Digital Bloodlust

Digital Bloodlust: Contingent (Business) Interruption

***

In a cyber insurance policy, the term contingent business interruption refers to the policy payment for the lost profit and additional expenses due to a business interruption caused by a cyberattack at a supplier of the business in question. It’s intended to cover salaries and rent for office space, as well as to provide relief from lost revenue while a business is recovering from the impact of an attack launched on one of their suppliers by cyber criminals.

***

Eva loved the hacker. She loved Moriarty Levy like nobody had ever loved him, in his entire life. It was a long time ago, 10 years to be exact. But now she stood in a generic office on the 14th floor, in some random coworking space’s conference room, after signing no less than 25 documents saying she had never been there and a conversation had never even happened, just to think of him again. The curious gray eyes in front of her reminded her that she still had it – passion, vision for growth, desire to protect the innocent. It hadn’t always been that way.

The man across from her shared the same mission, the same desire – protecting the world from cyber terrorists and foreign spies through sophisticated cyber tools and insurance coverage. The two of them weren’t the only ones with that perspective but they were some of the very few who understood the dangerous lifestyle of those who track criminals without a rest and who were prepared to handle it via a commercialized way In tandem with government cooperation, rather than by the other options, such as working for the government itself or becoming a rogue Robin Hood.

They had met already, close to 5 times. This one might have been the 5th time. She and Jack had already gone over her resume, her ambitions, her skill set, and her aspirations for the function she could build at this company. If it could even be called a “company”, given its very taxpayer-funded clientele.

“Talk to me about your ideas for our specialized Ransomware defense product.”

“I think that installing an API on the client’s computers to trigger a cloud-based algorithm for outside alerts is helpful. I know they already have internal firewalls and multiple cloud-based mechanisms, but do they connect to their business customers through any other systems besides their own? If it takes them so long to develop their own connection mechanism, they might as well rely on a partner’s build-out. A partner like us, for example.”

“That’s a decent idea but how the hell are you going to convince these government customers to use a third-party which is a partner but relatively new, hasn’t even reached hyper-approved third party status yet, to use our connective API mechanism and trust us to connect to their clients’ systems?”

“I am not saying it’s going to be easy, but the government has already experienced cyberattacks from the Russians and the Chinese, as well as random college students within the country who want to brag to their friends. Among spies, hacktivists, and data opportunists, I think we can work on convincing them to give us a chance.”

He paused. She was smart, and he liked her. His all-male engineering team liked her too. He had looked at her background and he knew he needed her, knew her secret. It took him 3 weeks to check her references, to investigate her. He knew about Moriarty Levy.

She knew there was an element of excitement about the work, about him too. She just didn’t know that her life and all of her business was about to be interrupted by a black swan event. It wasn’t enough for her to fight cyber criminals like the one she had loved so long ago, or to even partner with a business which was a front for a government operation, and she thought she had put that part of her past behind her. Jack was about to throw her back into the lion’s den.

***

2011

Making love in Lamborghinis is very fun, but they are not exactly the most spacious places to develop new ways to stretch one’s physical frontiers. Morty’s blue-gray eyes stared like rings of molten steel at Eva’s aroused breasts, waiting to devour her as if she were one of those desert flowers, to be swallowed by a giant, incredibly hot sandstorm. He suffocated her with his rules, and his mysterious lifestyle drove her insane, but his wealth made her callous and immune to life, where she was numb about who he was and what he did. Selfishly, she didn’t care about what he was doing and didn’t want to know – she was fine laying in his embrace and being with a man who “pursued his vision.” Until one day, she had gotten a knock on the door. Two guys in polo shirts told her to come to an office that evening, at 8 pm. She looked at them and instantly felt what she didn’t want to know about him.

The love for him poured out of her that afternoon like rose water upon a Middle Eastern bride on her wedding day, making her feel very feminine and beautiful, but leaving her scared of the momentous night which lay ahead. She loved him so much, she would have died for him. Driven by fear and uncertainty, she called him and informed him that she was done, and he accepted it. She didn’t want to be the lover of someone who could be stuck in a taxpayer-funded federal vacation cell for 20 years. Moriarty didn’t say anything in his usual, characteristically flat voice. It took a lot to shake him.

Eva brought forth her passion for him, knowing that it would redeem her for her sins of silence, of desire for him, of wanting him whilst ignoring that he had to be brought to justice. This ache for a rebirth, after her emotional jailer had held her under lock and key, found its birthing space in a windowless gray government office. She had brought the little black notebook she once took from him, with all of the codes to his Bitcoin wallets. She had held onto it for a long time, not because she wanted Moriarty’s millions, but because despite all of her practicality and lust for a new life, she had the tiny glimmer of hope that he might see her again and she would hear his voice, perhaps just one last time. The feds gave her $20,000 as a consolation prize for helping to recover millions of stolen dollars, laundered in virtual currency. She only took the money to feel a little better about what she had done, as if it was the right and moral thing to do.

Maybe all human beings are victims of unrequited love at some point in their lives. Her version was particularly painful – all of the thrilling sex and flowing cash in the world couldn’t develop this into the equal relationship she wanted it to be – one which could thrive upon legitimacy instead of crime, and one which could be built on traditional values instead of a mafioso-esque possessiveness.

***

2021

Jack laid in his bed and thought about her. He was torn, because he usually read people so well but couldn’t read her so successfully. Worse, he was becoming attached to her yet was about to send her back to face the most dangerous memory of her life. He didn’t know if she had ever been in love with Moriarty or if she had just been his trophy girlfriend, but he was quickly becoming jealous. Jack definitely didn’t anticipate becoming so envious of someone he despised for international cyber crime, money laundering, and fraud, especially someone he had never met before, over a woman.

Life was so funny. Would it ever give her a break? She smiled in the mirror, knowing her mojo was back, after a nearly 10-year long hiatus. She had heard from Jack that morning and called him back, telling him she would take the job with him. She didn’t know what her responsibilities would involve just yet. He asked her to lunch and promptly led her back to that conference room on the 14th floor.

She signed all of the documents and smiled at him, like a tigress victoriously about to step into her dream career. Jack thought that a conversation over some Pad Thai was the best way to break the news and there was no need to wait, since she had committed to a year-long contract and had agreed to be available 24/7 for the unique needs of the government-funded enterprise.

Jack looked at her, biting into a spring roll, suddenly feeling triggered by her happiness and even feeling a little guilty about his actions. He told her he needed to give her the first assignment. Excited and ambitious, she looked at him with the self-assured look all naïve human beings have before they are about to tackle one of the biggest moral dilemmas of their lives. He pushed a navy blue file folder towards her, slightly smiling. She opened it and had to control her facial expressions. Front and center was a clean-shaven picture of Morty, salt-and-pepper hair and signs of aging, but it was clear it was him. Those blue-gray eyes were a dead giveaway.

She quietly looked up, wrapping rice noodles around her fork, and asked Jack:

“Is this why you brought me here? Is this why you hired me?”

“It wasn’t our intent – we took a look at your background and realized this was an excellent investment for our goals.”

“I bet.” She briefly deliberated getting up, throwing her contract in the garbage, and leaving, but she knew that was not an option after living in silence for 10 years.

“We want you to get in touch with him. He’ll be in Paris in July for a meeting with his business partners. You will contact him, visit him, and spend some time with him. You will say that you represent a cyber insurance startup and you want a capital investment in exchange for an equity stake in the business. We’ll take it from there.”

“Why do you think this will work? I haven’t spoken with him in 10 years. Why would he agree to meet with me one more time? And I gave that notebook to the feds in 2011.”

“Some divisions within our government partners have been keeping a close eye on him and his activities over the last decade. They know he’s been searching for you online and following you.”

“He’s never contacted me again.”

“He wouldn’t do that but he keeps tabs on you online. He is clearly somewhat interested, to say the least. We were looking at the codes in his notebook more closely and have not been able to decipher some of his other writings. You will contact him, tell him you have his notebook and say that you are also ready to give it back.”

Eva paused for what seemed like the longest silence of the past 10 years, pregnant with possibility. She had loved Moriarty, she always would. At that very moment, however, her willingness to reignite that chapter of her life was not due to either passionate love nor an incredible devotion to justice. Instead, it was born out of a digital bloodlust, which forced her to side with the realities of living by the laws of both God and man instead of by the lawless, unrestrained longing she once had for him. It was pure revenge and anger which drove her, revenge at him for his evil and corrupt acts, and anger at herself for not being able to change the man, although women went their entire lives believing they could change criminal bosses like him.

She picked up the little black notebook, which had also been added to the folder, looked at Jack, and said: “Let the games begin.”