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Give the key away and knock at the gate (Russian proverb)

A year has passed since the US intelligence services eavesdropping on the computers and smartphones of some Russian officials and businessmen stopped working. Then China, Europe, Syria, and Latin American countries began to gradually disappear from the "ether". The White House was now guessing, among many other things, as to why Germany was so stubbornly resisting his pressure and continuing negotiation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline construction. What specific conditions does Russia offer? It also became unclear why the Islamic State 1 in Syria failed so quickly. The situation was slowly but surely spiraling out of control. The world leader was losing the advantage of being able to stay ahead of the curve. And all these terrible failures were caused by some Russian firm that appeared out of nowhere, with the mocking name ‘Traceless Hero’. Two hundred hackers of the US National Security Agency have been vainly struggling with the puzzle for several months. Especially offensive was the fact that the system of the "Trackless Hero" used all the usual means of communication controlled by the special services in order to send its messages, but yet somehow all those messages remain totally inaccessible to US intelligence. A stream of secret information floated right under American noses, through the servers they could access, through the channels they controlled, through the protocols they developed themselves, but, alas, they could read nothing. Under the head of the Department of Telecommunications and Computer Services, Craig Stevenson, the chair rocked like at a nine-point earthquake. Of course, the chairs swayed under all of his subordinates.

The door flew open and a disgruntled Craig entered the Computer Interception Department's office.

“Well, still not hacked?”

“Not yet,” the head of the department Nick pronounced apologetically.

“That is, the best hackers in the United States, listening to the whole world, to the presidents of all major countries, even to German Chancellor’s smartphone, are not able to hack the communication channel of some small Russian company?”

“This is not an ordinary firm, sir. We’ve made some inquiries. Their main Russian programmer Antony has a double university education – his Russian and ours Westerns. Moreover, the cryptographic department there is headed by our compatriot, a Ph.D. in cybernetics from Princeton University, by some Daniel.”

“No matter how cunning these guys are, you have what Snowden blabbed out the whole world about – the access to computers and smartphones from the back door, thanks to the cooperation of leading manufacturers of telecommunications equipment with us! Are you unable to take advantage of this? Billions taxpayer dollars to coerce leading Telecom firms to implement secret loopholes were simply wasted? Should I report this to the chief?”

“This is an unusual case, sir. We are faced with something non-standard, totally inexplicable.”

“Nonstandard? Ha. Such a word! Are you Nick still unaware that entrusted you department and very you personally, are supposed to solve exactly such ‘non-standard’ tasks? We pay out such a hefty salary just for cracking such problems. Those who can only do the standard ones do not drive the brand new Bentleys, like yours, they get along with second-hand Toyota cars. And they do not live in a mansion on the coast, like yours, but in a two-room apartment in a gloomy sleeping suburb. Do you want us to eliminate this discrepancy?”

“I beg your pardon, sir, but you should be aware that the department under my direction has up to now coped excellently with all tasks, including non-standard ones. But, I repeat, this is a special case, we just need more time.”

“Time is money! How much more do you need to crack the ‘Traceless Hero’?”

“We hacked into their computer system a long time ago, sir. We’ve infiltrated even their server. But there’s not even a hint of crypto keys anywhere”

Craig pondered over for a few seconds, and then ordered:

“Well, hell with their server then! Most likely, they keep the keys on removable media in a fireproof locked safe. Hack their clients’ computers! There must be at least some partial keys there, public or private – because they do encrypt with them somehow anyway!”

“Alas, sir, there are no keys either…, neither open public parts, nor close private ones,” Nick muttered.

“How so? How do they encrypt their messages then? ” Craig was taken aback.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out right now.”

This time, Craig fell into a silent stupor for several minutes, then smiled and exclaimed with the air of a connoisseur:

“Don’t waste your time figuring it out. Since you’ve already hacked their clients, I don’t understand why you even need these keys. After all, in order to enable their recipient to read the message with the eyes, the info has to be decoded on computer screen and appears as a normal text in English, Russian, Chinese or whatever other language. All you need to do is to simply intercept the already decrypted screenshot from the recipient’s computer screen. Also do the same with senders’ screen before they encrypt them. After all, this is exactly what we do with subscribers of recalcitrant providers like ‘Consonator’ and ‘DownUp?’ who haven’t yet agreed to cooperate with us, don’t we?”

“That’s right. We follow your recommendations and see everything that happens on the screens of the ‘Trackless Hero’ clients. But it appears that… they don’t decipher messages.”

Craig intently looked at Nick, as though trying to figure out which of two of them was the idiot.

“How do they read data then?”

Nick turned his computer monitor to the boss:

Let’s look together. I have now remotely connected to the computer screen of one of their clients. Now the client opened the email message and does even bother not decrypt it! Never does.”

Craig leaned over to the monitor, which was filled with an abracadabra message full all sorts of letters, numbers and other symbols. A few seconds later, the user of that computer wrote a response to… an encrypted message! Moreover, already in encrypted abracadabra text! This time, Craig froze in disbelief for about quarter an hour before exclaiming happily:

“Morons! This only means that an external decryption device is connected to the computer. And on the monitor of that device, everything is displayed in a decoded form!”

“Well, Craig, all the devices connected to their computers, be it printers, scanners, IP-phones, smart-phones, external disks or cards and so on – all have standard verified models fully controllable by us. We checked all the ports and all the protocols. But what’s more important – some of them have nothing connected to them at all and they still do function the same way in terms of encryption.”

Craig began pacing across the room in silence. This time he remained silent for half an hour. Then he stopped and yelled with exhaustion:

“So, you are looking to the wrong place – you are mired in stereotypes! Don’t think like Americans! Imagine yourselves Russian! Get drunk with vodka, after all!”

Craig left the office and slammed the door behind him.

The confusion in the eyes of Tom, the head of the Phone Interception Department, spoke for itself. Craig didn’t even ask him anything, but attacked right away:

“Well, what will you tell me this time? Do you want me to guess at first attempt? You have got no keys, have you?”

“No keys,” Tom admitted.

“And you also have no bonus anymore, by the way! Ha-ha! And soon there will be no more work for us!”

“I’m sorry, sir, but we are doing the best we can. We’ve been working twelve hour days a week for a month now,” Tom tried to justify himself.

Craig came close to him and asked with a hint of desperation in his voice:

“Tell me, what do you need the keys for? After all, the special secret insertions into microchip circuits are at your service. You can connect directly to the microphone of any smartphone and eavesdrop on the conversation before it is encrypted, can’t you? Or you are like those morons from K-interceptions who can do nothing at all in all?”

Ben picked up the headphones from the table and handed them to Craig:

“Please, listen for yourself. This is what we hear directly from the microphone even before the encryption.”

Craig put it on and heard what sounded like pterodactyl squeaks. Or like the sounds of dolphin communication, transposed into the audible range of the human ear. Yes, long ago he had heard similar sounds in an educational TV show about dolphins. Now one ‘dolphin’ on one smartphone screeched something – another, on another device, responded in the same manner. Craig’s anger subsided. He sat down in a chair and remained motionless and emotionless for long, until he tiredly said:

“We need to involve the CIA.”

Then he heavily god up and slowly trudged away to the chief’s waiting room. The secretary of the National Security Agency director told Craig that the boss was currently talking to the Secretary of State and therefore would probably not be available soon, likely in a few hours. Craig plopped down onto the waiting couch, leaned back, and said wearily:

“I’ll wait until morning. The matter is urgent. Would you make me some coffee, please?”

Antony returned from the Thai beach to his four-star hotel room, and was about to take a sweet nap on the couch when someone knocked the door. Wondering who it could be, Antony opened it. Four policemen entered the room, and the fifth remained outside.

“You’re under arrest! Here’s the warrant! Follow us! Leave all your personal belongings here. After the search, we will return them.”