Chasm Waxing: A Startup, Cyber-Thriller (58 page)

“
We all know he’s a
murderer. Why don’t we just tell the world? Then, we can release
the footage of Rahmati from the Swarmbots,” said Becca.

Josh answered the question
for the General. “We’d have to
explain
how we obtained the video, and
where it
was
taken
. We don’t want to draw undue
attention to the Jerusalem property. The construction crew sealed
the entrance to the tunnel, and they’re laying low right
now.”

Becca rolled her eyes in frustration.
“Then, we’ve got to upgrade the encryption on the Swarmbots. We
need intel. If we can find Rahmati, we should take him out.” She
was surprised at the words that just came from her
mouth.

General Shields’ laugh filled the
room. “Look at our new Swarmbot champion. Becca, I told you the
world was shades of gray. I agree with your sentiments. From here
on out, I’ll read you into any program you want.

“
By the way, the Fort is
working
around the clock
to perfect their quantum-resistant algorithms.
Since Rahmati’s last speech, troops have been mobilizing for
deployment to Saudi Arabia. The Persian Gulf is a powder keg. We
need secure comms.”

A breaking alert came from the CNN
feed streaming on another portion of the video wall.

“
We’re receiving numerous
reports that the entire state of Texas
is experiencing
a power blackout.
We’ll try to get you more details shortly.” The news anchor was
visibly disturbed. “It’s not clear if the
blackout
is related to Muhammad
Rahmati’s pledge of retribution for cyber-attacks upon
Iraq.”

*

20 minutes later, General Shields was
in NSOC.

“
It’s a total blackout of
the Texas grid. But the Western and Eastern Interconnections are
fully operational,” said the duty officer. Three separate,
but
conn
ected
networks,
comprised the US electric grid. “All of
Texas
is
dark.
This includes
Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio.
DHS
is reporting
that the
Port
of Houston’s backup systems
have
either
failed
or been taken
off-line.

“
DHS is also receiving a
steady stream of complaints from energy companies. All the reports
are
essentially
the same. A significant number of domestic oil
and gas rigs have
been
incapacitated
. All the
affected
platforms make use
of horizontal drilling techniques, otherwise known as
fracking.”

The Department of Homeland
Security was the lead agency in charge of protecting US critical
infrastructure. Because it owned none of the
critical
infrastructure
, the agency had little
real-time visibility into energy
companies’ networks.

“
We’ve got to get ahead of
events,” said Shields, infuriated. “I’m sick of
constantly
reacting. Every
Texan’s commute home will be a nightmare. We have 48 hours before
this becomes a Hurricane
Katrina-like
situation,
with riots and looting. When people’s food in
their refrigerators starts to spoil, all hell will break
loose.”

An NSOC analyst directed
General Shields’ attention to the
Fox Business
channel. The S&P 500
Index was down 11%. Gold was spiking. West Texas Intermediate crude
was at $159 a barrel.
This
would
send gas to over $5, by next
week.

The anchor issued
rapid-fire
updates.

“
We’re receiving numerous
reports that Russian troops have driven further into Ukraine,
besieging its capital of Kiev.”

“
Japanese news agencies
are reporting that China has moved an armada of ships into the
disputed Senkaku Islands.”

“
For God’s sake,” blurted
the General. “This is a concerted effort by Russia, China, Iraq,
and Persia. Any one of those nations could be behind a cyber-attack
on our energy infrastructure.” Shields’ next thought turned the
damage those nations could do to DoD networks. He rushed to
NTOC.

*

General Shields huddled in
a conference room behind the electronically fogged windows of NTOC
Ops Room A. NTOC stood for the NSA Threat Operations Center,
pronounced, ‘N-Tock.’ NTOC provided 24/7 monitoring of US national
security networks. It functioned similarly to the computer incident
response team at DHS. But NTOC monitored DoD and IC
networks,
and
maintained deep hooks into NSA’s vast SIGINT
infrastructure.

The atmosphere at NTOC was
even
more tense
than NSOC. NTOC network sensors were lighting up
all over the Middle East.

NTOC’s Director briefed
Shields. “We’ve lost control of all our drones involved in
operations
over
Persia and Iraq. They’ve been forced to land.
Every one of our naval assets in the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean
is reporting
severely
degraded comms. All manned aircraft on patrol or
reconnaissance are
being
recalled
. Pilots are reporting anomalies
with their cockpit’s instruments.

“
No one has ever seen
anything like this. We’re having real trouble ascertaining the
source of these advanced persistent threats.
This is
the worst breach of
DoD networks—ever. Someone is in complete control of US military
comms in the Middle East.”

NTOC’s briefing was like a
punch to Shields’ kidney. He labored to catch his breath. He’d
hoped to be in a position to manage an aggressive
cyber-
attack
on Rahmati—led by CYBERCOM. Now, with DoD networks under
attack, he was still on the defensive.

*

At 5:30 p.m., President Goodson
addressed the nation.

“
It’s important to know
that Federal agencies are working with Texas electric power
authorities to find the
root
cause
of the problem. As you know, it’s
nearly summer in Texas. The entire South is experiencing a heat
wave. Before the power went out, I checked the temperature at my
ranch. It was 105 degrees.

“
I’ve been on the phone
with the Texas Governor. He’s
depl
oying the Texas National
Guard
to all major
cities
. I’m ordering federal troops to
help as well. All Texans must know that the full resources of the
United States are behind you. You’re in our thoughts and prayers.
Together, hand-in-hand, we’ll get through these challenges. It’s
also important for everyone to remain calm and abide by the law.
Look
after
your neighbors. Help is on the way. These are the times in
which Americans
always
rise to the occasion.

“
I’m aware of initial
reports stating that the power blackout is a result of
cyber-attack.
About that, let me say two things: first, it’s too
early
to determine the cause of
the Texas Blackout.
Second, in the course
of our investigation, if we determine that this was an act of
cyberwarfare, know this: We’ll hold the nation or nations that
housed the attackers—as the
attackers
. Our response will be
proportional; an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a
tooth.”

*

Lisa Shields was sound asleep. The
General had not made it home for the evening. Mrs. Shields was
startled out of her slumber. The volume on her TV was blaring and
tuned to an Islamic station. She realized that she was sweating
profusely.

Lisa walked to the
e-thermostat. The air conditioner was turned off.
That’s weird. I turned it down before I went to
bed
.
We’re in
a
heatwave for goodness
sake
.
She
looked more closely at the digital face of the thermostat. The
status window read, ‘Ask your husband about SAMANTHA.’

2:00
a.m. (EDT), Tuesday, June 1, 2021 - Washington,
DC

Conference Room, White
House Situation Room, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W.

Less than 12 hours after
the Texas power grid went dark, POTUS was meeting with his
advisors. General Shields was dead tired.
Typically
, he would have attended
via secure video teleconference. But there were no more
secure
communications
. So he occupied the
black leather chair—two seats down from the President.

POTUS was at the head of
the polished, cherry conference table. Less
important
advisors assembled
behind POTUS, in less comfortable chairs that lined the walls of
the rectangular conference room. The Whitehouse Sit Room adhered to
TOP SECRET SCIF standards.

The Secretary of DHS was
briefing
President
Goodson. “This is
definitely
a
cyber-attack
on the SCADA systems
of the Texas Interconnection. It’s very sophisticated. The
generators in the
power
plants
can’t spin fast enough to produce
electricity for the grid. The good news is that they’re only
being slowed
down. If
they’re sped
up, all of them could
be destroyed
—just like in Aurora.
If that happened, power could be offline in Texas, for
months.

“
New generators are
difficult to acquire i
n that quantity. A nation state, or hackers heavily financed
by a nation
state, is
responsible for these attacks.
” The Idaho National Laboratory ran the Aurora
Generator Test. The test demonstrated cybersecurity vulnerabilities
of generators on the electric grid.

“
Well, which nation state
is it?” asked the exasperated President. “Is it
Rahmati?”

“
As of yet, we’ve been
unable to attribute the primary source of the attacks,” said the
DHS leader. “Zombie machines, from all over the world, are the
coordinating the assault. After we block one, another is spun up to
take its place. At this
time,
I can’t tell you who is behind
this act of
cyberwarfare
. It’s the same story with
the Port of Houston and the
domestic energy
rigs. We can’t
definitively attribute the attack. We don’t know who’s
responsible; we
only have suspicions.”

POTUS sighed in
disbelief
and
cursed under his breath. “What can NSA and CYBERCOM tell us,
General Shields?”

“
Mr. President, I
can
report
that our military networks in the Middle East are also under
an advanced persistent attack.
This has led to
periodic interruptions
in
comms
with in-theater naval assets, including naval aircraft. Our
entire drone fleet operating over Persia and Iraq has
been commandeered
.”

“
As you know, an hour ago
we issued a CRITIC that the GPS system was down. We’ve not been
able to identify the party
responsible
for the attack.
The GPS shutdown is
going to have very
broad
implications, not only for
the
military,
but also for civilians.”

An aide rushed to the President’s side
and whispered in his ear. Goodson excused himself abruptly.
“Muhammad Rahmati is on the line for me.”

*

“
Mr. President, I know
that this is a difficult time for you.”

“
Prime Minister Rahmati,
if you are behind these attacks, rest assured that I will respond
in kind. And the nuclear option is on the table.”

“
Mr. President, I can
understand your reaction. I’m calling in an attempt to
de-escalate
this
situation. I can tell you that these attacks are coming from all
over the world. Nuking Baghdad, or Babylon, or Tehran will not stop
them. Unleashing a massive cyber-attack on Iraq or Persia will not
stop them.

“
In fact, I believe an
overreaction of that nature will
merely
accelerate the
attacks. My intelligence sources tell me that the
Western Interconnect and Eastern Interconnect will be shut down, in
addition to the Texas power grid. The generators will
be destroyed
,
not just
disabled
. From what I’ve heard,
something like Stuxnet will happen to all US power generators.
Chatter we’ve intercepted implies that your high-voltage power
lines will also fry.