America: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 323 Cybersecurity

"Boss, did you need something?" Soon, the engineer Prian and the white wolf rushed over.

"This is a big deal."

Zhang Ailun, his face grim, slammed the still-lit listening device onto the table and demanded, "What is this thing? Why is it on the island? And why was it secretly hidden behind the bookshelves and murals in the villa? Didn't any of you notice? What kind of security work are you doing?"

When White Wolf and the engineer saw the listening device, they knew this was no small matter. Their heads spun instantly, they gasped, and cold sweat poured down their backs.

White Wolf quickly explained, "I'm sorry, boss, we really didn't detect any listening devices here. This is our negligence."

"By the time you spot one cockroach, there are already countless others hiding nearby!!"

Zhang Ailun said irritably, "No wonder others are so well aware of the island's movements. The moment something happened, such a huge mess erupted! Their spies have already infiltrated the island thoroughly! And you're still just doing some superficial work! Taking money and wasting time!"

"Whether it's me or Prian before, the purpose of hiring you is to provide security and prevent harassment. But now there are even listening devices in my resting place. Do you think I can still trust your security forces?"

Zhang Ailun questioned, "If it were the CIA and the Department of Homeland Security monitoring illegal activities on the island, I wouldn't argue with you. But I just took over the island, haven't done anything, and am conducting legal business, yet they're still monitoring me. This proves they're not CIA agents, but rather some malicious forces. How can you not even detect their actions? What kind of work are you doing?"

"Boss, we are mainly responsible for armed security. The people responsible for preventing surveillance and eavesdropping and for network security are another group of mercenaries."

White Wolf forced a smile and explained, "Plian entrusted all the daily work to them and trusted them completely. We could only cooperate with them in many ways, but we never expected that they had ulterior motives. When the incident occurred, those people had already absconded with the money. They are now among the fugitives wanted by the authorities."

"So, should I give you an award?" Zhang Ailun said irritably.

"Of course not..." White Wolf had no way to express his frustration.

But as the security captain, he earned $55 an hour, or four or five hundred dollars a day, and that was all he made. He didn't dare to argue with his boss.

After all, if you don't do it, there are plenty of others who will!

The Grand Master has so many talented people under his command, including combat ships and destroyers. Today, he also recruited so many retired naval personnel to work for him. In many ways, their mercenaries are no match for the regular army. Apart from daring to engage in firefights, they have no other advantages.

Now, even the advantage of fighting bravely and recklessly on the battlefield has been replaced by drones.

Without this job, they simply can't find any other work paying more than $40 an hour, except to go to the front lines to fight. It also includes room and board, double pay during wartime, and a million-dollar compensation package.

"Boss, we'll go investigate right away! We'll definitely find all the remaining electronic devices!" White Wolf immediately assured him.

"Go check! If you can't find the listening device, you're all fired. Pack your things and get out of here!" Zhang Ailun sternly reprimanded them.

"Understood!" The white wolf immediately turned around and hurriedly left.

Zhang Ailun then looked at the engineer, who was deep in thought, and said impatiently, "What are you still doing here? Go with him! If the basic architectural blueprints hadn't been exposed, how could those listening devices have been hidden in such a secret place? If you don't give me an explanation today, I'll expose you all!"

"Boss, I'll go check right away." Stanley felt a chill run down his spine and hurriedly ran out.

Zhang Ailun watched him leave, glanced at the listening device on the table, and then took out his phone to send a message to Blitz, preparing to ask him for a copy of the Terminator 2.0 computer version software.

Zhang Ailun: My island has a cybersecurity vulnerability; there are eavesdropping devices everywhere. Even if I find and remove them all, they will definitely reappear. Someone might even use submarines and spy balloons to monitor my island's every move. What do you think I should do to solve this?

Blitz: We can install a signal jammer in the cell tower or server room, and install automatic human-shaped trigger cameras in key locations. My Terminator 2.0 program can also automatically detect signals from the opposite sex, so there's no need to worry about being eavesdropped on. You can have all the island's employees connect to a dedicated local area network, so if any cell phone or electronic device signal source doesn't belong to the island, it can be detected immediately!

Blitz: If you are worried about someone using a submarine to infiltrate the island for surveillance, you can also choose to purchase a batch of electronic mines and deploy them near the shallow waters. If any ship or submarine illegally approaches without permission, it will be blown to pieces as soon as it touches the mine.

Zhang Ailun: Good idea, how about a spy balloon?

Blitz: There isn't a very good way to deal with spy balloons right now. After all, even the U.S. Department of Defense doesn't know what to do with them. They have to send several F-22 fighter jets to use air-to-air missiles to destroy them. If the distance is low, they can use signal jammers or send aircraft to destroy them. If the distance is too high, they can also choose to use balloons, attach explosives to them and blow up the enemy's balloons.

Blitz: There aren't many other ways to deal with it. This kind of surveillance is disgusting, and it's a common tactic used by opposing forces. The best way is to find the perpetrators and destroy their headquarters!

Zhang Ailun: Okay, I'll have someone buy a batch of mines and spy balloons. Now you need to send me the computer-controlled version of Terminator 2.0.

Blitz quickly sent the data packet to the leader, instructing him to follow the steps to bind it to the computer equipment in the server room.

Zhang Ailun received the data packet, went outside and called over the Beggars' Sect disciples, got into the car, and prepared to set up the server room on Jehovah Island.

Meanwhile, White Wolf and Stanley drove to various checkpoints on the island road to notify their employees to start work. They exchanged a glance, both of them wanting to curse.

"Fxxk! Those damn bastards, they left behind a mess by accident, and now we have to clean up their mess." White Wolf cursed.

"Enough talk, let's hurry up and find the rest of the listening devices, otherwise the boss will get angry and we'll definitely lose our jobs," Stanley said hastily.

"I remember there were signal detectors in the armory, right?"

"That's right, I also need to go find the architectural blueprints and check them one by one."

Frustrated, the two went their separate ways.

Zhang Ailun led his Beggars' Sect disciples to the signal tower's server room. Several mercenaries on duty, responsible for network communications, were monitoring the island's cameras. Upon seeing their leader arrive, they immediately stood up to greet him.

Zhang Ailun nodded and glanced at the 4K surveillance cameras on the island. The dense array of small squares provided virtually no blind spots in key areas, and even the villas' courtyards were monitored by cameras.

With this level of surveillance, he simply couldn't believe that those people installing the listening devices weren't working with an insider.

Zhang Ailun took over the computer in the server room, connected his phone, and installed Terminator 2.0 step by step. He then tried to enable the programs inside and monitored the signal source.

In an instant, hundreds of signal sources were received. The surveillance cameras captured so many unfamiliar faces in the port and immediately displayed red warning messages! Even the leader himself was shown as a stranger.

The leader immediately activated the recording mode, recording all the images of people and signal sources that had been captured into the archive database.

Starting today, anyone staying on the island for more than 24 hours will be considered a familiar visitor with a yellow alert. Staying for more than three or seven days will qualify as permanent residency and will not trigger a warning. Anyone who has never visited the island before will immediately receive a red alert.

Furthermore, every time his movements are captured by a camera, images and footprints are automatically saved, edited into video data, and stored. This data can be easily viewed in the background to see what he has been doing on the island.

It can also install automated shooting programs for human faces, such as installing a machine gun trigger on a camera, so it can start shooting at strangers' faces!

This is a rather extreme approach, but it's not something that can't be considered.

After all, who gave you, a stranger, the right to go to a restricted area?

How did you get up here? Don't you listen to humans? You'll die and nobody will care!

The premise is that he can actually bypass the security personnel's line of sight, enter places he shouldn't be in, and not even notice the cameras.

If they came prepared and hacked into the cameras, then there's really not much that can be done about them. But that's on the condition that they actually have the ability to crack Blitzcrank's Terminator firewall, which creates a vicious cycle.

The leader believes that apart from the U.S. Department of Defense or internationally renowned hacker teams that could assemble a technical group specifically to attack his island's cybersecurity, there's nothing to worry about with the other small Karami islands; they simply don't have that capability.

If it really comes to a fight to the death, then firewalls and network security won't matter, because F-22s and aircraft carrier fleets will already be right in front of us.

Either the leader has already gone all over the world to hunt down and kill those hacker group members!

What merits does the Grand Master possess? He hasn't assassinated the president, nor has he offended any international hacker organizations.

Terminator 2.0 is enough to protect your own little corner of the world.

It can also manually edit database permissions. For example, the leader himself has the highest authority on the island, and he also uploaded his own image and cell phone signal source in an orderly manner. Among the other personnel configurations, Qibatu, Mark Gwen, and others have level one permissions, which means they can basically travel anywhere. Mercenaries and staff have level two permissions, which means they can only move around in certain areas during working hours. Others will also need to have IC cards and passes made later.

Otherwise, violating the rules could result in being fired or warned at best, or even being shot at by cameras at worst.

Yes, someone like the Grand Master only needs to show their face.

This clause should also be added to the contract; violations of disciplinary regulations will be severely punished!

Looking at the curious mercenaries beside him, Zhang Ailun instructed them, "From now on, in addition to the daily surveillance cameras, your job will also include registering facial images and connecting everyone's mobile phones to the local area network. If a stranger or a signal source of the opposite sex appears on the island, the software will also issue an alert. Your job is to send someone over to check immediately, or to collect their bodies."

The leader has decided to install automated shooting equipment in all key areas. Strangers will be instantly killed; no talk to them. Who can you blame but yourself for courting death?

The mercenaries were amazed at how useful this thing was, wondering who invented it.

They were allowed to familiarize themselves with the Terminator 2.0 program. A little over an hour later, White Wolf and Stanley sent messages informing the Grand Master that they had located some listening devices.

Zhang Ailun also asked them to meet up in the server room.

A dozen minutes later, White Wolf and the engineer arrived at the military factory. They parked the car outside, got out, and went inside carrying bags.

"Boss, these are the listening devices we found, a total of 37." White Wolf placed all the listening devices he found on the table.

Some of the listening devices were still flashing red lights and listening, while others were probably listening in real time. Once they realized they had been discovered, they immediately cut off the connection.

"A total of 37? Including the electronic device I found, that makes 38. Is that all?" Zhang Ailun asked.

White Wolf and the engineer exchanged a helpless glance. "Boss, it's really gone. We've searched everywhere!"

"I believe you." Zhang Ailun nodded. After all, you are truly incompetent, rather than intentionally deceiving the Grand Master.

However, no one could have done anything about this, and they would have had to take the blame, since they weren't professional network technicians, but just specialists in warfare.

The leader then had someone bring over an iPad, opened the Terminator 2.0 program, and the island graphics program that Blitzcrank had created in Los Angeles, and handed them over, saying, "Take a look for yourselves."

White Wolf and the engineer glanced at it and were somewhat surprised, because the map showed the island routes that could be observed. Apart from the camera layout, harbor areas, and mansions, many important areas were shown in black fog of war, requiring access to unlock and view.

There is no doubt that this is a 3D map model created using satellite images combined with a core map of the island.

Switching to the 2D layer and zooming in on the image reveals red exclamation marks in some areas, which are undoubtedly the source of the opposite signal and the listening device.

"How come there are still so many!?" The white wolf was a little dumbfounded.

"How would I know what you did?" Zhang Ailun said irritably.

Seeing the distress on their faces, the Grand Master offered words of comfort: "Alright, I know this has nothing to do with you. I'm not an unreasonable person. Just be more careful in the future and quickly arrange for someone to dismantle those instruments. Don't let it happen again."

"Thank you, boss." White Wolf breathed a sigh of relief. His palms and back were sweating. He had never felt so much pressure before. He almost got fired on his first day of work.

He quickly took out his walkie-talkie to arrange the work.

Not long after, the signal sources on the island map displayed on the iPad went out; they were all dug up and destroyed, and when they were delivered, they were all reduced to ashes.

This shows just how much the mercenaries hated this stuff; it almost cost them their jobs.

Zhang Ailun also took out his phone and notified Sieg, asking him to purchase a batch of sea mines and spy balloons from Opportunity Network and airlift them over. He also asked him to purchase some electronic parts and automated triggers, as they would be of great use to him.

Sig: Are the mines from Thunderfire or Mayweather? Are the balloons disposable military consumables or everyday items?

Zhang Ailun: Just buy whichever is cheap and easy to use, do I even need to tell you? For spy balloons, go for the Peninsula brand! It's a disposable consumable, the higher it flies, the better. I like this one because it can dump manure on South Korea.

Sig: OK!

With this matter resolved, the Grand Master finally had time to catch his breath on his own turf.

After returning to the mountaintop villa by car, Gwen brought over a few dishes for him to sample, a gourmet meal prepared by Michelin three-star chef John.

French foie gras, baked stuffed lobster, celery and pigeon shreds, salmon tartare cheese cone.

Hmm. The taste is not bad either.

But the leader still prefers the hometown dishes that Dominic makes.