Security Breach

The day started off as any other. Her alarm went off at 4AM but she didn't drag herself out of bed until 5. She had to be at work by 5:30 but she always dragged her feet as she got dressed and slipped out the door. It was only a 10 minute drive but when the sun was still down and she was still half asleep, it felt much longer.

The parking lot was empty when she arrived. Empty except for the black pickup truck. She didn't think much of it as she climbed out of her car. The maintenance man came around the corner as she neared the door "Good morning, Marco." She greeted as he pulled a sign off the door before she could read it. He grunted in response and opened the door for her.

The rest of the kitchen crew would be there shortly and she set about unlocking doors and checking temperatures. It was quiet...too quiet but maybe it was still just early. Most of the upper staff had gone out of state for a big conference. The previous day had been a more leisurely day for the factory which meant overtime for the kitchen staff, maybe everyone was just running late.Usually she pulled out the laptop first thing but instead set to cleaning the picked over snack table from the day before.

She glanced at the clock. It was already nearly quarter-till and still the other members of her team hadn't arrived. She happened to glance up and saw the elderly grill cook waving at her through the window. She sighed, "Did he forget his badge again? Why doesn't he just go through the security entrance?" Rolling her eyes at his forgetfullness she made her way down the long hallway toward the kitchen entrance.

To her surprise both of the early morning kitchen staff stood there. "Marco, wouldn't let us in. He said there's been a security breach and we can't open today."

"That's strange. He's the one who opened the door for me." Something was defintely wrong. "I'll go see what's going on." She slipped back in the door and headed toward the security desk. The security officer looked stunned to see her in the building, their eyes shifting nervously as they asked how she had got in. "I have a badge." She said rolling her eyes. "And there are other entrances." Really the security was such a joke.

"Um well, you didn't open your laptop did you?"

She blinked at what seemed like a stupid question. "No, I didn't. But I would like for the rest of my team to be let inside the building."

"No one's allowed inside the building. You need to go home. We're under attack." Their eyes were wide as they said it and quickly corrected themselves "Cyber attack. Our factories all around the world have been shut down."

The blood drained from her face at the security officers words. The company was responsible for some of the biggest weapons in the country. If someone had hacked their system it could be detrimental for the entire country, maybe even the entire world.

"Just go home and wait for them to contact you." The security officer repeated.

She nodded and returned to the kitchen, turning the equipment back off and locking the storerooms. The laptop sat on the desk and sent a chill down her spine like it was an atomic bomb resting on the metal surface and not an innocent laptop that still looked like it ran on Windows 7. She got out of the building as fast as she could. "Guess we have the rest of the day off." She chuckled nervously as she finally made it outside.

"What happened?" The prep cook asked.

"Guess there's been some technical difficulties and they're shutting down the factory to fix them. Everything should be back up and running by tomorrow."

But everything was not back up and running by tomorrow. A week passed before things were running well enough to let people back in the building full time. A month of serving the bare minimum and accepting cash only because the Wifi was down. A month of that laptop glaring up at her from the desk like a ticking timebomb. A month of emails sent to her phone every day reminding her how important it was not to log into the laptop. Telling her that their information had been hacked and sold on the Black Market. A month of daily reminders to "reset your password" to keep the attackers from accessing her information. A month of empty assurances that they were doing everything in their power to strengthen security.

It was hard to believe anything would ever be secure again. How had something like this happened? How had such a big and powerful company left a door open for such an attack? It was hard to do her job without a Wifi connection and a lot of her work had to be done at home. Every day the emails would come and every day she felt less secure and more sure that they had no idea what was going on.

"When are we going to get our internet back?" She asked Eric the IT guy on the day he finally came to reboot the laptop. She couldn't help but imagine him in body armor disabling a bomb. She was sure he would laugh if he knew how fragile she imagined it to be.

"To be honest probably never." It was her supervisor who spoke up now. Watching as the man worked, her arms crossed over her chest. "We just can't risk another breach. We'll get you what you need but cell phone usage will be impossible and our network will block everything."

The IT man gave a little cheer as the laptop hummed to life. "Ah there you go should be as good as new...within the parameters set by the CEO that is."

She clicked on her most used linked and stared at the screen blankly as the "blocked" pop-up box appeared. "So basicially I can't do my job."

The supervisor shook her head, "You'll just have to do what you can at home."

"Well I guess some steady overtime wouldn't be too bad."

The supervisor frowned in confusion. "Overtime? Why would you get paid overtime?"

"Because I'm having to work from home in addition to my 8 hour shift. I can't just go home early when the kitchen is still open."

"You'll have to figure out how to make it work."

She blinked at her supervisor in astonishment. "I don't think you understand how a kitchen, or employment for that matter works. I can't just go and work from home whenever I feel like it. I have to be here a set time and if I'm going to be expected to take work home on a regular basis I expect to be compensated."

"Not my problem."

"No, not my problem. I quit. Good luck finding a replacement. No chef or manager with any self-respect would accept this situation. Oh and good luck resetting all the passwords. I had the old ones written down, but just haven't found the time to write down the new ones."

With that she walked out the door and never looked back.