itself... But I have no idea if they would be able to retrieve my passwords or messages I have read from my history." Hope explained.


Doug cocked his head. "Possible. Even likely." He would bet that he would have been able to, if it were someone else's laptop that he was presented with. "But the fact that it is messages on a server, and not on your laptop, may give us a window of opportunity." He pursed his lips. "And we could reset your passwords as well, minimize what they have access to."


Hope contemplated that for a moment, then nodded. "I am just worried that they might find evidence of us doing that and only use that as an excuse to start digging harder..."


"They can dig however far they like if the stuff isn't there on your laptop to be found anymore." Doug half-shrugged and tipped a finger up off the keyboard. "Plausible deniability - they can suspect whatever they like, and you can't really change that. But suspicion only goes so far when they have nothing concrete to back it up."


"If you would be willing do that for me, I would be very grateful. Is there any chance you might be able to find something about how they got the information from my laptop?" Hope asked.


"Depends. A lot of hacker types have somewhat distinctive methods, almost like a signature. A pattern to how they look at things, stuff like that." He started pulling up scripts and interface windows on his own computer to begin digging. "I can tell you that if they managed to beat a two-factor authentication scheme, they've got to have at least a fair amount of skill."


"That does not surprise me..." She watched as Doug quickly became lost in the code. "Perhaps I better leave you to it? I have some phone calls to make..."


"I'll let you know as soon as I have anything of note," Doug told her absently, already mentally gone from the conversation.