data
Shen Zhiyan's return was like a reassuring pill, calming the slightly unsettled hearts of the laboratory staff. He looked exactly the same as before he left, still wearing a neatly pressed shirt, speaking calmly, and efficiently handling the backlog of work. But Jiang Mo could sense a slight difference beneath that calm exterior—when he looked at her, his gaze would linger for half a second longer, containing not only the usual scrutiny but also something indescribable, akin to "confirmation."
The "remote access" incident that Xiao Chen revealed was something the two tacitly avoided discussing in public. Shen Zhiyan simply upgraded the physical isolation measures on his office computer and re-verified all access logs without anyone noticing.
Nighttime became their regular time to dive into the "deep sea of data." On the other end of the encrypted software, Shen Zhiyan cross-referenced the vague clues Linda provided with fragments of publicly available commercial data that did not involve core secrets, which he could access. Jiang Mo, on the other hand, used her keen insight into details and patterns as an actress to search for discordant "notes" in the massive flow of information.
“Look at these three transactions,” Jiang Mo pointed out several transfer records with similar times in the encrypted channel. The recipients were shell companies overseas with different names. “The amounts are not exactly the same, but the last few digits all have a regular pattern of odd numbers, like some kind of code. Moreover, they all occurred within a week before the release of an important domestic financial policy.”
Shen Zhiyan quickly replied: "Probability analysis shows that this temporal correlation is not random. I am building a network model of fund flows."
He sent her a preliminary visualization chart, its intricate lines and nodes resembling a swarm of glowing jellyfish in a dark sea, beautiful yet dangerous. Jiang Mo stared at the screen, trying to understand the meaning behind those abstract symbols.
"I feel like a primitive man trying to decipher alien signals," she typed half-jokingly, rubbing her sore eyes.
"The 'domain knowledge' and pattern intuition you provided are input variables that algorithmic models cannot replace," Shen Zhiyan replied with his characteristic rigor and affirmation. "For example, the 'last digit pattern' you just discovered has been set as a new filtering criterion."
This feeling of being needed and recognized dispelled Jiang Mo's fatigue of the past few days. Like two divers in the deep sea relying on sonar to locate each other, they cautiously and firmly approached the reef of truth in the cold torrent of data.
That night, Jiang Mo was completely baffled by a set of extremely complex encrypted transaction code, which resembled a tangled mess of yarn. She tried various approaches, but made little progress.
"If only I could know the original design logic of this code..." she murmured unconsciously, her voice coming through the open microphone.
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the encrypted channel, then Shen Zhiyan's voice rang out, carrying a tentative and somewhat clumsy reassurance: "Perhaps we can try a different approach. This isn't like standard financial cryptography; it's more like a... variant that mixes industry jargon and private agreements."
He paused, as if organizing his thoughts: "It's like... when you improvise before, you borrow some scenes and lines from classic movies and TV shows, but you distort them. Insiders can see the clues, but laymen just find it confusing."
This analogy gave Jiang Mo a sudden inspiration! "Yes! It's like 'jargon' or 'memes'!" She immediately had a new direction. "If this isn't a standard password, then it might be based on the rules of a specific circle..."
This groundbreaking idea brought a turning point to the stalled analysis.
The next day in the lab, Xiao Chen was carrying a thick stack of expired academic journals past Jiang Mo's workstation. The cover of the top one happened to be a diagram of a complex protein structure, with layers of helices and folds that bore a striking resemblance to the tangled code structure from the previous night.
Jiang Mo had a sudden thought and called out to Xiao Chen: "Xiao Chen, you researchers, if you need to internally label some complex experimental procedures or data that are inconvenient to explain, what methods do you use?"
Xiao Chen paused for a moment, then pushed up his glasses: "Huh? Well... sometimes we use project numbers plus date variations, or... we use periodic table symbols to represent specific operations, or even anime character codes, whatever's easiest, as long as the people in the group understand." He smiled sheepishly, "Professor Shen is strict, so we don't dare to do anything reckless, but I've heard that some poorly managed labs use really wild labeling methods."
What was said in jest was taken seriously by the listener. Jiang Mo immediately sent the keywords "non-standard, personalized, and easily understood within the circle" to Shen Zhiyan through an encrypted channel.
[New hypothesis: The code may be derived from an internal tagging system specific to a particular domain (non-financial).]
Shen Zhiyan's reply carried a clear sense of approval: "The possibility is very high. I am expanding the scope of the comparison database."
However, just when they thought they had found a new direction, the lab's network suddenly became extremely unstable. The server where Shen Zhiyan was running the analysis model was subjected to a fierce, unprovoked DDoS attack. A massive amount of junk data packets bombarded the firewall like locusts, severely impacting the transmission and processing of routine scientific data.
"Not again!" Researcher Zhou slammed his hand on the table in anger as he looked at the error message flashing on the screen. "This is the third time this week! Can't the logistics team ever handle this?"
Shen Zhiyan stood in front of the control panel, his fingers flying across the keyboard as he deployed defense commands, his face grim. "The attack source has spun multiple times and disguised itself, making it difficult to track. Xiao Chen, activate the backup channel and prioritize the synchronization of core data from ongoing projects."
The atmosphere in the lab instantly tensed, everyone focusing on dealing with the unexpected situation. Jiang Mo, looking at Shen Zhiyan's tense profile and the constantly scrolling attack logs on the screen, realized that the other side had detected their probing and was beginning to use more direct and brutal methods to interfere and warn them. Clearly, they weren't the only ones active beneath this "deep sea of data."
The cyberattack gradually subsided after lasting for more than half an hour. Although Shen Zhiyan and his team successfully protected the core data, the computational progress of the analysis model was greatly slowed down, and everyone looked somewhat exhausted.
When it was time to leave work, Jiang Mo was the last to leave. Passing by Shen Zhiyan's office, she found the door still open, and he was sitting alone in front of the computer, the light from the screen reflecting on his slightly pale face.
Jiang Mo knocked on the door frame.
Shen Zhiyan raised her head, her eyes still bloodshot.
"Are you alright?" Jiang Mo asked.
"The defense was successful, and the losses are manageable," he replied, his voice hoarse from staying up all night. "But the intensity and frequency of the enemy's attacks are escalating."
Jiang Mo walked into the office and placed a bottle of essential oil roll-on, which she always kept in her apartment for stimulating her senses, on his desk. "It's peppermint and rosemary; it might help... perk you up."
Shen Zhiyan stared at the small rollerball bottle for a moment, then reached out and picked it up, saying softly, "Thank you."
"Should the analysis continue?" Jiang Mo asked.
“Of course.” Shen Zhiyan did not hesitate at all. He gripped the bottle roller tightly, his gaze sharpening again. “The fiercer the attack, the closer we are to the critical area. Probability calculations tell us that we cannot retreat at this moment.”
Just then, Shen Zhiyan's encryption device emitted a sharp alarm sound, unlike anything he'd heard before. His expression changed slightly, and he quickly clicked on the pop-up security warning window, which displayed a line of red code:
An unusual access request was detected targeting the medical records of Jiang Weiguo (ID number: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX).
Jiang Mo's heart sank—her father's name appeared prominently in the alarm.
Shen Zhiyan pulled up the detailed logs, his voice grave: "The attackers used the characteristics of the temporary decryption key we created last night when analyzing the Foundation's data. They not only intercepted the data, but also reverse-engineered part of the communication protocol."
He turned the screen, and the attack path analysis showed that the other party was trying to obtain Jiang Mo's father's complete medical records.
"What are they trying to do..." Jiang Mo's voice was tense.
Shen Zhiyan turned off the alarm, his gaze behind his glasses turning cold: "They're gathering more chips. And it proves—there's a loophole among us that none of us have noticed."
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