Читать Keys - Julius Chance

Give the key away and knock at the gate (Russian proverb)

A year has passed since the US intelligence services eavesdropping on the computers and smartphones of some Russian officials and businessmen stopped working. Then China, Europe, Syria, and Latin American countries began to gradually disappear from the "ether". The White House was now guessing, among many other things, as to why Germany was so stubbornly resisting his pressure and continuing negotiation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline construction. What specific conditions does Russia offer? It also became unclear why the Islamic State 1 in Syria failed so quickly. The situation was slowly but surely spiraling out of control. The world leader was losing the advantage of being able to stay ahead of the curve. And all these terrible failures were caused by some Russian firm that appeared out of nowhere, with the mocking name ‘Traceless Hero’. Two hundred hackers of the US National Security Agency have been vainly struggling with the puzzle for several months. Especially offensive was the fact that the system of the "Trackless Hero" used all the usual means of communication controlled by the special services in order to send its messages, but yet somehow all those messages remain totally inaccessible to US intelligence. A stream of secret information floated right under American noses, through the servers they could access, through the channels they controlled, through the protocols they developed themselves, but, alas, they could read nothing. Under the head of the Department of Telecommunications and Computer Services, Craig Stevenson, the chair rocked like at a nine-point earthquake. Of course, the chairs swayed under all of his subordinates.

The door flew open and a disgruntled Craig entered the Computer Interception Department's office.

“Well, still not hacked?”

“Not yet,” the head of the department Nick pronounced apologetically.

“That is, the best hackers in the United States, listening to the whole world, to the presidents of all major countries, even to German Chancellor’s smartphone, are not able to hack the communication channel of some small Russian company?”

“This is not an ordinary firm, sir. We’ve made some inquiries. Their main Russian programmer Antony has a double university education – his Russian and ours Westerns. Moreover, the cryptographic department there is headed by our compatriot, a Ph.D. in cybernetics from Princeton University, by some Daniel.”