Chapter 430: Legendary hacker!
All afternoon.
It was finally peaceful and quiet on the internet, but at the Internet Surveillance Bureau, there was a lively atmosphere.
First off, Vice Chief Zhao had guaranteed that after incident had been dealt with, a recommendation would be made to the First Department for a meritorious third tier team award. An individual second tier award would be given to Comrade Fan Yingyun as well!
"Wau!"
"The Bureau is going all out!"
"Such a big honor?"
"It's not that big. I think it's well deserved."
The First Department was having a celebration and the other departments watched in envy.
Zhang Ye also felt that this award seemed a little too much, but after thinking it through, hey, this was no longer the world that he came from. This world's network security was on a much higher standard than where he came from. Such a malicious attack had not happened even once in a few years, and as such, it was considered a big case. Naturally, the rewards would be huge as well. It wasn't like Zhang Ye's previous world where hackers would attack government websites or data servers on a daily basis. It was such a common occurrence, that everyone had already gotten used to.
Big Boobs....Big Saber Bro was really not simple!
Who would have known that Fan Yingyun was actually a master in disguise!
Earlier, many people had been looking over Fan Yingyun's shoulders at how she dealt with the situation, but even for many of these professional cyber-police, they could not understand many of the commands she had used. Everyone else thought that Zhang Ye was a layman who could not understand the ongoings, so they did not bother about him too much. Little did they know that of all of those present, other than Fan Yingyun, only Zhang Ye understood what was going on. He even knew the usage of each of her inputs and the strategy she was following!
Programming attack.
Honey pot.
Network protocol loopholes.
Fixing port vulnerabilities.
Identifying zombies and IP tracking
From defense to attack and further on tracking. Within a short period of 30 minutes, Fan Yingyun had showcased her basics, which left Zhang Ye unable to land his eyes on her. Vice Chief Zhao was right. Officer Fan was really good at everything. Behind each command, it could be seen that Fan Yingyun had a deeper foundational understanding tens of times greater than the hackers that she had faced. This was the reason why she could take back a lost battleground from an opponent so quickly. If they were good at port vulnerabilities, she would use programming attacks. If they were good at system lockouts, she would use her own trojan program to break in and regain control. If they were good at using honey pots, she would use another lure to force the attacker out. All sorts of trickery and skills helped Fan Yingyun gain a dominant victory. They could do nothing about her at all!
Their knowledge was far from hers!
Their basics were lacking too much as well!
Even some of Fan Yingyun's tactics were unheard of to her opponents.
Hackers these days, especially those from this world, were mostly self-taught. Like those top hackers Zhang Ye knew from his world were mainly dropouts during their high school or university days. With time on their hands, they would do research and practice in a real world environment. Either that, or they had a person that guided them along the path before they struck out on a path of their own. Some of the more dangerous techniques were not taught in school and were more difficult to pick up. Even some experts, who graduated with certain specializations, learned their skills in a controlled environment and usually followed an academic plan. Network & Systems Engineering was too vast of a subject and anyone learning it usually leaned towards a specialization. This was the same as the field of mathematics, which branched out to many studies. Vector spaces, abstract algebra, etc. There was too many to count, but for some reason, this world had produced a freak like Fan Yingyun. From the moment she began school until her working life, she had only been learning all these years. She was constantly learning and inserting all her network engineering knowledge and skills into her lectures. She had a very solid foundation, and only two kinds of people could reach that state.
The first type was a nerd who only knew how to study!
The other was a genius who could gain understanding of a subject easily, or a madman!
Of course, Zhang Ye knew that Fan Yingyun belonged to the latter. To be able to gain knowledge and understand theories in such a manner, and then deploy that knowledge in a real world situation was something that Zhang Ye had never encountered before!
Fan Yingyun was about to go get some water, probably as she was getting thirsty.
Fang Xiaoshui hurried over to stop her, saying, "Sister Fan, let me get you some water."
A young cyber-policeman said, "Yea, let us handle the menial chores. You just sit here and tell us more of your stories. I'm very curious."
Meng Yi asked, "How did you pick up all those great hacking techniques?"
Fang Xiaoshui asked while fetching the water, "That's right, Sister Fan. Teach us some tricks, they are really too awesome. I've never encountered some of the commands and controls that you entered."
Fan Yingyun did not stand on ceremony. She took two sips after receiving the water from her and said, "It's not that I'm good, but rather all of you are too ignorant. With just that little bit of knowledge that you have, you already think you're invincible. What a joke! Those techniques that you all know about do not even cover 10% of the entire field of Network & Systems Engineering!"
Fang Xiaoshui asked unbelievably, "How could that be? We've already learned all that we needed to learn. There was an OT something kind of command that you used to infiltrate ports that I've never even heard of before. That must definitely have been created by you."
Fan Yingyun laughed coldly, "Go and note down the last line of 'Network Server Configuration and Management', 2nd Edition, Chapter 3, Page 7!"
Fang Xiaoshui was stunned, "I've studied that book before."
Meng Yi also said, "Yea, they used that book to teach us in university."
Behind them, a youth immediate went online to search for the book. When they found it and browsed the page that Fan Yingyun had mentioned, they were dumbfounded, "Sister Fang, Brother Meng, look!"
The few of them stumbled over and saw something stunning!
"Holy sh*t!"
"It's really written here!"
"Although it wasn't an introduction on attacks, it's the most basic of theories. Knowing the basics and thinking about it now, it's actually that simple?"
"I've actually learned this before?"
They all looked at Fan Yingyun and felt utterly defeated. She even knew which page on which book the theory was from? Officer Fan had already ingested all of these basics into her head!
Fan Yingyun mockingly laughed at them, "So it's that simple? I've heard this being said everyday by the students that I taught. Yes! It's that simple, but why didn't you think of it? Why were you all blatantly denying that you learned it? When in actual fact, you all did not learn it well! Some lessons are not taught by teachers since they might not even know it themselves, but if there are lessons that can be learned from textbooks and you still don't know them, then the problem lies with you. No one else is to blame for that! You’re all living pretentiously each day as if you know everything, what kind of elite team is this? Serious crimes unit? Bullsh*t! The foreigners only had a dozen or so hackers and none of you could hold the fort down, so what if they outnumber us? Is that your excuse? I'm already being generous by saying that you are all mere dabblers!"
If Officer Fan said such words in the past, they would surely have retorted. Even if they could not outscold her, they still had their pride, but at this moment, no one said anything. Because Fan Yingyun had already proven herself to be superior to anyone here. No! She had proven to be superior to everyone of them added together!
Meng Yi spoke first, "Sister Fan, I will learn well from you from now on!"
"Yes, you have to guide and teach us." Fang Xiaoshui said, "In the past, we didn't know how great you were. Being our senior, please don't hold it against us."
Fan Yingyun’s expression loosened a little, "You don't need me to teach you. The knowledge is all in the books. Learn for yourselves."
A cyber-policewoman said, "But you still have to give us some guidance. Those teachers who taught us previously, none of them are as good as you." She resorted to flattery.
Fan Yingyun touched her mouse and started playing games, "Don't even try that. That will depend on how I’m feeling."
After a while, there were crowds of people who came over to take a look, as though they were viewing an exhibition. Actually, these people were just passing by their office and looked in at their department while pointing their fingers here and there.
"See, that's her."
"Officer Fan's so ferocious?"
"She alone chased away so many hackers? She even managed to track a few of their IP addresses?"
"She's truly an example of how still water runs deep!"
"We can't blame her for her bad temper. She has the capability to back that temper of hers up!"
And then, some rumors also started spreading about Fan Yingyun.
When Fang Xiaoshui came back from the restroom, she gathered a lot of them and took a deep breath before saying, "I heard about something."
”I don't know if it's true, but I heard some news of when Fan Yingyun taught at the People's Public Security University of China. Although her temper wasn't good back then and even though she taught some lessons outside of the approved curriculum, she was never too strictly dealt with when it came to those issues. She was just a teacher, not a hacker and did not participate in any hackings, but last year, a spokesperson for an American security company mentioned how China will never produce a technically adept person for network technology due to problems in our education system. He said that the teachers for network technology only knew how to follow the textbooks to teach and might not even understand what they were teaching, so then, how could any students be good if this was the way China's education system worked?”
What he said that day brought disaster upon his company!
When Fan Yingyun, who was still teaching there, heard this, she used a school's computer in the teacher's office to break into the internal network of that security company. It was unknown how she did it, but it happened within an hour of the criticism. The whole internal network of that company was crippled and the company directly suffered a loss of hundreds of thousands of American dollars. The reputation of the company suffered as well and even after using all their resources, they only found out that the IP address originated from China.
That hack had created a huge stir throughout the world!
Because the victims were a reputable security company!
To be able to infiltrate into a corporation that specialized in this kind of network defense without a soul knowing, it was basically an impossible situation!
Finally, after much analysis and investigation by countless authorities, they concluded that there were less than 10 people who could have carried out this hack!
Zhang Er confoundedly asked, "Is that for real?"
Meng Yi took a breath, "That incident that rocked the industry was done by Officer Fan?"
Of course they knew about that incident. Back then, they all marveled at it and wondered which godly person did it, but that person turned out to be Fan Yingyun?
A cyber-policeman raised some doubts, "If so many experts in the world couldn't find out who did it, how would you know that it was Officer Fan?"
"Listen to me first." Fang Xiaoshui said in a hushed voice, "Actually, the rumor was that Sister Fan did not even bother to hide her IP and had openly infiltrated the company. Even if others don't believe this, I will believe it. Think about Sister Fan's temper, has she ever done anything sneakily? This was something that she’d have likely done. Then when the records were discovered by our Internet Surveillance Bureau, they locked down the news and cleaned up any traces of evidence and covered up the incident. Otherwise, why do you think the university would fire Sister Fan? Or even want to fire her from the police? It's precisely because of this incident where she broke the rules!"
Zhang Ye was also very intrigued by what he had heard.
Meng Yi said, "Then how did she end up here at the Internet Surveillance Bureau?"
Fang Xiaoshui said, "Our Chief and Vice Chief Zhao fought with all they had to keep Sister Fan. They used their connections at the Ministry of Public Security to beg and ask for her to transfer. I heard that they had to bear with a lot of pressure at that time, as many of the leaders did not agree with them. After all, to recruit someone, who had just made such a huge mistake, into the Internet Surveillance Bureau was like having a time bomb in here, but our Chief argued that ‘since our Internet Surveillance Bureau had never used the help of imprisoned hackers to assist in solving crimes, then even if Comrade Fan Yingyun made a mistake, she was still a comrade of theirs in the police system. Compared to those hackers, who did it for money or fame, would someone who had taken such a big risk for the sake of the country's reputation and glory be so hard to trust?’ With those words, they finally relented and allowed Sister Fan to join the Internet Surveillance Bureau. She was not dealt with and did not receive any severe punishments, but her job scope and private life was restricted to certain arrangements. I guess that's what you'd call working to atone for your sins."
"Such a legend?"
"Holy sh*t! Sister Fan actually turned out to be so ferocious!?"
"So then, I'm actually colleagues with the godly person of the 'supernatural hacking incident'! Oh my god! When I heard that the person was a Chinese national, I idolized them for a long time! Who knew that she was right before my eyes!"
Supernatural hacking incident -- This was the name given to the event which had occurred back then. As the infiltrator had hacked into their network without setting off any alarms, which was something no one believed could happen, it was given the supernatural tag.
Everyone was thrilled!
These rumors sounded like a fantasy, but when they looked into it, it looked even more plausible now. The arguments for it all seemed reasonable!
Officer Fan's character.....
Officer Fan's techniques.....
It all matched the rumors well!
Otherwise, why would Vice Chief Zhao and the heads of the Internet Surveillance Bureau not mention about sacking when faced with someone as rude as Officer Fan. It was because they already knew Officer Fan's incredible capabilities, but due to last year's sensational incident, they could not reveal it and just kept it under wraps. Therefore, the image that Officer Fan gave to the others was that she did not know anything and only depended on her backing from higher ups!
Everyone was sorely mistaken!
The truth turned out to be otherwise!
Meng Yi said excitedly, "I want to proclaim her as my teacher! Do you think I have a shot at that?"
Fang Xiaoshui looked doubtfully at him, "What do you think?"
Meng Yi, "......." He looked on listlessly after the silence. Was there a shot? Of course not! A person like Officer Fan and you want to be her apprentice? If you even tried talking to her, she would probably give you a scolding instead! It's better not to get involved with a godly person like that! She was not the type worth provoking!