Rebirth of the Rich Second Generation's Growth Diary

Chapter 114 Under attack!

Originally everything was moving in the right direction.

Next, you will easily win the first prize in the provincial competition, and then be recommended to the national competition, and then you will easily obtain the admission qualification.

Until mid-April, when the unexpected happened.

After school that morning, Li Xu planned to eat outside the school.

An Duoduo recommended a good noodle restaurant and he was about to go out.

Xue Xue ran in hurriedly.

"Li Xu is in big trouble!"

Li Xu blinked and said, "Don't be anxious, speak slowly."

"Li Xu is in big trouble!"

Xue Xue repeated it again.

Li Xu comforted him: "No matter how big the problem is, it's not as important as eating. Have you eaten?"

Xue Xue said angrily, "It's already late and you're still eating! Come with me!"

Xue Xue pulled Li Xu up.

Li Xu was confused and asked, "What happened?"

Xue Xue said, "There's no time to explain. I'll tell you when we get in the car!"

Xue Xue pulled Li Xu and ran all the way, and soon arrived at the school gate.

After hailing a taxi, Xue Xue told the driver that her destination was a community that Li Xu had never been to.

Seeing Xue Xue's panicked expression, Li Xu's mood also darkened. He asked, "What happened?"

Xue Xue said solemnly, "There's something wrong with Zhang Yao's smart switch."

Li Xu frowned slightly, "Tell me more about it."

Xue Xue nodded, "It's like this..."

Zhang Yao is Xue Xue's friend, but not from their school.

This time, Xue Xue joined Li Xu's research group, and Zhang Yao also wanted to help, so she took the initiative to apply to replace all the switches in her home with smart switches and installed this energy management system.

Everything went smoothly at first, but unexpectedly, just two days ago, the energy management system suddenly started to go crazy.

The switch turned off the home appliances without my permission.

Xue Xue said: "During that time, Zhang Yao thought she had accidentally operated it incorrectly and restarted it."

"When she left the house this morning, she checked to make sure she hadn't turned off any electrical appliances."

"But she just called again and said the power to the refrigerator at home was cut off."

Xue Xue sighed slightly and said to Li Xu, "You know, if the power goes out in a refrigerator, the frozen food inside will spoil in no time."

By now, Zhang Yao has gone home to deal with it. There is only a grandmother in their family, and she doesn't understand these household appliances.

After listening to Xue Xue's narration, Li Xu's heart sank and his face turned as cold as ice. But he quickly calmed down and asked, "Besides Zhang Yao's family, are there any other similar problems?"

Xue Xue shook her head and said, "I don't know yet."

Li Xu's mind started working quickly. He first considered all the worst-case scenarios, and then continued to think of solutions in his mind.

This process did not last long.

He quickly took out his cell phone and called Ye Ruida.

Ye Ruida is already a recommended student and has no academic pressure, so he is still sleeping at home.

Ye Ruida answered the phone in a daze and said "Hello".

Li Xu explained the situation briefly. "To make it short, there might be a problem with our system. The appliances in one of the volunteer's homes were remotely shut off."

Ye Ruida on the other end of the phone suddenly woke up.

Ye Ruida asked: "When did it happen?"

Li Xu said in a deep voice, "It's hard to explain right now. So, first go to my dad's company and turn off the remote shutdown function, then issue a notice..."

Li Xu touched his chin and thought for a moment before saying, "Just write in the announcement that we're going to be undergoing a new round of system upgrades, and the remote power off function may not work properly during that time. Don't say anything else for now."

Ye Ruida said on the phone: "Okay, I understand. I'll do it right away!"

After hanging up the phone, Li Xu took out his cell phone and called Lei Yinbing.

Lei Yinbing was eating in the cafeteria at the moment. There seemed to be food in his mouth when he spoke, and his words were unclear.

"What's going on?"

Li Xu said: "There is a problem with the system. The power switch has been turned off. At present, we don't know whether it is an individual problem or a common problem. We also don't know whether the specific cause is a software or hardware problem."

Lei Yinbing's mind went blank and he asked, "Then what should we do?"

Li Xu said, "We will split up. Xue Xue and I are heading to the home where the problem occurred. Ye Ruida will go to the server and disable the remote control function."

"Go to the lab, dismantle the previous smart switch, and carefully check to see if there is any hardware defect."

Lei Yinbing originally wanted to say that it couldn't be a hardware problem, but the words were choked on his lips.

Although he designed the switch, it was outsourced to a manufacturer, so it is very likely that one or two parts would fail to meet quality control standards.

He said, "Okay, I got it."

Li Xu arranged the affairs of Ye Ruida and Lei Yinbing respectively, then smiled at Xue Xue and said, "Don't be nervous. Things have happened, and we just need to deal with it calmly."

Xue Xue looked at Li Xu in a daze.

When Zhang Yao called her just now, she was really panicking, because she suddenly thought, what if everyone's system had this problem? It would be ok if it didn't cause serious consequences, but what if it caused serious consequences...

The more Xue Xue thought about it, the more nervous she became.

But Li Xu assigned Ye Ruida and Lei Yinbing their respective tasks in just a few words, and the whole process went smoothly and calmly.

Xue Xue suddenly felt like she had found her backbone and her mood calmed down.

Xue Xue nodded and said, "With you here, I won't be panicking."

The two soon arrived at Zhang Yao's house.

Zhang Yao has already replaced the smart switch.

One advantage of this system is that it is easy to install. You can dismantle the system by just changing a socket.

Xue Xue said to Zhang Yao with apologetic look: "I'm sorry, Zhang Yao."

Zhang Yao shook her head and said, "I don't know what's going on..."

Li Xu walked over, touched his chin and carefully examined it, then asked: "Did you encounter anything unusual before the power outage?"

Zhang Yao thought about it carefully, shook her head in confusion, and said, "I'm not sure. I'm just following the normal operating procedures..."

Li Xu nodded. The most urgent thing was to find out the problem.

He took the smart socket and Zhang Yao's home WiFi device back and said he wanted to check them out.

Li Xu returned to the laboratory. Ye Ruida had already returned and was busy with Lei Yinbing.

Ye Ruida said: "How is the situation over there?"

Li Xu placed the equipment he brought back on the table and said, "Let's check the hardware first!" Lei Yinbing raised his head and said, "There's no problem with the hardware. The standard specifications of the OEM factory your father found are very high, and the quality control is also up to standard."

Li Xu said, "That's a software problem."

“What are some of the factors that might have caused this problem?”

They looked at each other, and Xue Xue said, "If it's because of the software..."

She lowered her head and pondered for a moment before saying, "Let's check the system logs. Maybe we can find the problem."

This is not an easy job. The system server has to process too many instructions every day. Xue Xue is only a high school student after all. Although she knows some front-end technology, tracing the source is a bit beyond her scope.

Although Ye Ruida also understands computer architecture, his expertise is mathematics, which is not his forte either.

Li Xu now has two choices. One is to ask his father for help. After all, this is not the first time he has relied on his parents for support.

There are still some technical talents in my dad's company. Although they are not professionals in network security protection, it should not be difficult for them to troubleshoot the problem.

The second option is to find someone specifically responsible for system security.

Li Xu naturally preferred the second option, because he suddenly thought that his current system could no longer be considered a small project.

Not to mention the time and energy invested in the early stages, the money alone cost millions, which can be used as start-up capital for two angel investments in some small companies!
It also involves hundreds of users, so we really need someone who can specialize in system security operation and maintenance.

But this choice also has two directions.

One is to directly recruit an experienced person, but this approach is obviously not feasible. Their current team is strictly speaking just a makeshift team. Under what pretext would they recruit someone?
They didn't even have a company. Really skilled people definitely wouldn't look down on their makeshift team. There was another option...

Li Xu slowly raised his head and thought of another person.

……

The bald man said with a cynical smile on his face, "I've found the problem."

"I checked the server logs and found two abnormal requests and instructions..."

The bald man pointed at the computer screen and said, "Right here, the user's smart switch has been turned off by this command."

Ye Ruida narrowed his eyes and said, "Can you trace the source?"

The bald man shook his head and said unhappily, "There are only these two records. They are very hidden..."

"But one thing is certain: these two commands were launched by hackers using a vulnerability in your server. In other words, they were man-made."

Li Xu shook his head. "Let's not worry about tracing the source of the attack for now. Is there any way to prevent something like this from happening again? This is the most important thing!"

Ye Ruida looked at Li Xu with some surprise. When this happened, his first reaction was anger. He wanted to find out the initiator of the attack and his purpose as soon as possible.

However, no one expected that Li Xu would remain calm at this time, and his first consideration was to prevent similar situations from happening.

The bald man smiled slightly: "What's so difficult about this for me? I'm just showing off my skills in front of an expert."

"However, I have to complain that your system basically has no security measures."

"If it were me, entering your system would be as easy as drinking water."

"First, the smart switch's firmware contains vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit to gain control. The smart switch also uses the default username and password, allowing attackers to log in directly through brute force or default credentials. Furthermore, the communication between the smart switch and the server is not encrypted, allowing attackers to intercept or tamper with data. Even more outrageous, the smart switch leaves unnecessary ports open, allowing attackers to gain access through these ports."

Everyone's eyes were on Lei Yinbing.

Lei Yinbing's face turned red, and he stammered but couldn't say a word.

"I'll add several layers of encryption to your system and set a strong password. Oh, and encrypt the communication protocol as well."

"Um……"

The bald man touched his chin and said, "Oh, and one more thing. Ask your dad to get one of their company's cipher machines and install it. That way, everything will be basically foolproof."

Li Xu nodded and said, "Thank you for your hard work."

The bald man grinned and said, "It's not hard, it's not hard. I'm not working for free anyway. Don't forget what you promised me."

Li Xu sighed and said, "Of course."

Then, Li Xu said in a deep voice: "Then, is there any way to find the guy who attacked?"

At this time, Ye Ruida and the others were also particularly concerned about this matter, and they all focused their eyes on the bald man's face.

The bald man's lips curled up into a playful smile, and he leaned back in his chair and said, "In theory, it shouldn't be difficult to find the guy who attacked. The first thing we need to do is to locate where he launched the attack."

"As I've said before, your system has no security measures. In theory, any smart switch can be used as an entry point to attack the server."

"I think the attack was launched through a smart socket."

"I need to further analyze the logs, including server logs, firewall logs, and DNS logs. This will take some time..."

"If everything goes well, we can find the attacker's IP address, but the attacker might also be hiding their real IP address. Well, we still need to analyze the network traffic..."

Li Xu was silent for a moment and said, "How long will it take?"

The bald man smiled and said, "Are you so sure that I can find it?"

Li Xu said seriously, "If you can't find it, then I won't be able to find another person who can help me do this in a short time."

The bald guy's name is Liu Yunfei, and he is also a top-notch genius. However, unlike Ye Ruida, Lei Yinbing and others, this bald guy dropped out of school early, and he taught himself all his hacking skills.

In the previous life, Li Xu became acquainted with him because of racing.

Liu Yunfei worked on car computer decryption for a while.

By deciphering the racing computers of major car manufacturers, it is possible to unlock or upgrade some of the car's functions.

Of course, this is his open job. He also takes some shady orders in secret, even doing things like hacking into other people's computers.

Because of this incident, Liu Yunfei was sentenced in his previous life.

After he was released, he fled to Kazakhstan and his whereabouts are unknown.

Liu Yunfei has only a mother in his family. His father abandoned his wife and children and is not a good person. This probably laid the groundwork for his character flaws.

In general, Liu Yunfei is a person with a low moral bottom line.

But there is one thing Li Xu believes in, that is, Liu Yunfei is particularly honest.

Li Xu remembered that in his previous life, he accepted an order to hack into someone else's computer. Eventually, the matter was exposed, but he did not give out the financial backer behind the scenes and silently took the blame.

As long as the money is in place, he can do things very safely.

For Li Xu, money is not important now. He must find out that blind guy.

"Give me ten hours!"

As Liu Yunfei spoke, he stroked his shiny bald head.

Li Xu narrowed his eyes and said, "Can you give me the results tomorrow morning?"

"You want me to stay up all night!"

"Isn't this a daily occurrence for you?"

"But this isn't playing games all night. That's not fun at all!" Liu Yunfei said bitterly.

"You have to pay more!"

Li Xu said: "I'll give you double!"

This is the arrogance of the rich second generation.

Liu Yunfei rubbed his hands excitedly, a playful smile on his face, and said, "Then I'll come and see who this person is!"

(End of this chapter)