What is Echelon-GP?

Intro

This story was written five years ago, to argue, for some kind of story contest about IT. It was written in the evening, for fun, but EXTREMELY ™ won a prize in the competition of several thousand such stories, and the author's email was overwhelmed with requests to write a sequel, and even received a couple of requests from potential publishers. Here, five years later, I decided to bring to the court a strict but fair harassocommunity :)

The author of the story is habrauzer mifa .

The clock is half past two. It's time. Soups lazily picked up the phone and dialed the number on duty.

- Well, guys, all the way? - Even young specialists recognized him by this phrase.
- Yeah ... Semyonitch, the last time when something happened here, I went under the table.
“It's still not too late for you now ...” Soup hung up the phone irritably.
')
Young people ... What do they understand? Soups sincerely wondered how they got young men in such an important state apparatus, who everywhere boasted of their positions and position. He absolutely did not understand what the department was doing, where he was listed as a janitor. The Internet, global tracking systems, “gray censorship” - all this was his world. Alien and incomprehensible world.

***

Ivan Chugunov, lieutenant of the FSB, was tormented by doubts. A couple of minutes ago, he received a call from the highest authorities and entrusted an important matter. To break the order of such a significant person, Ivan could not. But I was not in a hurry to follow instructions. As a person familiar with the technologies in the service of the state, the order seemed very strange ... Finally, Chugunov resolutely pulled the phone to himself and dialed the number, nervously tangling his fingers in the disk of the old device.

- Hello? - The voice in the tube sounded, to put it mildly, annoyingly.
- Comrade Major, says Lieutenant Chugunov, duty officer of the “K” department.
- What the heck? Do you know what time it is?
- Comrade Major, we have an emergency ...
- What happened? - The voice in the tube immediately got stronger.
- An attempt to steal documents of the Echelon-GP project has just been registered ... As I was informed, the attempt was successful. I was entrusted to you ...
- It can not be! - Major interrupted timid explanations - The building is guarded by hundreds of the best people, every corner is scanned and scanned inside!
“Comrade Major, they were not stolen from the safe in the FSB,” the lieutenant could hardly find the words, “They stole electronic copies kept in the Ministry of Communications ...”
- What the hell electronic copies ?! These are top secret documents! Who allowed them to make copies?
- Copies were made by order of the deputy head of the department last year.
- Hell! I'll be right there! - in a tube short beeps were heard.

Putting the phone down, Lieutenant Chugunov realized what for on the sidelines of Major Ivanteev called “The Devils”.

Now he was faced with the most important task for the night duty officer - to wake up all the guards on duty, so that the major would not find them sleeping at the post. Going to carry out this difficult mission, the lieutenant tried to understand why he was instructed to report the theft to the major and why Ivanteev reacted so. Everything that happened did not fit in his head. Lieutenant Chugunov knew that no “Echelon-GP” existed ...

***

Lying back in his favorite chair and covering his eyes, Soups dreamed. He dreamed of the day when at last his young head Sergei Sergeevich Panteleev shyly approached him and said: “Alexander Semyonovich, how can I say this to you, you are an honored worker who did a lot for our department. Would you like to go on a well-deserved rest? I will try for you to give you the highest possible pension ... ”. And he, Soups, will happily answer him: “Come on, Seryozha, carry the order!”. Yes! Exactly! “Carry the order, Seryozha! Carry the order! ”...

- Alexander Semenovich! Are you sleeping again on duty ?!

Soup opened his eyes and saw before himself his boss, the conversation with whom he had just imagined.

- So I do not sleep, Sergei, just relaxing. I am an old man, the strength is not the same, I understand ...

Soups was silent. Appearance Panteleyev seemed to him not quite normal. Red eyes, disheveled hair, a crumpled, clearly dressed hastily jacket. Soups suddenly realized that the appearance of the authorities in this form, and even at four o'clock in the morning, does not bode well.

- Seryozha, what happened?
- Semyonitch, we have problems. Big problems. An hour ago, documents were stolen from our center ... - Chin quivered from Panteleev - Semyonitch, documents of extreme importance! Lord, what will they do with us ...
- What kind of horror ... Past me is ... Even a fly ... You know. Come through the window climbed, right?
- Ekarny bogeyman, what window ?! - Panteleev exploded, - Are you completely out of your old age?
Soups depressed silent. He was not even offended by the chief, who was his grandchildren. Alexander Semyonovich understood that if the polite and intelligent Seryozha spoke like that, it means something really terrible happened.
- Alexander Semenovich, - for the first time in his life, Panteleev called the janitor by name and patronymic, - hackers broke into our database of arrays, and stole the encrypted documents from the digital storage.
- Who broke ?! - Soups have never heard so many unfamiliar words in one sentence - Dak time you know who broke, catch!
- Fie you ... - Panteleev hopelessly waved his hand - And what to take with you, except ... And, although this is fucking nobody needs!

Looking at the gait of the chief, he walked to his office, the elderly watchman smiled thinly. About this he expected.

***

Two young people were sitting in a half-empty cafe on the Old Arbat, and crouching close to each other were whispering furiously. It seemed to them that they did not attract any attention. On the table were two cups of already cold coffee.

- Sasha, what did you think when you agreed? - Oleg was obviously nervous.
- What was I supposed to do? The one in the suit said that if we didn’t subscribe to this, we would both be sent to places so remote that we immediately forgot what computers are.
- Sanya ... - Oleg sustained an almost theatrical pause. It was evident that he is struggling to hold back so as not to break - Do you like nature?
- To hell with nature now ... What shall we do, Olezhek? ..
- I ask - love or not?
- Well, I love ...
- Do you like winter? Snow there, pine covered with snow, frost?
- I love of course ...
- So I would go to Magadan forest to bring down !!! And I would not interfere in this matter!
- Olezhka, we already got involved ... What had happened before was no longer to change. What are we going to do now?
- Let me sit down? - lifting the head, the guys saw a short, dense peasant in an expensive gray suit.
- Te what do you want? - Sasha was indignant.
- Yeah ... So let me. - the little man pulled up a chair and sat down - Let me introduce myself, Ivanteev, Evgeny Petrovich, FSB colonel, adviser to the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation on computer crime issues.
The guys looked dumbfounded at the ID that the colonel held out.
- Olezhka ... What did you say about the snowball? .. - broke out from Sasha.

***

Panteleev felt himself cornered. Once he proudly told his friends that there were six telephones in his office, and even one red one — special lines, a direct connection with the Kremlin leadership. But now he did not know where to go from them. Phones cracked incessantly. In the past half hour, almost every official of the government department of the Ministry of Communications called him and everyone demanded a detailed explanation of how this could have happened in his department. Exhausted Serezha began to pull the telephone wires out of the sockets. Only this way it was possible to stop this mess and finally, think about what is happening and make the necessary decisions. It was during this occupation that Major Ivanteev burst into his office and found him.

- What the hell is going on here ?! Sergey Arkadyevich, how could you allow such a thing ?!
- Mikhail Ivanovich, I myself still do not understand anything ...
- Sergey Arkadyevich, you are put here to understand!
“Now my specialists are finding out everything, Mikhail Ivanovich ...” - Panteleev’s voice was trembling. “Soon we will be able to give you some information about ...”
- I do not need some data! I need to know who, when and why stole the documents. And I would very much like to know who the hell in your department will incur personal, and it is very likely that criminal liability!

Panteleev thought that if this whistle dance did not stop as soon as possible, he would simply go crazy. Officials, damned major, employees who could not give a single intelligible answer ... More and more he was disturbed by the fact that none of his subordinates could answer the question “What is“ Echelon-GP? ”” ...

***

The colonel ordered himself a cup of coffee and began to talk. His tone was surprisingly gentle.

“Though you see me for the first time, but I know a lot about you.” In January last year, Alexander Alexandrovich Efremov and Oleg Vasilyevich Zhuravlev, that is, you broke into the X.25 unified network owned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, using the vulnerability in two routers, and pulled out the data for all legal entities of the Moscow Region. So? Further. You, in April of the same year, acting by the method of social engineering, managed to steal information about more than a thousand Visa credit card numbers from ExpromBank ... Continue further?

Oleg and Sashka turned so pale that the color of their faces differed little from the tablecloth on the table. Their incomprehensible head movements and uncertain grunts the colonel took as an affirmative answer.

- Already this year, in the spring, you received a call from an unknown man who offered you for a large amount of money and a guarantee of personal security to get him the documents of the Echelon-GP project stored on a server in the department of information security of the FSB. Now these documents, in the form of three files encrypted with a 2048-bit Blowfish key, which you still could not open, are on the CD at Oleg's house, under the mattress. More precisely, they were lying, because before they came here our staff seized them. Mitya, show ...

The last words were addressed to the assistant, who was standing behind the colonel. He pulled out a CD from the case and casually threw it onto the table. Oleg closed his eyes and began to vigorously remember how experienced guys told us how to enter the common cell in prison and how to behave there.

- Well, I think we all understand the situation. I really value my time, so let's get started ... - having said this, the colonel smiled mysteriously.

***

The staff of Panteleev timidly shifted from foot to foot, standing in an improvised kitchenette, which also served as a deliberation room.

- Sergey Arkadyevich, we carefully examined all the servers, all the databases, all our records and statements - nowhere is the slightest hint of the “Echelon-GP” project ...
- Can you imagine what is happening at all ?! Are you aware? - Panteleev yelled - One of the most important documents was stolen from us, all the communications ministry was on ears, the Cherted were already in my office, we were waiting for the colonel of the FSB to visit me at the minute to the minute, and you want to tell me that you have no idea that stolen from us ?!
- Sergey Arkadyevich, maybe it will give us at least some kind of clue and help in the investigation - tell us, at least approximately, what kind of project this is and what kind of documents were ...

Panteleev doomed plopped down on a chair and said wearily:

- A hell knows ...

To be continued...