Hacker's Diary E-Book

Adam Smith

• Herausgeber: DragonPoe
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 265

Beschreibung

A debut novel by Adam Prockstem Smith. He is living in Israel and after several months of work in Duty-Free he comes up with an idea how to elegantly rob the place. As a computer science and computer application enthusiast, he lives the life of a writer in the Middle East. The main hero in this book is a Hacker and he describes in a diary manner the mind that stands behind a perfect cybercrime. The book has resources, points of enlightenment and philosophical ruminations. It has every aspect of a good afternoon read for every type of reader that is not afraid to be spoken by the intelligent author. Throughout this book, you will learn about Dark Web and elementary aspects of planning a cybercrime. It is a fiction nonetheless, not a practical guide.

Leseprobe

Hackers Diary

Duty Free

Adam Smith

Copyright © 2018 Adam Smith

All rights reserved.

ISBN:

978-1-387-80049-0

DEDICATION

I thank my mother for giving me life.

And thanks go to all of you folks who are reading my books.

.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 1

I wasn't sure where I was going with this job. It was like a dead end. But suddenly, everything started to make sense and all of the links came together when the time was right. 

Okay, but let's get back to where it all started from. My name is Adi. Adi Cohen. I'm an ex-soldier in the Israeli army, 22 years of age. I've completed a year course in programming but then left it because I felt that it wasn't my thing. I was looking at becoming a lawyer. But God knew how wrong I was about my choices back then, fortunately, enough all of my knowledge came in handy in every way. 

So here, I'm 22 years old, saving money for the university and looking for not hard but yet rewarding job. I read the newspaper and see that they need people at the duty-free. The firm to be exact. They've had an e-mail address there to send the CV and so I did. A week later, I received a call and was invited to the airport city for an interview. 

I was quite happy. Even though the hour for the interview was somewhat early, I went online and looked up the buses I had to take, in order, to get there. 

The next day, I was excited, I was standing at the bus stop and waiting for the first line of the two I had to take to get there, to show up. 

Twenty minutes later, the bus finally came and I boarded it. I was following the real time with a GPS on my phone, through the route to the next stop where I had to take line number two. In about a half an hour, I was there. After an hour and a half in total, I went to the airport city. I was afraid to miss the right stop, so once I saw from the window the signboard saying "Airport City" I came off the bus. It took me about 30 minutes and two phone calls to find the place. The thing was that the GPS did not register the place for it as it was too small for it, to know its street names. And there was no map or sign with the names of the streets, so I used only the clue I had received from the receptionist of the firm on the phone. They said, it's a building next to the big Motorola building.  So, I asked those few people that were there where the Motorola building location was. Once I found it, I found the JR offices. 

The building was not in any way a spectacular form of architecture. However, it was clean, had a guard and served its purpose. 

Once there, I had to fill out the form that asked the same details over and over again about a half dozen of times. 

When I was done, I have returned the clipboard with the form to the secretary. She smiled and asked me to wait for the actual interview. 

I was watching the girls who were in the same situation as me, applying for the job and filling out the form. Two minutes later, a woman from an office where the interviews took place called me up. She was in her mid-thirties, I didn't remember her name. I saw her only twice, that day and the next, never again. 

Anyhow, she called me up, introduced herself and asked me to tell a bit about myself. "Army, service some computer knowledge, fluent English, and a bit of Spanish."  

"Fascinating." - she said. "Exactly what we need! How good are you in sales?" 

"Sales? Well, I have some experiences, I worked half a month in a shoe store..." 

"You seem to be the right person for this position. I promised you that will be right away, if you're hired. Consider yourself hired."

She never promised me anything, but what the heck, I'm hired! 

"We will call you in about a week and you will have to come here to get the uniform and to get a tour of the store"

"Sound legit."

"Nice to meet you Adi and I wish you a good luck!"

I did not know yet what I was going to during this week, but I liked how easy it was to get in.

I took a bus to Tel Aviv and then back home to Holon. It's like a suburb of the ever great Israeli city Tel Aviv but yet considered to be a separate part of it. 

We have our own municipality and a mall, couple of postal offices, one central street full of tiny retail shops and that's about it. Rest of it are buildings, where people sleep after they get home and parking lots where they leave their cars, which get them to places. 

Some say you could cover the whole Israel, and by that, I mean getting from the most northern point to the most southern point in just about 5 hours of steady driving. I never tried it. However, I got from Tel Aviv, the central point of Israel, to Ashkelon, south of Israel on a train in about one hour and a half once. 

Anyhow, when  I got home, I went online and read a little about the Firm in the wiki. It all had begun in Australia in 1972 with a single store at Brisbane Airport. Over the next two decades, they have expanded to Sydney Airport, Melbourne, Perth and some other stores in the major city centers. They sold out this whole thing 1995 and switched their effort to running furniture stores and an Israeli Duty-Free. They make about $400 MM in a year from their operations in Israel. A lucrative business, I thought to myself. Also, I found LinkedIn of their CEO and that's about it. Very succinct amount of information about this corporation, their operations and not even one note or photo of their founder. 

Well, that did not discourage me very much. 

I needed money you see, the faster I got it, the better. I had goals in life and they required capital for realization.

The next day was Monday. Yes, it might seem illogical, but many things in Israel are. Sunday is the first working day of the week in Israel and not Monday like the rest of the world. So, I was at the interview yesterday that is Sunday. Today, I went to Tel Aviv to a meet some friends and celebrate my new job. 

Well, actually, I never had too many friends but this guy helped me a lot during the military service. We spoke and hanged out a lot and I am most certain that it's thanks to him that I did not go mad while serving. 

We met at Ibn Gbirol, one of the main streets in Tel Aviv, he and his girlfriend sat at the burger bar and were quite happy to see me. I felt my face changing from a frown one to widely smiling one. And yes, it's a good feeling to see old friends. 

"Hi, Adi! How are you, my man?"

"I'm great, thank you Jacob! Nice to see you, Miya!"

"Nice to see you too"

"Congratulations on your new job. Did you meet any girl yet? I've heard there are plenty of sexy girls who are working there..."

I blushed, but nobody could see that behind my beard. "Not yet man, I even haven't started yet. I will be officially on duty only in a week."

"Oh, I see. Well, then good luck!"

We ate hamburgers and discussed of the latest events also I've learned that they signed up for the same college. She planned to study psychology and he planned to get a Business Management Degree. Well, all great businessmen need a good psychologist at some point. I joked that he would have one at a huge discount. 

We parted and I went back home. 

Six days left. 

Tuesday was an ordinary day, I spent the whole day listening to music on YouTube and reading books on Kindle. Trying to wind out the time and feeling, as much, relaxed as I possibly could.

Not many people in Israel use Kindle, I was one of the few, but hey, there aren't that many people in Israel in the first place. 

I've downloaded some cheesy fantasy book of the little-known author and that was about how I spent my day. I only went out once, close to the evening when I had to buy some food at the local grocery store. 

 Wednesday was 8th of March, I knew from my Russian friends and from Google that it's an International women's day. However, it's not very widely celebrated in Israel. I don't really know why. Perhaps, because women already serve the army and do all the things men can do, anyway.

Thursday was boring. I went to Tel Aviv again, alone this time. I had little money, so I did not pay for the bus. How I got in then, you may ask. The thing is that the bus line from Holon to Tel Aviv is a new kind of bus with automatic doors where passengers have to take responsibility to pay for themselves. The driver was separated in a small booth at the front of the bus. Surprisingly, most of the people actually did pay, but I didn't and nobody really cared. If I was caught by the inspector, I would give him my bus card and he would pass it through the machine "Cashing" and you are all set.

No questions, no suspicion. These machines aren't perfect yet and the inspectors, they don't care much as they are paid a minimum wage and pass through hundreds of buses a day. I don't blame them, honestly. I went on to stroll through the streets and on the seashore. It always makes me feel at ease and come together with my thoughts, when I wondered around this city.

The people, of course, aren't as caring as in any other big city around the globe. There was an Old Russian woman sitting on the sidewalk of the street with a carton box for alms. I saw her sitting there for a couple of years already. Old, poor, and nobody cares. Perhaps, she doesn't even have any relatives in the whole world. Well, I never asked her, I can't really help. However, the municipality could. But they don't. I witnessed people giving few shekels here and there but you hardly can live on that. It remains a mystery to how she actually survives. 

When it was evening, I took a bus back home, ending up again without meeting anyone. Typical me. Anyhow, I got home, took a shower, brushed my teeth, and went to bed. 

Friday, the thing was coming closer. I mean, soon, I was going to be working my hours away at the most crowded place in the whole Israel. 

My step dad has called me to ask how I am and if I have found a job, yet. He and my mom were projecting concern. I said, I'm fine and that I have enough money to end the month and yes, I was accepted to work at the firm, as a cashier. He congratulated me and I was feeling at ease, at least, something was accomplished, that's how I felt. We talked about the recent news a bit and finished the conversation in a fashionable manner. The usual. I had no plans for the rest of the day, so I spent it in bed, browsing the web and reading the news online through my smartphone.

Saturday. One day away. I took a stroll to town, everybody seemed to be very busy. The girls and women I encountered very attractive but I had no business to talk to them and I felt a little bit out-leagued by them. So, the only thing I could do is to enjoy the scene and that's what I did. 

Too much stress. Sexual stress. I decided I had enough and headed home, picked a book and started to read it. I read into the night. I looked at the clock and decided that this is enough for today. I have to be well rested before tomorrow, I have put an online alarm clock on my laptop and went to bed. 

I woke up from the buzzing of the aforementioned alarm and yet felt a bit sleepy. I stood up and proceeded to the usual routine I do every morning, wash my face, brush my teeth, eat Quaker and finally dressing up. I was ready, I went to the bus stop and couldn't wait to get to the airport city for the first day in. 

When I got to the firm headquarters, I was surprised to see how many people were there. I was greeted and instructed to proceed into a room with had enough chairs for everyone. I located myself in the back row. I was handed some documents when I looked at them, it was a contract. We were told to read it thoroughly and prepare for an intake. I noticed that many did not read it. I read it from the first page to the last, while I was doing so, we were instructed by a Security manager about how to act if there is something suspicious going on. He also informed us about the fact that every corner of the airport was equipped with cameras. And it was practically impossible to conduct something suspicious without getting noticed. He also warned us about a faith of one of the previous cashiers who got into serious trouble just by submitting to his weakness for chocolate and opening one chocolate at the cash box and eating it.

The result of this weakness wasn't just that he got fired but also had a case against him open. "It may sound absurd" the security manager has said "but there is a custom fee that the company has to pay just to get these things on the shelves of the store, so it's way more serious than it is at the supermarket." After that instruction, we got our fingers scanned for the system to recognize us as employees and count our working hours. Afterward, we were given uniforms. Which consisted out of three shirts, a black jacket and a black vest. Then, we were given a break of thirty minutes and directed to go outside, afterwards to take a bus to the Ben Gurion Airport, where we actually were supposed to work. It took us about 20 minutes before we got to Ben Gurion. Once we were there, we were greeted by a Russian woman, with her cut short blond hair and she was in her fifties, I guess.

She was some sort of a manager and guided us through the passages and the floors to a security office where we were had to receive our security permit cards, in order, to be able to work at the Duty-Free. The only other way to get there is to have a flight booked, which means, to have a boarding pass and passport ready. We were given the opportunity to see the place without any of those, thanks to the security permit. There, we had to fill out some extra documents. It was there that I actually first spoke with my newly found coworkers. They talked about funny language learning misunderstandings and I had one joke, as well, so I shared it.

It's absolutely in Hebrew, so it would be way too hard for me to bring it up here, and well, it is not the point of this story anyway. One girl's name was Vital, she was obese but lighthearted, she was studying architectural computer programs and about to start learning data management for Hospitals.

There was another girl named Yael, very friendly, one that came back from a year-long trip in South America and was looking for a steady income. There were a couple of others but I haven't had any chemistry with them. Once it was my turn to make the security card, I was asked to sit in front of a camera, the officer took a snap, they once again scanned my finger, this time for the security gate and I received my card. I wasn't impressed with his photography skills. I looked like I broke out of prison on this photograph. I've noticed that others also complained about their photographs. Oh, well I guess, if it's good enough, then it's good enough. 

Finally, we went through all the gates and security checks and saw the huge store for the first time. We were greeted by another aged Russian lady, who also was some sort of a manager. She was smiling all the time and showed us a room for special guests where the most expensive whiskey and tobacco were sold. One bottle even had an outrageous price of $67,000. Did somebody ask if they ever sold one of these? And the sales fellow who was in charge of the room attested that yes, there was once a millionaire who bought one of those. Ironically, he was an Australian.

Once we've been done observing the room, we headed to the employee's room under the guidance of the same lady to see where we were supposed to leave our belongings, our phones, where we were supposed to eat or smoke during the breaks. 

"I can assure you that your belongings are perfectly secure here, there are cameras everywhere" she has pointed up and to the corner and again up and to the passage, indeed, the place was monitored. And if in any case, somebody was about to go and pillage our bags, we would absolutely know who it was. 

She said that those who are meant to be cashiers are to go upstairs and meet a lady named Ifat, so that she would give us personal numbers and will instruct us with all the issues concerning the transportation, shifts, days off, and every other question we might have. 

Eight of us went upstairs. We were the ones destined to be the firm's new cashiers and devote our lives in this facility to serve the people by taking from them their hard earned cash.     

We were asked to wait outside the office, there was a table, two couches and a couple of chairs. We sat and waited until Ifat will call us. The upper storey consisted of a corridor and doors to small rooms on the left and right side. What I learned later was that the first door on the right side was a storage to employee uniforms. 

The two first doors on the left side were offices of secretaries and employee managers. There also were stairs to the down level. And, a first door after the stairs is a small conference room. The rest of the corridor contains two more doors, however, I will never learn what's behind them.  

After about ten minutes of browsing the internet on our phones, we were called to enter Ifat's office. It is a small room with a desk and couple of shelves for files. We all were stuffed into that room, which normally would be suitable for not more than two people. However, we were excited by the process and did not care too much at the moment. "Hello!" she said. "Welcome to the Firm! My name is Ifat and I'm your go-to person.

I'm responsible for every issue you may have, be it a day off, vacation, shifts or anything else. Right now, we will set up an account for each and every one on our company's site and sync it with your phones." What a genuine system, I thought to myself. As she said, she went ahead and asked us one by one for our emails and cell phone numbers, checked our home addresses and uploaded all that info to their server. She created an account for each one of us and of course, gave us the employee numbers. 

After she was done with all of us, she said, "Now, for the time that's left, you can go and start your training". The clock showed 4 PM. I felt hungry, however, I had to get this job, so I did not complain and went on down with the others to start the training. The guys who were on-site managers told us to go to the Customer Service to take checklists. The checklist appeared to be a list of things we had to know before applying for a test to work solo. We returned back to the cash boxes and each one of us, the new guys were assigned to an experienced cashier. 

I personally got a girl named Iris, as my first mentor. Black hair, adorable smile, she was 18 years old. "Hello there rookie!" she said. "Hi!" 

"Common, grab yourself a chair, you don't want to be standing all that shift" I went to a nearby cash box that nobody occupied and took the high black chair from out there. I grabbed it back to where Iris was, and put it behind her and started to observe everything she did and how she served the customer. That little game we call a customer service, we should be acting nice. 

She started to explain the system to me, and how it works, what buttons to press and when. The cash box consisted of a tiny printer, touch screen with a small physical keyboard to its side and of course, the actual box that contained the cash. The currencies we accept are US Dollar, Euro, English Pound, Swiss Franc, Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, and of course, Shekels. "We do not accept coin from any of those... only Shekel coins" - Iris started to explain to me the working system deliberately. As I observed her serving the customers one after the other, I concluded that my knowledge of English was a necessity here. However, I was at a disadvantage in comparison to her, for she knew Russian and I did not. "Every time, you have to ask for a boarding pass and a passport. They can't really get in here without those but yet, that's how the system works. Also, there are what we call aircrew, it's all the people who work at the airlines. They don't have a boarding pass, however, they are supposed to have a gen deck and a passport."  "What's gen deck?"

"Well, a gen deck or a declaration is a piece of paper that shows who are the members of the crew of that particular flight. Also, the aircrew has a 10% discount on everything they purchase, what they don't have is the right for a double discount, so it's either 10% or that discount that includes some of the products here in the store." "Ok, can you show me how I can do that?" "Yes, of course. Once somebody of the aircrew approaches us, I will instruct you how to do that." A lady has approached us, however, she was not from the aircrew. "Shalom!" Iris began with her part "May I have your passport and a boarding pass, please?" "Yes, of course, just a moment." The lady replied, she then browsed through her bag and finally managed to fish the necessary documents out.

She was an Israeli. Iris scanned her boarding pass and then checked that the name at the passport is identical to that one on the screen. "Do you keep it here or take it with you?" Iris asked the lady. "I beg your pardon?" "Well, you have an option to leave your products here and then we will pack them and they will be delivered with the luggage when your flight is back" "Oh, I never knew there was such an option. I think, I will do that." It was only logical because she has a lot of chocolate and couple of bottles of whiskey. 

Iris asked the lady for her back flight number, return date, phone number and then began to scan all of the products and put them in a white sack that she has opened just for that.

She also had to enter this lady's birth date, as she explained to me later that the computer must confirm that we are not selling tobacco or alcohol to anyone below 18. Just after Iris was done scanning all the products, the lady suddenly realized she wanted to take one bottle of whiskey with her.  

And then, the lady pulled out an Uzi and started to fire all across the hallway putting down to sleep all of the customers and cashiers who served them. When the gun finally clicked, it was a signal for me to leap over and punch this cunt to the floor. I grabbed a nearby standing bottle of wine for better effect and crashed it over her stupid head to make her lose consciousness and all. Later, I learned that it's a Cabernet Souvenion Limited edition Israeli Barrkan wine.

No, that never happened, just thought, I could cheer you up a little bit with good old-fashioned action before you fall asleep. Anyhow, there was a button on the screen which you had to press to switch between the pickup on and off options. So, Iris has selected the item and pressed the pickup off. Suddenly, the line with this whiskey bottle became black. "Do you have a direct flight miss?" "No, I have a connection" "May I know where you are flying to?" "Yes, I'm flying to Hamburg through Berlin" "OK then, I will have to seal this bottle" "What does it mean?" Irish answered without any hesitation and very politely, even though I'm sure she is been asked this question plenty of times a day "Well, you see there is a border control on every connection and we have an agreement with countries in Europe to seal alcoholic beverages and all kind of cosmetics at a special bag, so they would not take it from you" "Oh, I see. So, sure then, please do seal it" Now, this was completely new for me, she took a plastic bag out of a drawer on her right side, it was always the third one from the top. She turned to me and said "Look over here, there is a special combination to print an "items in bag" announcement, if you forget to print it, you always can put the rest inside. It is a must as border control have to be sure that the items were purchased at the Duty-Free and no other place." "OK, got it." Now, it was the time for the lady to pay. 

"Do you pay in dollars or shekels?" "I will pay with visa. In shekels" Iris showed me the button to press, so that computer would convert the amount into shekels. The lady pulled out the credit card and handed it to Iris, "One payment, Iris has asked?" "Make it two" "OK" Once again, she turned to me and showed me what button to press on the screen to split the payments, also she said "In case you mess up or have an important question, call the deputy store manager" she passed the card and the printer started to print 5 small papers. One was a paper that lady had to sign.

The second one was a recite. The third was item in a bag. The fourth and fifth were discounts but Iris threw them into the bin right away she turned to me smiling and said "Don't tell anyone I threw them because you know we are supposed to handle them out" I thought for a second about that fact but found it useless. The lady signed that paper and then Iris put the bottle inside of the bag and put the "items in bag" statement above it, she then let all the air out and finally took of a red stripe and sealed the bag, she then took a red sack that was hanging to the left to her cash box and put the sealed whiskey inside of it and handed the sack to the lady. "Have a great flight" "Thank you" when the lady disappeared walking her way to her plane, Iris finally said, "That's how you do it" I nodded to show that I understand and looked at my watch, we had two hours and a half to burn. After doing likewise to a couple more of clients and me filling out the checklist, Iris made me practice the trade and that's how my actual work began. I felt a bit nervous about my first client, however luckily they have shown understanding.

At first, I was a little bit nervous and was looking for an approval on every action, I was feeling really uncomfortable and Iris noticed that, she said "Relax, it's no rocket science", and yet still, first two of my clients had to be really patient because I was lost with all the instructions I received and had to remember all the questions and confirmations I had to master which was an addition to that state. What made me nervous at the first place is not as much as lack of technical knowledge of the profession as the sums of money I was handling that were quite out of my own possession. The stacks of dollars and shekels at the cash box were very impressive. However, the third client went easier for me, he did not take much, he was a tourist going back home to France, he did not take much and I already have developed the necessary habit to ask the right questions and press the right buttons.

It turned easy after an hour of such work, Iris asked me to let her continue because she got bored. I had empathy for her and could understand that boredom at this place was nothing of extraordinary.

I let her in and for the remaining hour, I simply observed her work. I felt a sort of delight and uplift in spirit because the job wasn't hard, the staffs, as for now, were friendly and it might be a good place to hold on and to make friends. 

In between the clients, we discussed a bit of personal life, like what hobbies I had, what hobbies she had and what was our doing beyond the job. As for me, I said that I studied computers and was about to start studying law. It somehow impressed her and she shared that she doesn't have much time beyond the job, however, finds a certain delight in belly dancing and quite talented at it. She told me that once she took her little sister to belly dance class and the instructor asked her if she came to apply to become an instructor, she denied and her mother yet insisted that she would show the instructor her mastery. The instructor was under the impression to get her a job, however, she has denied it, for she already had a job and thought of belly dance more as of a hobby. 

Go figure. Today, we were preached to a lot that we should do what we love and in case it can sustain our living, it could be a dream coming true but Iris had something else in mind. Well, the shift came to an end. It was 19:00 and Iris told me that I may go. She remained at her place, however, explaining that somebody else, another cashier to be exact, has to come to take her place for the next shift. As will learn later, it takes about 15 minutes more and if that doesn't happen we have to turn on the red light. 

I went to the employee's restroom, took my bag, scanned my finger to make a record of my working hours and left in the direction of the exit gate. It took me about 20 minutes to get there, passing all the corridors and checkpoints with my employee card.

At first, I was somewhat confused when I was outside the airport. There were plenty of minibuses that all belonged to the Bon-tour firm and supposedly were taking all the employees of the firm back to their home cities. Then I saw papers with lists of names of the employees and minibus numbers that had to spread them according to assigned locations. However, it was without avail, the lists were outdated. Then, I saw a guy who saw a guy... just kidding, I approached a fellow who was talking on the phone loud enough for me to hear that he was going to Holon. "Hi, are you going to Holon?" I knew the answer but I had to ask because that's the way I roll. "Yep, are you in the group?" "No. What group?" "What's your number?" I gave him my cellphone number and he instantly added me to the group.