The Enigma Factor

The weather was really nice, and since he was leaving on time for a Friday, the traffic would not be difficult to maneuver around. He made it home in good time, pulled his bike up the steps and secured it with the lock. He noticed the soft-pack protruding from the mailbox. It appeared as if the postman had eaten the soft-pack as it was opened at one end. He smiled as he recalled the promised t-shirt.

            Jacob was not disappointed as the front of the shirt read ‘Better to have hacked and conquered’, and on the back it read ‘Than never to have hacked at all’. Perfect, he liked it a lot. This was definitely in his wardrobe for DEFCON. Then he noticed the soft-pack had sort of stuffed papers inside. He reached in and pulled out First Class airfare from New York LaGuardia to Las Vegas. Wow, that was so not expected. He looked at the soft pack, and again there was no return address. Who was this benefactor and what was their expectation? Jacob hated owing anyone, especially someone unknown, but the feeling of having reached a pinnacle won out.

            This time there was no letter, but the airline tickets had his full name and even his reward number. There was a paid in full voucher in his name for the Las Vegas Hilton as well. This pulled him up short. Jacob took great pains in concealing his identity, and though the forum he had submitted to with the code changes and program had asked for an address, he never filled in his full name, only JAM as an online identity. As Alice in Wonderland would say, “curious-er and curious-er”. First the invite and pass to DEFCON addressed to JAM, now airfare and hotel in his full name. Airfare had to be in your full name for ID checking at the gates, thank you Homeland Security. He was definitely involved with an unknown class of folks to have this much detailed information on him. His immediate concern was to reinforce his identity concealment. Obviously, he had more work to do in this area. Something was exposed. He fervently believed cyber thievery and the prevalent identity theft was no joke.

            Still frowning as he booted up his PC and began organizing for his evening activity, he first reviewed his identity concealment barriers and routine password changes before going back to the problem program. None of his investment or banking finances were set up on-line under his real name but rather a pseudo name. Jacob added a few layers to his identity concealment and also added a tracking program should someone start hunting his personal information. He felt a bit better with this in place and returned his focus to the newest Open Source program under his review. He wanted to try out some new ideas on reorganizing the program.