Chapter 15: Things getting serious.
A week before Aron received his payments.
While the payments will arrive a week later the negotiations were completed two weeks ago, so almost all the companies spent a week at maximum to patch their weaknesses in their programs.
This means that it has been a week since someone's normal day to day life has been messed up.
.....
Bluffdale, Utah
The NSA's Utah Data Center
This week has been like hell to those who are working here, because one after another almost 17 data collection points have been blocked. This meant that they completely lost access to almost all social media sites.
This wasn't good, because some departments are sorely there to collect and analyze data from these sites. This meant that they lost almost their whole functionality in a span of a month.
This all started by the loss of access to Facebook's data, and while they were trying to solve one, another seventeen rose beside it.
...
NSA Conference Room
Everyone in the department of Special Source Operations Directorate was in the conference room as the meeting room wasn't large enough to allow the whole department to fit in it.
The head of the department Teresa H. Shea stood in front of everyone and started talking
"Since everyone is here, let's start the meeting, but before that why don't you catch us on what is going on?" She said as she pointed at the team leader who was the first one to report it a month ago when Facebook patched their security patches, Noah.
"Yes mam" Replied Noah as he stood from his chair heading to the stage to take hold of the microphone and started explaining how it all started.
He cleared his throat and adjusted the microphone, signaling to the crowd that he was about to begin. He started his speech by explaining the situation.
"It all began a month ago with Facebook, when the amount of data we were able to collect was reduced. After just one week, all the data that we managed to continue collecting was encrypted, and until now, we have been unable to break the encryption. Over the past week, many of the famous social media sites have started to follow suit, and we have finally reached a point where all the data we collect from nearly 17 social media sites is heavily encrypted."
Just as he was about to continue, someone from the crowd interrupted and asked, "Is it Russia?"
He paused for a moment and then responded by saying that "We had initially thought that it was Russia. However, after conducting a joint investigation with the FBI, we discovered that some of the known Russian agents in the US were also trying to find out who was behind the encryption. This seemed to be a problem to them too"
"Did you manage to interview any of the workers in those companies?" asked another person in the room.
"I was about to explain that next," said Noah.
"And the answer is yes, we have interviewed a few workers through the FBI" and then he proceeded to share the results of their investigation.
"According to the information that we have gathered, Facebook had been contacted by a man named Aron Michael. He had set up a meeting with the company, and they had met without any problems. And when they investigated his background after their meeting, they discovered that he was a former student of Columbia University who was in his last year." He took a breath and continued.
"But he was expelled for thesis theft (Allegedly), which left him in dire need of money. Since he was unable to get a job without a diploma and he was left with massive student debt, he turned to bug hunting and discovered that he was really good at it."
"So he is not a spy?" Asked someone.
"Yep, from our investigation he is American, and so are his parents, no criminal record and there is nothing indicating him being a sleeper agent."
"And after having interviews with the remaining companies that are in similar situations, our estimation is that he had earned more than $900million dollars from it." and with that Noah finished his reporting
The revelation left the people in the room stunned. It was hard to believe that one person could earn so much wealth in such a short period of time—- a month, without diving into illegal activities.
Then Noah moved to answer the questions from the crowd, giving as much information as he could.
When he finished his explanation and answered almost all their questions he returned to his seat and waited for their head of department to give them a direction to follow.
"Now that everyone is up to date let's continue with our meeting" Said Teresa.
The meeting continued for a little longer with some giving their ideas on how to proceed, while others were more focused on how they would be cracking the encryption by using the powerful supercomputer in the campus.
"So our next plan is to break the inscription in the next month and if we can't do that we will have a meeting with Aron, Dismissed" after giving them the next step to follow he dismissed them, then he called Noah.
"Yes, mam" replied Noah as he answered her call.
"Noah, tell the FBI to continue keeping an eye on this Aron and if foreign agents try to harm him, they should take him into their custody okay?" Said Teressa seriously.
"Yes Mam" Noah replied immediately and left to contact them.
.....
a week after he received payment
he spent most of the last week optimizing BugZapper to be ready for consumer use as he was planning for it to be his sp farm.
After he finished dealing with that he decided to focus on what to name the company that will be used to rollout the up to consumers.
Since the name of a company has to be memorable he decided to go with Greek mythology names.
he would have gone with Prometheus but that was already taken by his programing language and it will be difficult for people to pronounce it the he went with GAIA.
In Greek mythology, Gaia is the goddess of the earth. She is often seen as the mother of all life and is associated with fertility, agriculture, and the harvest. According to the myth, Gaia emerged from the chaos at the beginning of time and gave birth to Uranus, the sky god, and the mountains. She is also considered to be the mother of the Titans, the Cyclopes, and many other creatures in Greek mythology. Gaia is often depicted as a nurturing figure who provides sustenance and protection to all living things on earth
The reason he chose this word is because he wanted it to be a mother figure to his next business ventures that he might take. And since this will be his first company he decided to go with that name. GAIA technologies.
After coming up with the company name he didn't know what step to follow as it was his first time. So, he decided to call his friend and ask him about it.
After the call he found out that starting a company is really complicated, so he dumped all the work to his friend to solve it for him, as he was their law firms highest paying customer they will handle it for him.
From what Felix told him he needed only about a week to complete and make sure everything is in place without mistake.
Next he decided to start hunting for his CEO as he wasn't knowledgeable about bossiness, so he needed someone who majored in that to look after his company.
He called Sarah who majored in business management, he wasn't that arrogant to want to be a CEO of a company without knowing anything about business else he will turn the company into theranos.
"Aron, you finally remembered that I existed, haa" a voice came from the other side.
"At least I called you, why didn't you do it if you wanted to talk?"
"I'm busy you know and not like you who lazes himself at home"
"Anyway let's stop this else we will argue until tomorrow" Aron decided to call for a truce or the might really banter until tomorrow.
"So, why did you call? do you need money? just say it" replied Sarah.
"Not that, I need a CEO for my company and you were my first choice are up for it?" Asked Aron.
"What company explain in details first before I make my choice and if you are joking, I'm blocking for 2 month okay"
Aron immediately explained in details about the company and its product.....
they continued talking for about half an hour.
But since Sarah couldn't believe what Aron bragged about the app she decided to visit his house in the evening to take a look it and see it herself before she makes a decision.