The Information Super-Highway and Madonna's Triumph

The Information Super-Highway event proved that Madonna was truly first-class. As she had promised, today's gathering drew a large crowd of Silicon Valley's typically reserved intellectuals. This year, even more IT professionals had shown up specifically to attend the closing ceremony of ID Technology's Security Challenge. To put it bluntly, these were hardcore nerds who usually struggled to socialize with others, yet Madonna had managed to rally them into a feverish, concert-like atmosphere.

"We will now announce the official closing of the Security Challenge and present the final results."

The crowd erupted in a thunderous roar. Even though it was already one in the morning and ID Technology had taken over the stage, the energy didn't cool in the slightest. The prepared equipment worked flawlessly, and the massive projector screen mounted on the building switched its display. Yoo Jae-won's face appeared, larger than life. The image quality wasn't perfect, which had its drawbacks, but it also had one unexpected benefit: the soft-focus effect made him look even more handsome than he did in person.

"It is with sincere regret that I must inform you the ten-million-dollar grand prize has found no winner."

The only way to submit an answer for the Security Challenge was through the private BBS operated by ID Technology. Participants had to post their solution in the exact required format. The reason for this system was to run an automated monitoring program that could instantly evaluate every submission. With thousands, even tens of thousands of posts arriving daily, there was no way humans could manually check them all. Moreover, if employees knew the correct answer, there was always the risk that one of them might collude with outsiders to fake a successful breach. Yoo Jae-won trusted his staff's abilities and dedication, but he didn't trust money. People could do anything when blinded by greed. That was why he had personally written the monitoring program to handle submissions.

The strength of a mainframe lay in its security. Even the employees managing the mainframe had no idea that the monitoring program was running resident in memory. Once activated, the program would immediately sound an alarm the moment any post containing the correct answer appeared on the board. Yet up until the New Year, it had never once triggered. The security experts and hackers had ultimately been defeated. ID Technology had become the true defending champion.

"Now, I will reveal the password that allows you to open the IDW file you've all been so desperate to see."

As soon as Yoo Jae-won spoke, the screen on the massive display changed again. It was directly connected to a computer. The high-resolution display showed an Android Alpha system that had just finished booting. Camera flashes erupted as the broadcast crews all turned their lenses toward the giant screen behind the stage. The default wallpaper of Android Alpha—an image of the mountain behind Naeo Village in Deokjin-ri—was now being broadcast to the world.

Yoo Jae-won promptly launched ID Office and began typing on the keyboard. Large white characters appeared against a blank background.

The moment the password appeared on screen, a collective gasp of awe filled Embarcadero Street. It was a thirty-two-character string mixing uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special symbols. Though it contained special characters, it was still readable as a sentence. Grammatically incorrect, of course, but the grand ambition behind it was crystal clear: that ID Office represented the world's greatest security, and it would remain that way forever.

"Those of you watching this broadcast, please open ID Office and try entering this password."

While preparing the stage, they had also set up a high-performance Egg PC with ID Office installed, ready to demonstrate it live. But rather than showing it from the stage, they knew letting people open their own files would create far greater impact. So they deliberately paused for a moment.

The venue was packed with Silicon Valley's eccentrics. While not exactly mainstream, some had brought high-end laptops they ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had gone out of their way to acquire. A few had even hauled entire desktop computers to the event. Naturally, every one of their machines contained both ID ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Office and the IDW file created for the Security Challenge.

Mike was one of those eccentrics. For the first time in his life, he was receiving attention from a massive crowd. Dozens of people had gathered behind him like a human wall. With trembling hands, Mike alternated his gaze between the giant screen and his laptop screen as he typed in the password. He was dying to know what that little genius named Yoo Jae-won had hidden inside the IDW file that he'd dared anyone to crack for a ten-million-dollar prize.

"Hey! You're messing it up again. I'll read it out loud, you just type! Capital E, capital V, lowercase e. And three exclamation marks!"

When Mike kept making typos while typing with shaky fingers, the impatient man beside him started dictating the characters directly.

"Done!"

Thanks to the help, the laptop owner finally finished entering the password and pressed Enter with a trembling hand. This time, instead of an "incorrect password" message, the screen displayed "Decrypting..."

A few seconds passed. Finally, something began to appear on the display. It was a short sentence accompanied by a single image.

It was a somewhat pretentious sentence. But in the context of the Security Challenge, it was a message of gratitude to the countless participants for helping strengthen the AES-256 encryption system and increasing its reliability. At the same time, it made it clear to everyone that Yoo Jae-won was confident the password for ID Office would never be broken. The attached image was a simple, adorable iconization of the thumbs-up gesture given when someone does a good job. It was known as the "Ddabong icon." Only the creator could have known about it. Naturally, no amount of simple hacking or psychological or scientific deduction could have revealed its contents.

At the same moment, countless people—just like Mike—were launching ID Office and entering the password themselves. If counted, the number easily surpassed a million. People all across America and around the world had deliberately searched for live coverage of San Francisco's New Year's festival just to obtain the password, so desperate were they to see what was inside the file.

The countless individuals who entered the password directly were deeply moved by what they found. There was a sense of pride in having contributed, even in a small way, to what felt like a massive and important project.

After giving them enough time to fully absorb the moment, Yoo Jae-won took the microphone again.

"Although no one managed to break through ID Office's security system, there were many contributors who provided useful security measures and optimization methods. ID Technology has decided to award modest cash prizes to those who helped make AES-256 even more perfect, as a token of our gratitude."

The full ten million dollars remained untouched. However, rather than pocketing it all, Yoo Jae-won had chosen to set aside a portion to distribute among the contributors. In his judgment, this was a smart move that clearly demonstrated how ID Technology differed from Microsoft.

Selecting the contributors had been simple. All posts on the company's BBS could be sorted by recommendation count. Anyone who had ranked in the daily or weekly top ten or higher would receive a prize. Those who had made the all-time top ten would receive special treatment. Naturally, the prize amounts differed by category. Daily rankings earned one hundred dollars, weekly rankings earned one thousand dollars, and the all-time comprehensive ranking earned one hundred thousand dollars. Of course, multiple awards could stack, and the prizes would accumulate accordingly.

"Individual notifications have already been sent via the BBS messaging system. And here on stage, we will present the award to the number one contributor overall—Mr. Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation, who will accept on behalf of all contributors."

The total prize came to three hundred twenty-one thousand one hundred dollars. Just looking at the amount revealed the incredible volume of activity he had contributed. Without Richard Stallman's efforts during the Security Challenge, the event would have been far less exciting.

Richard stepped onto the stage and received an oversized novelty check with "$321,100" written beneath the ID Technology company name. With an awkward expression, he shook hands with Yoo Jae-won.

With that, the curtain fell on the ID Office Security Challenge, which had made the second half of 1989 so memorable. It was the perfect ending that left everyone smiling.

The next day.

Having flawlessly concluded everything from the New Year's festival to the Security Challenge finale, Yoo Jae-won slept in. While he rested, news about ID Technology continued to pour in from media outlets around the world, but none of it reached him. As befitting an information and communications company, ID Technology didn't hold formal year-end or new-year ceremonies. January 1st and 2nd were simply days off for everyone.

When Yoo Jae-won finally rose late in the day, he dressed casually and headed to the hotel restaurant for a late lunch.

"Ah, you're finally awake."

When he arrived at the restaurant, he was relieved to find a few company employees gathered there, chatting casually over simple dishes like pasta and lasagna. They had held a big after-party to celebrate the successful event the night before. Since the party had taken place back at the hotel where Yoo Jae-won was staying, those who hadn't checked out yet were still around. Remington, Shannon, Ellen, and Rogers were among them.

"Everyone looks surprisingly energetic," Yoo Jae-won remarked as he took an empty seat at their table. Planning to eat lightly, he ordered only a single Italian sandwich—a panini. Instead of coffee, he chose orange juice.

Although Yoo Jae-won was the youngest and still felt completely drained, the other executives looked fresh enough to start working immediately. It was astonishing, considering they had been up partying until three or four in the morning.

"Hehe, it seems the company is doing so well that it fills us with vitality. The excitement from last night still feels so vivid," Ellen said in a slightly excited voice.

Indeed, everyone at the table had seen their lives transformed 180 degrees after meeting Yoo Jae-won. If their previous work had felt tedious, their current experiences were like extreme sports. Ellen, who had already been considered quite capable before, had previously handled cases worth only a few hundred thousand dollars at most. Now, he had managed a two-hundred-million-dollar project from start to finish and even secured victory. The thrill of that was something he had never experienced before. The Security Challenge had been the same—a high-stakes game with a ten-million-dollar pot. Although Yoo Jae-won had been confident it could never be breached, there had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠still been a lingering fear. Yet in the end, the event had concluded successfully, just as he had promised.

1989 had passed by in the blink of an eye, like riding a roller coaster. Everyone was filled with anticipation for what 1990 would bring.

Ellen was about to say something more when Yoo Jae-won's panini arrived. Famished, he took a large bite right away. As expected, it tasted like an ordinary panini. The ingredients were fresh, but the flavor was nothing special, and the preparation had been simple. If it hadn't had grill marks, it would have been indistinguishable from a regular sandwich.

The reason Yoo Jae-won grumbled about the ordinary taste was that a single plate of panini—cut into just four small pieces—cost twenty-five dollars. The orange juice was five dollars a cup, though at least it was freshly squeezed and refreshingly tart. Including tip, the two items came to thirty-three dollars total. Perhaps if he had been a true gourmet, his evaluation would have been different. In any case, it was clear that hotels offered terrible value for money.

"By the way, was there any backlash after we shut down the BBS?" Yoo Jae-won asked Rogers after finishing two of the four panini pieces and easing his hunger a bit.

Now that the Security Challenge had ended, there was no longer any reason to keep the BBS running. The BBS board had been taken down from the mainframe, and the system was now serving as the signup screen and server for ID Talk.

"Of course there was. It's still ongoing. Even though we announced the company is closed today, we've been flooded with complaint calls at the office," Rogers replied. As both the programming team leader and the person responsible for server management, his words carried weight. Yoo Jae-won nodded in understanding.

The posts themselves had been preserved, but since no one could access them anymore, it must have felt to the participants as if their playground had suddenly vanished. However, from a corporate perspective, there was no reason to continue operating a BBS that consumed significant mainframe resources without contributing to the company's actual business.

As a result, users experiencing withdrawal from the BBS began flocking to other PC communication services like CompuServe, causing subscriber numbers to rise. It was only a temporary phenomenon, but the implications were significant.

"As you all know, I plan to officially launch a PC communication service in Korea."

Since he had already informed them via ID Talk about the KETEL acquisition, everyone was already aware.

"If we're providing the service in Korea, there's no reason we can't do the same in America. So if we tell them that an official BBS will open soon and ask them to wait, the users should calm down ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a bit."

"Wow, I see! That's great news!"

"Ellen, please handle the legal work necessary to launch the official PC communication service in the United States."

"Understood. I'll make sure we can begin service without any issues."

The privately operated BBS had faced no interference from the U.S. federal government. While there likely wouldn't be major problems, offering a paid service might change things, so he assigned the task to Ellen.

"That being said, we'll need to purchase computers to use as servers."

"Servers, you say? When you say computers, I assume you mean x86 servers?" Rogers' face lit up at the mention of computers.