Lt. Duke LeJeune, a homicide detective, drummed his fingers impatiently on the desk.\u00a0 He was staring at a digital image of a Cheshire cat sitting beside a digital golden key.\u00a0 He and his colleague, Adele Palmer, a cybercrime specialist, were in the luxurious conference room of Gilgamesh Software, a global company whose applications were used by over a hundred big banks.\u00a0 Duke and Adele were investigating a new type of ransomware, from a new anonymous group that called itself Friends of Lewis Carroll and referred to themselves as Carrollians. \u00a0The group had hacked into the Gilgamesh AI and other systems and had easily bypassed all the protections the IT team had put in place.\u00a0 Now the system was frozen by the software program they had left behind.<\/p>\n
Duke caught murderers so he had tried to beg off, but the Chief had insisted that completely locking down all the firm\u2019s computers and holding encrypted files hostage was effectively a plot to murder the company.\u00a0 Duke\u2019s job was to try and find a way, if he could, to unfreeze the firm\u2019s computer assets.<\/p>\n
The Carrollians didn\u2019t want money from Gilgamesh.\u00a0 Instead, they intended to use the company\u2019s apps to extract money from the company\u2019s clients, which the CEO knew they could.\u00a0 Like all software, Gilgamesh code had flaws.\u00a0 But the Carrollians also had a peculiar sense of fair play.\u00a0 They offered to free Gilgamesh from the digital shackles if its champion could solve three riddles.\u00a0 The CEO, no prize in either the logic or the humor department, had immediately called the SFPD and the SFPD had immediately sent Duke and Adele.<\/p>\n
To start the riddles, the user had \u00a0to press the letter Q, so Duke pressed Q.<\/p>\n
The Carrollians\u2019 ransomware program unlocked the monitor and the keyboard, then displayed the first riddle.\u00a0 This riddle was easy because it was famous and from Alice in Wonderland<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy is a raven like a writing desk?\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Adele, hailing from Virginia, whispered, \u201cBecause Poe wrote on them both.\u201d<\/p>\n When Duke typed that response in, the Cheshire cat\u2019s grin grew a little wider and the golden key became less lustrous.<\/p>\n The next riddle was, in Duke\u2019s view, just goofy and made him wonder if they somehow knew that a policeman and not the CEO was answering the questions.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are two bodies on the floor surrounded by water and broken glass.\u00a0 How did they die?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Duke typed, \u201cThe fishbowl got knocked over. They\u2019re gold fish.\u201d<\/p>\n After a few seconds, the Cheshire cat\u2019s grin grew even wider but showed some sharp teeth.<\/p>\n The third riddle was a digital image of the Queen of Hearts with a cartoon balloon over her head which said:<\/p>\n \u201cIf you tell a lie, we will steal all your software.\u00a0 If you tell the truth we will erase all your files.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The CEO put his head into his hands and groaned, \u201cWe\u2019re done for.\u201d<\/p>\n Duke thought for a moment and typed, \u201cYou will steal all the software.\u201d<\/p>\n The Cheshire Cat disappeared and the display said, \u201cYou have done well, beamish boy. But beware the Bandersnatch.\u201d\u00a0 Then the head of IT came running in and said all systems had been released and the AI was behaving normally.<\/p>\n Duke looked at Adele.\u00a0 \u201cNo luck Duke, we still don\u2019t know how they came or went or if they\u2019ve left a software bomb for another day.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lt. Duke LeJeune, a homicide detective, drummed his fingers impatiently on the desk.\u00a0 He was staring at a digital image of a Cheshire cat sitting beside a digital golden key.\u00a0 He and his colleague, Adele Palmer, a cybercrime specialist, were in the luxurious conference room of Gilgamesh Software, a global company whose applications were used … Continue reading Duke Unlocks Carrollians Ransomware and the Cheshire Cat is Gone<\/span>