72. Seon Fifty Nine
late night.
I brought the cordless phone from the living room into the room and made a call to the Balhae Sports computer room.
-hello?
“Yoonseok hyung, this is Jeongho.”
-uh? Are you really saying you’re calling me?
“ha ha ha! sure!”
– Are you going to school tomorrow? Aren’t you supposed to go to bed early?
“I tend to sleep late these days, so it’s okay. Bro, did you find out the file the hacker took?
– Not yet. I was just starting to work.
“Hyung, I’m connected to the company’s computer network, can you give my account administrator privileges? There is one thing I want to do.”
-okay? What is your account ID?
“My ID is cjh.”
-yes. hang on.
After a while, it was confirmed that all folders and files of the Balhae Sports network were accessible.
Yoon Seok-yi hyung’s voice came over the receiver.
– You just made me a manager. But the network here is really well made. Is this your work, Jung-ho?
“haha! no. The president’s office is called Yeonsan Kim, and he made it while studying alone for several years.”
– You made all of this by self-education? and! Awesome. In fact, I talked with him for a while, and it seemed like he knew everything about the company in his head.
“Right. Most of the company’s important administrative tasks go through Manager Kim.”
When the phone call with Yoon Seok-yi hyung was over, I started working on checking the network folders one by one.
When a folder was opened, I scanned the names and file sizes of all the files there, and when the scan was finished, I moved to the next folder and wiped the file information in my head, repeatedly.
After about 10 minutes, I was able to finish saving the names and sizes of a total of 2371 files in the network folder in my head.
I turned off the computer and lay on the bed and closed my eyes.
And I started organizing the files I just checked by size.
Among them, there were a total of 7 pairs of files whose file size matched up to a byte unit.
Since all 14 of these files were created quite a long time ago, there does not appear to be any information relevant to this bid.
This means that it is not a file that a hacker would have taken.
The only information we have in this hacking incident is the fact that the total amount of data leaked is 6,945,378 bytes.
What Yoon Seok-yi hyung is doing right now, and what I want to start now is to use this number to find out which files were leaked.
Of course, it’s not easy.
However, if we could know what files were stolen from our competitors, we could lead this bidding competition in our favor.
* * *
two days ago.
While I was eating breakfast and getting ready for school, the phone rang.
My mother who answered the phone said to me.
“Jeongho, Youngmi’s father is taking you to your school today, so don’t go to the bus stop and go to the entrance of Building 102.”
After a while, I left the house and got into Youngmi’s car.
I said hello to Yeong-mi and Young-mi’s father, and with a serious expression, he told me that the Balhae Sports network had been hacked last night.
I don’t know why, but the man who finished speaking looked at me as if he was looking into my eyes, and I pointed forward and said to him.
“Uncle, it’s blue now.”
“ah… ! I see!”
He started the car and started talking about last night’s hacking incident again.
After a while, when he finished explaining, I said to him.
“But how did you find out that it was hacked?”
“Do you know what a log file is?”
“Yes. I know.”
“Manager Kim Yeon-san said that he knew that it was hacked by automatically backing up the log file, but you should know what that means.”
When you connect to a network, the log file records the access, and hackers tend to delete their access records from the log file before leaving the network.
However, if the log file is automatically backed up before the hacker deletes his or her log record, the access record remains in the backed up file.
Moreover, knowing the hacked time in minutes means that the moment a new access record is left in the log file, a backup file is automatically created.
Balhae Sports is not a company that deals with confidential information, but a small company that produces soccer products. Is it necessary to manage access records so thoroughly?
It was almost as if he was waiting for a hacker to come.
For reference, all computer systems of Balhae Sports are managed exclusively by Manager Kim Yeon-san.
I’m glad I found out about this hacking case, but I’m thinking of asking Yeonsan Kim later when I have time.
Is there any reason to prepare for hacking like this?
Before long, we arrived at school, and the uncle said to Youngmi, who was sitting in the back seat.
“Daughter, I have a little more talk with Jeong-ho, would you like to go to school first?”
Youngmi said as she got out of the car.
“Okay, Dad! Have a good job! But it’s already too late, and after 5 minutes, Jung-ho is late. Understand?”
“haha! okay.”
After seeing Youngmi entering the school gate, the uncle said to me with a serious expression.
“In the words of Manager Kim Yeon-san, I told you to ask Jeong-ho first… .”
The old man frowned and looked intently at my face.
“Me? What are you going to ask me?”
Hearing my words, he shook his head and opened his mouth.
“No, it’s nothing. Hmm–! Jung Ho-ya, I think it was hacked by a Chinese competitor.”
“Are you talking about Yuller Changgong?”
“right.”
“Perhaps… Do you have any evidence?”
My uncle shook his head and said,
“It’s not like that. Just my feeling, this Friday is the deadline for bidding for French vendors.”
“… !”
This bid was a really important opportunity for Balhae Sports to advance into Europe.
The size of the European soccer equipment market is unmatched.
If we consider France, which we are currently targeting, it is 1.7 times the size of the United States and Canada combined, and 12 times the size of the Uruguay market.
Of course, as the market is large, there are also many competitors.
However, the margin ratio was high due to high inflation in Europe.
The expected margin rate was 1.4 times that of the US and more than three times that of Uruguay.
Once you can enter the French market,
It was only natural that the current annual sales of Balhae Sports increased, and it was possible to target the UK and Spanish markets as well.
For this reason, entering the European market has been around since I first proposed the idea.
It was an ambitious project planned by Balhae Sports.
A thorough investigation of the market size and local competitors was carried out, and it took a year to obtain certification for production facilities from the French Ministry of Industry and quality certification from the European Sporting Goods Association.
Of course, an investigation was also conducted on the competitors participating in the bid, and among them, the strongest competitor was Yule Changgong Co., Ltd. located in Shanghai.
Uncle continued.
“He said that he had been directly monitoring the computer network of Balhae Sports for the past two years, and that he had never had such an abnormal connection until now.”
“… .”
“It’s the first time something like this has happened, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it coincides with the timing of this bidding.”
“Were there any bid documents or materials related to the bid on the company’s computer network?”
“It is not. But do you know?”
The old man continued with a short sigh.
“Even if you only know the production cost, domestic and foreign sales, and factory operation information, you can roughly calculate the minimum margin.”
Uncle was right.
Knowing the minimum margin was the same as seeing our hand clearly.
I thought for a moment and then opened my mouth.
“mister. How about dealing with this case quietly instead of reporting it to the police?’
“What do you mean?”
“If it’s true that Yule Changgong’s hacking is true, we can’t catch it anyway, and even if we do, the French won’t overturn the bidding decision.”
“Then you mean to sit still and suffer?”
“no. We are going to use the data we took from Yuller Changgongtsu in reverse.”
“… !”
* * *
I lay in bed, closed my eyes, and checked the 2371 files one by one.
Among them, there are a total of 461 files that may be of interest to Yuler Changgong.
ruler! Now we need to create a combination using these files.
For example, if the total file size stolen by the hacker is exactly 10 bytes, then three files of 2 bytes, 3 bytes, and 5 bytes are a combination.
In this way, the combination of files is found, and the total amount of hacked files was a whopping 6,945,378 bytes.
As Yoon Seok-hyung said, it was never an easy task, and even if he found a combination of files that satisfies 6,945,378 bytes, it could not be the only combination.
That means there are multiple combinations.
The first method I thought of was to create a computer algorithm, but I gave up soon after.
Since the number of files is 461, the number of possible combinations of files is 461 factorial, that is, a huge number of more than 750 digits.
It was not an operation that was possible with a personal computer other than a supercomputer, and even with a supercomputer, it would be impossible in three days.
Hmm… What should I do?
After thinking for a while, I decided to simplify the problem.
I simplified the assembling by assuming that the hacker had taken all the files in a specific folder, and in my head I tried to create a combination of 47 folders and the rest of the files.
As I created this combination of folders and files in my head, little by little, I started to learn tricks.
Rather than creating a combination of files from scratch every time, even if it did not perfectly match 6,945,378 bytes, once a combination of similar capacity was created, the files or folders belonging to the combination were replaced with other files.
For example, if the total number of files composing a combination is slightly over 6,945,378 bytes, the total amount of files was reduced by replacing the files composing the current combination with a file of a smaller size.
In this way, I repeated the calculations in my head endlessly, and when I found a total of 11 file combinations, the clock showed 4:30 in the morning.
I turned on the computer and wrote an email to Yoon Seok-hyung.
+ +
Yoon Seok-yi,
I’ll send you a combination of the files I’ve found so far.
If you just check the number of cases, it seems that you can find about 15 to 20 more in the future.
Details will be explained over the phone in the morning.
Jung Ho.
+ +
The next day, the next day.
Youngmi saw me at the bus stop and said with a surprised expression.
“Oh! Your eyes look bloodshot too, are you okay?”
I said with a long yawn.
“it’s okay. I slept a little late yesterday, so I guess it’s because I’m a little tired.”
In an instant, Yeong-mi reached out and gently wiped my eyes.
“No matter how tired you are, you have to take your eye mucus off!”
Really?
I didn’t wake up in the morning, so I washed my face twice, but the mucus was still there?
When I looked at Yeong-mi, Yeong-mi said while checking her watch.
“Today, In-cheol is very late.”
“Let’s wait a little longer.”
While waiting for Incheol like that, I happened to hear the conversations of students waiting for the bus together.
“OMG! Having to wait until Sunday because of a cold… .”
“I might be able to catch a cold for you!”
“What the hell are doctors doing! Soon we will be in the millennium, and we shouldn’t have to make a medicine to treat colds and so on!”
“hey! But is it 1 o’clock on a Sunday?”
“I didn’t say the exact time, but I said it was after lunch, so it must be around 1 o’clock.”
That was then.
“Hey Jeongho! Young-mi!”
It was Incheol.
In-cheol gasped for breath and continued.
“sorry! Did you wait long? There comes the bus. Let’s hit that!”
So we got on the bus, and when the bus left, I told Incheon.
“Did you hear about the interview with Yoon Seok-hyung?”
“interview? What interview?”
When I explained that there was an interview about the missing child program, Incheol opened his mouth with a very serious expression.
“If you’re interviewing a reporter, are you talking about a newspaper reporter?”
“yes.”
In response to my answer, Incheol shook his head with a determined expression and said.
“no! I don’t do that.”
I’ve seen Incheol almost every day for the past 6 years, but this is the first time I’ve seen him like this.
In-cheol’s face is always full of playfulness.
Very occasionally, he has a serious expression on his face, but it was the first time he had ever felt angry.
This means I really don’t like it.