Chapter 89: Hacker
Chapter 89: Hacker
[Are you really from Parallel Soft?]
[Yes, I am. What about you?]
Insu wanted to ask whether the other person was one of the team members, but he was not certain, and he thought the answer might be influenced if he asked directly, so he phrased the question ambiguously.
[Me?... I’m just a hacker.]
“Hacker?”
The other person wanted to keep talking to someone from Parallel Soft, but did not want to reveal personal information. While thinking of an identity he could state instead, he brought up being a hacker.
Insu paused for a moment at the unexpected answer, but he also knew it was not impossible.
Some might wonder what kind of hackers existed in an era when the internet had not even properly spread yet, but contrary to that assumption, this was actually a time when hackers were increasing explosively and actively operating.
Last year, the world’s first large-scale hacker conference, DEF CON 1, had even been held in Las Vegas. Aside from a slight difference in name, it was something that happened both here and in his previous life.
New technologies appeared every day, creating large gaps in information and skill between individuals. PC communications had already activated online activity to some degree, while awareness of security remained extremely weak, so this period may have actually been easier for hackers to operate in than the era after the internet became fully mainstream.
Insu immediately became wary at the word “hacker.” But soon, he relaxed the tension in his shoulders.
Hackers in this era were quite different from those in 2025.
By 2025, hackers had a strong criminal image, and many people really did commit crimes through hacking. But right now, they felt closer to prank-loving eccentrics than criminals.
Of course, there were still people committing crimes even now, but in many cases, the severity only went a little beyond pranks, and there were not many people professionally causing harm for profit.
This was not because people in the past were kinder.
At this time, there were not many ways to profit through hacking, so there were few people who learned hacking with profit as their original goal. Most hackers were simply people interested in the latest technology, and the exposed cases were usually eccentrics who caused trouble because they did not know where the line was.
The hacker chatting with Insu right now probably did not even recognize that he had committed a crime.
And the frustrating internet environment applied to hackers too. So even if they secretly accessed somewhere, extracting data was not easy.
Because of that, it was almost impossible to wait for a computer to briefly go online during PC communications, then steal and leak huge data like an entire game. At most, they could read text files inside the computer one by one and search for information that way.
However, within a few years, as the internet spread rapidly, corporations and large profits would connect online. Then, once people who became role models for hacking criminals appeared, the image of hackers quickly shifted toward something darker.
[I’m really a fan of Parallel Soft. I’ve played every game you released. I especially think TLF2 is the best.]
He was not certain, but the other person did not seem particularly old.
[Thank you for being a fan. But the information you posted, ByteRider, is confidential on our side.]
[Ah! Yes. Ahaha.]
He may not have known whether it was confidential or not, but the other person probably already knew that carelessly spreading company information was problematic behavior, even if not necessarily a crime.
[...Should I take the post down?]
[No. That might actually draw more attention. But I’d appreciate it if you stopped posting anything further.]
[Ah. Yes!]
[Do you have more information?]
[Yes...]
Insu felt relieved because the other person seemed more reasonable than expected, but at that answer, he could not help sighing.
He had been planning to start caring about security soon, so until now, they had practically been defenseless. Even so, he truly had not expected to become the victim of hacking himself.
[But how did you get this information?]
[Well. I got in through the homepage server.]
Ah!
Insu did not know much about hacking, but he had vaguely assumed the other person entered through PC communications since the company used it too.
But what was strange was that when the company used PC communications or the internet, they had people avoid revealing that they belonged to Parallel Soft so they could not be identified. No matter how skilled a hacker was, they could not enter if they did not know the address.
So he had wondered if the hacker had randomly searched through unspecified computers and stumbled in by chance, but that was not it.
He had forgotten there was a homepage whose location was fixed and always accessible.
[When I entered that way, there were several computers connected through the LAN...]
[The homepage server isn’t always connected to the internal network.]
[I just hid and kept waiting. It would be updated eventually, and based on the file update dates, I could roughly predict when.]
“...”
Listening to him, it seemed like he had spent a considerable amount of time. Well, hacking probably was not something that happened with a single click like in movies, but Insu still found the curiosity that made him spend all that time and communication fees just to enter and examine someone else’s company fascinating.
[I’m sorry. I won’t go around talking about confidential information again.]
[Yes. Please don’t.]
Still, it was fortunate amid misfortune. At least he was not a malicious hacker.
[But can I talk to you again next time?]
Perhaps because of his fan mentality, the hacker did not seem offended despite being scolded, and instead became clingy. Insu found it slightly absurd, but a thought suddenly occurred to him, so he answered kindly.
[Yes. I’ll remember your handle. Please continue enjoying our games.]
[Yes! Yep!]
“Hacking, you say.”
The next day, Insu went straight to Michael in the portal site business division after arriving at work. After hearing what Insu experienced the day before, Michael looked a little surprised, then soon turned serious.
“We certainly do seem to need security. There are quite a few dangerous people among hackers.”
He did not seem to feel as much crisis as Insu, who had lived in a world full of every kind of hacking crime, but he agreed that they needed a security system.
However, contrary to what Insu expected, Michael did not immediately design a security system and begin development, nor did he manipulate some unknown system method to prepare defenses.
“First, let’s buy a firewall package. A commercial product was released recently.”
It was pay-to-win.
The online era was only just beginning, but the concept of firewalls had already appeared before, and businesspeople were already commercializing and selling them.
Though “already” was a bit much, since it was still a fresh product that had only come out a month ago.
“How much would it cost?”
“I only skimmed the price, so I’m not exact, but with the corporate license, technical support, and installation costs included, I remember it being a little over two thousand dollars.”
It was not cheap, but it was not an impossible amount either. Insu immediately nodded.
“If we install only the firewall, will we become safe?”
“Yes. It should filter out most clumsy attempts. Unless someone stupidly brings in malware and runs it. But if we install an intrusion detection system, or IDS, alongside the firewall, it’ll be more reliable.”
“Has that also been released as a package?”
“Yes. I remember it costing around seven thousand dollars.”
Insu flinched, but if they were hacked, the damage would be far greater, so he decided to close his eyes and invest. But that was not the end.
“Still, security packages are good, but we also need a security expert. Even just to use those packages properly.”
Fortunately, both the MMORPG side and the portal business division needed security experts for development anyway, so he nodded without much hesitation.
The problem was that finding such a security expert was extremely difficult.
“Still no one?”
“Yes. We’ve been looking through schools and various places, but it’s hard to find someone decent.”
Seeing Michael, who was built like a bear, make a troubled expression, Insu pondered for a moment. He did have a method in mind, but it felt slightly uncomfortable. Still, since they had no other real option, it seemed worth testing once.
“Um, what do you think about hiring a hacker as a security expert?”
“A hacker? Well, they’re the kind of people who poke around looking for holes, so they’d probably be good at finding them. Ah! You’re thinking of using the person you mentioned earlier, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Even if not that person, we might be able to find someone through his introduction.”
“It seems worth trying. Then I’ll contact him first. We’ll need to check his skills and personality.”
From what Insu had said earlier, the person did not seem criminally inclined, but that needed to be judged in person. And if he could not work sincerely, he would become exhausting as a colleague, so they needed to examine him to some extent.
“Yes. Then I’ll give you his handle.”
Insu did not know much about networks or security, so he decided to leave it to Michael. Honestly, because the hacker seemed to be his fan, Insu felt somewhat emotionally drawn to him and did not think he could judge him coldly enough.
To state the conclusion, that hacker joined Parallel Soft.
He was a man named Jaden Lewis. He had just turned nineteen, and perhaps because he was thin and always stayed at home, he still looked as though he had not fully grown out of boyhood.
[Really?!]
After graduating high school, he was earning living expenses through part-time work, and he had already been thinking that he needed to find a job using his knowledge and skills. Since he was also a fan of Parallel Soft, he was delighted when Michael contacted him.
[The work you’ll do at our company is security-related. Are you confident?]
[Yes! If it’s that kind of work, I’m confident I won’t miss a single hole!]
In truth, as a hacker, he knew that perfect security was impossible, but when trying to get hired, one needed to boast to some extent.
[Let’s start with an interview. Can you come to LA?]
[Yes! Of course!]
Jaden lived in Chicago, quite far from LA, but there was no delay before his answer came out. Instead, thoughts about whether he even had the travel money circled through his mind.
Well, if I have to, I’ll borrow it.
If he failed the interview, he would not even have money to return and might truly become homeless, but whether that was confidence or youthful recklessness was unclear.
“Yes!”
He simply rejoiced that an opportunity had come to him.
Five days later, he visited Parallel Soft in LA, passed the test, and became a system security engineer.
Aside from Jaden, as development continued in both the game development team and the portal site business division, personnel gradually increased.
And in April 1994, the world’s first portal site, WET, was launched.
Fortunately, it was not launched by someone else first, but by Parallel Soft.
It was an extremely simple form, barely changed from the prototype, but that did not mean they had only roughly touched up the prototype and uploaded it.
Because it was simple, any error in such a basic web service would stand out even more, so they went through internal testing several times. In particular, Jaden, the security engineer recently recruited, carefully blocked holes.
It felt somewhat ironic that the person who had hacked them by entering through Parallel Soft’s website was now designing website security, but at the same time, he was also the most suitable person for the job.
“It’s clean. Good work.”
Insu tried to offer praise in his own way, but looking at this simple thing, he could not say anything more than that. Honestly, this was the kind of site Insu could make by himself in a few weeks.
Moreover, because the internet population was still so small, it would not have much immediate influence.
For now, it was something meaningful only because it had begun service first.