Firewall
The alert about the attempted access to her father's medical records was like a poisoned dagger, precisely piercing Jiang Mo's most sensitive nerve. The perpetrators were no longer content with creating accidents and spreading rumors; they began systematically collecting information about her closest relatives' vulnerabilities, accumulating ammunition for even more vicious attacks. This cold, methodical approach to threats sent a chill down her spine like never before.
"The vulnerability must be patched immediately." Shen Zhiyan's voice pulled her back from her icy anger. His face was expressionless, but the pressure on his keyboard was three times heavier than usual. "I'm tracing back all the links that could have leaked the key signature."
In the lab, the cyberattack had temporarily subsided, but its aftershocks lingered. Researcher Zhou and several technicians were urgently hardening the servers, while Xiao Chen was busy recovering the research data affected by the attack. A tense silence hung in the air. Everyone realized that this was no longer a simple technical glitch, but a targeted, relentless war.
Jiang Mo knew that while Shen Zhiyan focused on technical defense, she needed to launch a counterattack on another front, diverting the enemy's attention and buying time to patch the vulnerabilities. She went to the rest area and dialed Linda's number.
“Linda, find that ‘Hope in the Ruins’ public service photoshoot I took last year, contact all the fashion and arts media we’ve worked with, and release the press releases now.” Jiang Mo spoke quickly but with exceptional clarity. “Highlight the theme of ‘finding vitality in ruins,’ and make the copy lean towards resilience, rebirth, and beauty that time cannot destroy.”
Linda paused for a second on the other end of the phone, then reacted: "Understood! Use a positive image to counter negative public opinion and grab public attention! I'll get on it right away!"
“And another thing,” Jiang Mo added, glancing at the busy people in the lab, and lowering her voice, “use all your personal connections to spread the word that I’m in talks with a top international director about a script on cyberbullying and women’s rights, and that he highly approves of the ‘complex qualities’ I’ve been showing lately.”
"A feint?" Linda immediately understood.
“Yes, muddy the waters,” Jiang Mo said calmly. “Let them guess, let them waste their resources on inquiring about and obstructing a project that may not even exist.”
Hanging up the phone, Jiang Mo took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart. This feeling of taking the initiative and creating a fog of uncertainty gave her a renewed sense of control over the situation.
She returned to her workstation and found a cup of warm milk that Shen Zhiyan had placed next to her computer sometime earlier, with fine water droplets condensing on the inside of the cup. There was no note, no words, just like any other subtle act of care he had ever shown before.
Jiang Mo's counterattack in public opinion was remarkably effective.
The powerful old photos titled "Hope in the Ruins" resonated with her recent rational and intelligent image on variety shows, quickly sparking heated discussions on social media. Hashtags like #JiangMo'sVitality# and #FragmentationAndResilience# climbed to the top of the trending topics list, largely washing away the negative impact of the previous scandalous rumors spread by Lu Yan. The smokescreen of a "new film by an internationally renowned director" also successfully diverted some of the attention. Linda reported that several marketing accounts that habitually smeared her suddenly changed direction and began to "dig deep" into this non-existent project.
In the lab, Shen Zhiyan led his team through hours of tireless investigation and finally located the root cause of the vulnerability—an extremely old third-party plugin vulnerability hidden in the underlying layer of the data visualization software. This vulnerability could be triggered by a specific sequence of data packets, causing some features of the temporary decryption key to be intercepted in memory.
“It wasn’t an internal leak.” Shen Zhiyan reported the results to Jiang Mo and Researcher Zhou. His eyes were dark and swollen, but his gaze was sharp. “The other side used an outdated attack interface that we had all overlooked. The attackers are highly skilled and have a very good understanding of our technology stack.”
"Can it be repaired?" Researcher Zhou asked eagerly.
“A temporary patch has been applied, and that plugin has been disabled.” Shen Zhiyan operated the computer, bringing up the new defense architecture diagram. “At the same time, I redesigned a dynamic key exchange protocol and added multiple layers of redundant verification. Theoretically, it can resist the same type of attack.”
However, the moment he finished speaking, the indicator lights on the lab's main server started flashing wildly again, and a piercing alarm shattered the brief calm!
"Here it comes again!" Xiao Chen exclaimed.
This attack was more ferocious than before. A torrent of data surged toward the firewall like a tsunami, and the defense curve on the big screen fluctuated violently, at one point approaching the red alert zone.
"They're conducting a stress test!" Shen Zhiyan immediately returned to the control panel, his fingers flying across the keyboard, issuing command after command, "Activate all backup nodes to divert attack traffic! Xiao Chen, prioritize the security of the data channel at Jiang Mo's workstation!"
While everyone was focused on the data attack and defense on the screen, no one noticed that a faint, almost imperceptible burning smell was coming from the direction of the electrical distribution room in the corridor.
The attack, which lasted for nearly an hour, was successfully repelled once again. Shen Zhiyan's new defensive line had withstood the test. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and with exhaustion and a hint of victory, began packing up to leave work.
Jiang Mo walked over to Shen Zhiyan, who was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, rubbing his throbbing temples.
"Are you alright?" she asked softly.
"The defenses are temporarily secured." He opened his eyes, looked at her, and said in a hoarse voice, "Your public opinion strategy was very effective. It bought us crucial time."
This was a direct affirmation of her contributions on the battlefield. Jiang Mo smiled, about to speak, when her nostrils twitched slightly: "What's that smell? It sounds like... something's burning?"
Shen Zhiyan also smelled it. His expression tightened, and he immediately got up and followed the scent. Jiang Mo and Xiao Chen followed. The scent eventually stopped at the door of the electrical room at the end of the corridor.
Shen Zhiyan gestured to Xiao Chen to open the electrical distribution room. As soon as the door opened, an even stronger smell of burning wafted out. An inconspicuous backup switch port connected to the laboratory's core network was emitting wisps of black smoke, and the plastic casing around the port was somewhat melted and deformed.
"This is..." Xiao Chen was horrified.
Shen Zhiyan squatted down, put on gloves, and carefully examined the area. His expression turned extremely grim: "It's not an overload. Someone is injecting a high-intensity current pulse through this port in reverse, attempting to physically burn out our network interface."
He stood up, took off his gloves, and glanced at Researcher Zhou and several other colleagues who had rushed over upon hearing the news. His gaze finally settled on Jiang Mo's face, and his voice was low and cold:
"The cyberattack was just a feint. Their real goal was physical destruction. Moreover, this person must have free access to this floor and know the location and function of this backup port."
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