Zero Day_ A Novel - Mark Russinovich [32]
“You should push the process,” Jeff said. “You can’t just leave it to agency inertia.” He could have bit his tongue. He knew Daryl was doing everything she could.
“I’m trying.” She looked annoyed.
“Why so pessimistic?”
Daryl glanced around the room, then leaned forward. When she spoke, her voice was subdued but firm. “Because so far we’ve spotted at least ten variations of the code and we aren’t talking knockoffs. These were written with entirely different code, as if by a different cracker, but in the end they all do something very destructive. I have no idea how many variations there are. And not knowing gives me the willies.”
Jeff thought of the airliner falling out of the sky, the hospital deaths, the man killed on the assembly line. Were these just the tip of the iceberg? Mentally, he ran through a list of other dangers: nuclear-power stations, traffic-control systems, defense networks, Wall Street. The list was limitless and suddenly he felt overwhelmed. “What else?”
“It seems to be composed of three functions. The first is the exploit code that gets the virus into the system without detection. The second is the trigger. The third is the payload itself, which causes all the damage. We’ve got three variants of the exploit, five of the virus, and we’ve just started. I have no idea how many others there are.” She sighed. “Two hospitals outside of New York report their medicine distribution systems were also jumbled. We know of eleven deaths nationally so far. A small power station in Connecticut had its sluice gate turned wide open and it couldn’t be closed. By the time they figured out the problem was the computer they use to control their water release and the electricity they produce, they’d lost a significant amount of reserve capacity. It will take them two years to restore it. They didn’t have backup software and are running manually now. It’s almost laughable, but they had to recall a retired worker to show them how the system works without a computer. A nuclear power plant in Iowa had to do a mechanical shutdown to prevent a meltdown. This next one’s been kept out of the news so far, but Tucson International Airport lost its air traffic control system. Fortunately, it was during a slow period and there were no incidents. More and more is coming in every hour, but you can see why I’m not sleeping well.”
Until now, Jeff realized, he’d been focused on his client’s narrow problem. He’d not seen it as part of an expanding, and dangerous, reality. Daryl was scaring the hell out of him, and he experienced a surge of anxiety and fear he’d not felt since those last days before 9/11. “What’s the potential?”
She paused, then said, “Anything’s possible. It looks as if we’re just seeing the surface. Here’s what’s frightening me.” Jeff felt another chill shoot through his body. If Daryl was frightened, then this was even bigger than he feared. “First, we can’t detect the virus coming in, and that’s going to be a tough egg to crack. We’ve got to get the signatures written, the patches prepared, then out there, and I don’t think there’s enough time. Second, a single signature isn’t going to work. The variants are too different.”
Jeff nodded, took a sip of coffee, then explained what he’d learned, and what he didn’t yet know. When he finished Daryl groaned. “This Superphreak, if that’s the cracker’s cyber handle, could be a Chechen. Or he could be a gun for hire and working for almost anyone. The Russian mob, to name just one.” Neither of them said anything for several minutes as they absorbed what they had learned. “I’ve got more,” she finally said. “There are other propagation methods besides, or in addition to, the worms. My team is reporting they’ve found three of the variants that spread through the address book of each