Page 136 - Musings 2021

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The Purpose
Sparsh Porwal
2017A4PS0186P

He just got promoted, from L1 engineer to Head of Projects. He deserved it, having worked
for 5 years now, at Cleanboot security. He was the best they got, a computer fanatic as his
type was called. Cyber security is a field you could excel at only by knowing in what all ways
is the network insecure. Unless you know all the loopholes, you can’t prevent them. He did
too, giving him a strange sense of penetrability, for he could hack any network to gain as
much insight as he’d like. All the people, firms, agencies, organizations had enough about
themselves online, to feed his sense of penetrative authority.

“Jason!”, called out his boss Gideon, “there has been a major malware attack at i-org, I’d
need you to accompany me to their Dallas server farm.” I-org, an all-round software and
solutions firm had their hand in almost any pillar of the so-called modern world – be it
banking sector, industrial materials, construction, and architecture, just name it and they’ll
have their hand in it, for they are the largest conglomerate in the world. “Sure”, he replied
with the same awkward look he had on his face on even a slightest effort of social interaction.
He just won’t be able to look into the eyes and talk to someone, or for that matter, even talk to
someone. He’d go phobic if someone put a hand on his shoulder, or even touched him, almost
embarrassing the other for trying to socialize with him. Nobody could make out what was the
matter with him, it isn’t even possible though, to peek into the mind of someone to know
exactly what the other is experiencing. Even if someone shares each and every detail of his
experience, still it is not even close to experiencing them yourself.

Gideon, owner of Cleanboot security, took a private jet to Dallas, Jason with him. They spoke
almost nothing on the way to Dallas where on the server farm of i-org, Jason found out the
malware and with some effort cracked it. There was no doubt, when looked from a third
person point of view, that the malware was to be completely removed and deleted from the
server. Instead, Jason disconnected the server from the server farm and changed the
administrator rights of the malware with him. “All good?” asked Gideon when Jason returned
to the farm manager’s cabin where Gideon was sitting discussing the gravity of the attack this
time which was huge. “I’ve subdued the attack and dismantled the malware and for
monitoring purposes, de-linked the server CS30 from the network”, said Jason. He kept from
Gideon that something about the attack intrigued him, scratched a part of his brain that asked
him not to destroy the malware and keep it with him instead. Gideon was a kind and honest
personality. Someone whom you can keep secrets with easily. On the flight back, Gideon
thanked Jason for saving Cleanboot’s contract of service with I-org. He revealed to Jason that
he is gay. He tried to talk things about Jason out of him but in vain. All the way back he kept
digging into his mind for what was intriguing him about the malware.

A few days later when Jason took a train home from work, for the first time he noticed that a
peculiar looking man was staring at him and as soon as he caught his eye, the man got down
at the next station. This happened multiple times since then and one day Jason shouted and
asked him what he wanted. The train compartment was empty. The man came to him and
replied, “My ransom ware program.” Jason was dumbstruck, his eyes wide open, with
trembling lips he was about to speak when the man continued, “You didn’t want to clean the
network did you?” Jason was speechless, wondering how the man knew all this. “That’s why

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