Young Writers Society

"My favorite malware." She smirked crookedly, pushing herself a bit more upright. "It's also called FinFisher, which is where I got the idea for my handle." She glanced at them, realizing she didn't know how much they knew about hacking in general, so she decided to elaborate. "Most hackers have one, sort of like a Twitter handle but... well... I guess it's not really like that at all. But if you're good at what you do -- and I am -- then you build a sort of reputation amongst other hackers. And if you're a jerk -- and I am -- you start leaving little 'signatures' in your code to gloat that you were the one who broke in. Anyway. FinFisher basically just gives me complete access to their computers. I can control the microphones and cameras -- so long as they don't have them physically covered -- and log all their keystrokes so I know what they're typing in real-time. Then it's just a simple matter of slipping in some malware to screw with things and you're golden. It's pretty simple."

Alex was awestruck, to say the least. Now, they were no grandma. They Cleese comfortable on a computer. Xe could animate a picture on Google Slideshow.

But this? This was something xe knew nothing about. It made perfect sense that Sadie would use this. Causing trouble seemed to be innately a part of their soul, so of course she’d use programs that could remotely spy on people and everything they ever did on their computer. Forget psychology, this was a skill that could do some damage, for better or worse.

“So you have access to a program that could allow you to know everything about a person or an organization.” It felt overwhelming to think about, but in a good way almost. “What’s your handle? Is your signature just hiding your handle or is it like a serial killer’s signature?”

140 Words

Sadie laughed -- a bit too loud-- at that comparison, both taken off guard and wildly amused. She grinned broadly. "Can't claim serial killer -- unless we're counting the egos of straight white gamer boy types that shrivel when I destroy their code and reputation."

Alex hissed. “The cishet white gamer boy complexion.” They dramatically shook their head. “A travesty.”

15 Words

"Truly." Sadie nodded sagely. "They whine like you wouldn't believe when they've been beaten, by a girl no less. They can usually sniff out my spyware and eject it before I can get a proper recording of the temper tantrums, but it's still gratifying to know it's happening even if I can't see it." She smirked. "It's quite fun. I enjoy it immensely."

“You want to see a proper temper tantrum? Go to Catholic School when you’re non-binary.” Xe snorted. “Ever have six nuns scream at you at the same time? That’s when you become legendary.”

33 Words

Sadie cringed sympathetically. "... want me to punish them for you? I can plant anything on their computers you'd like... pop-ups can be wildly annoying. Anything you want them to see. Just. Dozens -- hundreds -- of pop-ups. Every time they open a new tab. It's pretty easy."

“Punish them for me?” Xe snorted. “As much as I appreciate the thought, I don’t need you to harass some seventy-year old ladies.” Alex’s eyes softened. “Thank you though.”

"They harassed you first." Sadie shrugged lazily, letting her head rest against the wall again. "Offer stands either way."

They smiled. “I’ll think about it.” Xe sighed, mostly to themselves, and readjusted. “So, tell me more about this hacking.”

"Oh, uh... I mean, so... how much do you know about computers? I don't wanna over-explain but I also don't wanna make you confused if you don't know what I'm talking about..."

“I know a basic amount. I took a computer concepts class in college.” Alex squinted, trying to rack xer brains for everything they remembered. “I’m sure that’s nothing compared to you.”

31 Words

"Eh." Sadie shrugged. "I've spent a lot of time and effort learning about them -- there's no point in doing that if you don't need to."

That was always an uncomfortable comparison when people made it. It felt obscenely arrogant to just agree that she knew more than they did, but at the same time it was also wildly insulting if she denied being good with computers, and then was forced to prove herself otherwise.

She thought for a moment about how she wanted to explain.

"So, computers run off of code -- a bunch of letters and numbers and special characters all thrown together in a specific sequence to accomplish a specific task. Most of those tasks have a user-friendly interface to make it easy for you to run the code without even realizing that's what you're doing. Like. If you click on a Word document it opens it like you'd expect, but on the back side, it's sending code to what's called the 'command line' that processes all the requests you make. So, with the Word doc, for example, I can go straight to the command line and manually code in that I want it to open for me, rather than clicking on the icon itself. Same result, just different paths. The same is true for every other program on your computer as well -- they all run by code. So if you know enough about the code then you can control the computer behind the scenes, and can also access things remotely. I usually use this huge super computer like three states away for my heavy jobs, but I can run it from here."

She looked at them to try to gauge if they were following.

“That makes sense. All code does is follow what you’re doing and the interface is the layer hiding that code. If you peel back that layer and access the code, you’re not limited to the limits of the interface.” Alex smiled. “So if you peel back the Perfection Trials interface and access their code, then you’re not limited by their rules.”

61 Words

"Yep. Exactly." Sadie nodded. That was a bit over-simplified, though. "Well... kind of. The interface is on their front end and I'm coming in from the back so I don't actually have to deal with it at all. I mostly have to work on getting past their firewalls, which I assume are very complex given the nature of their nastiness. So basically they've got code watching out for threats to their network -- I have to get my code past that code, and also find a way to shut their code up so that they don't know I succeeded. That's the hard part. Once I get past that then I just have to work on transmitting the data back out past the firewall so that I'll have a record of it."