Chips - Part 6

But, today, good didn't cut it anymore. You had to be better than good. In fact, in this game of the 21st century, you had to be the ultimate BEAST.

That was why the other device with Taju he'd nicknamed BEAST. And subconsciously, Taju's hand went into his pocket to feel the physical presence of that tech marvel he'd engineered. The workaholic that he was ensured that he didn't rest on his oars at the discovery of the reach of his code-reversal. And with the events of this morning, he was glad he didn't.

Taju had had an advanced model of the chip he was to trade today neatly embedded inside this other device. What it did was as simple as the work that went into it was complex. For every online account and profile Taju had, the online behemoth that BEAST was matched with a pseudo-account and pseudo-profile. These duplicate accounts and profiles were complete with pictures, posts, passwords and even fake bank accounts with accompanying, lookalike bank transactions and statements mirroring real life scenarios. It cloned Taju's virtual world and saved all clones on all computers and devices that Taju used via back channels.

Then, it monitored Taju's real-time online traffic. Whenever Taju's accounts were hit with viral or malware attacks, it offered these fake copies up as if they real. It did this without delay and seamlessly such that the attacker never once suspected foul play.

Knowing how unreliable online security systems were, Taju had moved all copies of vital belongings offline, leaving behind online only stuff that was already public knowledge and in the public domain. He was in the business of cybersecurity. How anyone thought he was going to be that naïve beggared belief.

And what did the man say? That he'd dealt with people with more bite than Taju? It got Taju shaking his head.

That was the old school. That was the initial digital world. This was the new world. It was the age of the cloud. The times had changed. Tech evolution had sped up. And Deji ought to have taken his own advice. Because the man didn't look before leaping, he never knew the most beastly side of the BEAST and may never do until it was too late.

It was ingenious when Taju thought of this side and coded it into the algorithm of the BEAST's capability. When it surrendered the pseudo-copies and passwords of Taju's profiles and accounts to any intrusion systems it was also programmed to always embed in those copies Infiltrating Tracers, INFTRAs for short.

The task of these INFTRAs was to electronically copy the digital footprints of the servers and systems that attacked the accounts backed by the BEAST and save everything so copied in an encrypted folder locally. This remained latent until the saved folder gets a whiff of any internet connection or WiFi it can hack. It hacks through and activates an internal code that will promptly send all copied and saved items to the designated address in the cloud which will, on its own part, immediately notify the BEAST for onward redesignation.

This ingenuity contradicted Deji's claim because it was Taju that was going to be waiting for Deji to call with pleas of getting his company back - give or take 72 hours.

Taju smiled for the first time that day. It was a wicked smile. He called the eatery attendant and ordered takeaway. It promised to be an eventful day and he liked working on a full stomach.