The Insider

Jude ignored him. ‘What exactly happens in this pen test, Ms Martinez?’

Felix sighed. ‘Ah, come on, Jude, I’ve been through this with her already. Besides, we both know she’s only here because her boss is an old friend of yours and he wants the account.’

Harry looked back down at her pad. No wonder she was being fobbed off with someone from Procurement. They weren’t even serious about the business.

Jude raised a hand to shut Felix up and smiled at Harry. ‘Humour me. Tell me about this pen test.’

Harry suspected he was conducting some test of his own. She didn’t smile back.

‘A penetration test is when I use every dirty trick in the book to try and break into your computer systems,’ she said. ‘And once I’m in, I sniff around to see what kind of damage I can do.’

Jude stopped twirling his pen. ‘In other words, you pretend to be a hacker.’

‘Right.’

Felix leaned forward. ‘And just what kind of hacker are you, Ms Martinez? A black hat or a white hat?’

Harry stiffened, and glared at him.

Jude looked from one to the other. ‘Anyone care to fill me in?’

Harry cut in before Felix could take another swipe at her. ‘Black hats are malicious hackers intent on causing damage. White hats aren’t destructive. They’re only interested in the technology and how far they can push it.’

She turned to Felix. ‘To answer your question, Mr Roche, I’m a security professional, not a hacker.’

‘Well, well, a hacker with ethics,’ Felix said. ‘Who’d have thought it?’

Jude scribbled something on his pad and shoved it across to Felix. Harry watched Felix’s jaw tighten as he read the note, and she wondered if she’d passed the test.

‘I’m intrigued,’ Jude said. ‘So how do we do this?’

‘For a straight pen test, we can either do it as a black-box or a white-box scenario.’

‘Everything’s black and white with you, isn’t it?’

Harry looked him in the eye. ‘Pretty much.’

He raised his eyebrows. ‘Okay, I’m listening.’

‘Black-box testing is the closest thing to a real hack from the outside. I start with nothing except your corporate name. I use outside sources of information to snoop around your network, and then I break in.’

She paused to make sure he was getting it. He nodded and smiled.

‘For a white-box test, I know everything about your internal systems right from the start. Your firewalls, your network infrastructure, your databases, the works,’ Harry said. ‘In other words, I’m attacking from the inside.’

The door creaked opened and a man in his late fifties eased into the room. His grey hair fluffed out like a pair of wings on his balding head.

Coco the Clown, Harry thought.

‘Please carry on,’ the newcomer said and slid into a chair against the wall behind Harry.

God, how many more people were coming to gawp at her? She eyed up the conference table that could seat twenty people and feared the worst.

Jude watched the older man for a moment. Then he turned his attention back to Harry. ‘So which approach would you recommend, Ms Martinez?’

Harry tried to concentrate. ‘White box. In my experience, insiders are far more of a threat than external attackers.’

‘And I guess you’d know all about insiders, wouldn’t you?’ Felix said.

Every muscle in her body went still. ‘Just what are you getting at, Mr Roche?’

‘Come on, let’s put it on the table here. We’re all thinking it.’ He spread his arms as though the whole room was full of people on his side. ‘Your daddy was the master of all insiders, wasn’t he?’

Harry blinked. Then she dropped her gaze and fiddled with her pad, willing her voice to be steady. ‘What my father may have done is not part of this discussion.’

‘May have done?’ Felix said. ‘He was found guilty of insider trading, wasn’t he? Put away for eight years.’

Harry took in his clenched fists and the angry splotches on his cheeks. She stared at him. ‘You’re taking it all rather personally, aren’t you?’

‘Damn right, I am. Salvador Martinez nearly brought this company to its knees.’

‘Felix, you’re out of order.’ Coco the Clown’s voice behind her made her jump.

Jude shifted in his chair. Felix glared at Harry; it looked as if he had more to say.

Harry didn’t bother turning to acknowledge the unexpected support. To hell with it. She’d had enough. She placed her palms on the lacquered boardroom table. It was smooth and cold, like a mirror. She pushed herself up and stood to face them.

‘Mr Roche, I came here to talk about the security of your IT systems, and that’s all I’m prepared to discuss with you.’

She grabbed her bag and turned for the door. Then a thought struck her. She knew she shouldn’t say it out loud, but she was going to anyway. She swung round and faced them.

‘Who knows, maybe my father wasn’t the only insider trader around here. Maybe his arrest just spoiled the party.’

Felix’s jaw fell slack. Jude drew himself up in his chair, his lips disappearing into a tight line.

Coco the Clown stood and held up his hand. ‘Gentlemen, please –’

Jude cut in. ‘Don’t make accusations you can’t back up, Ms Martinez.’ He clenched the silver pen in his fist. ‘Some of us still believe in the integrity of our profession, even if your father didn’t.’

‘Well, well, an investment banker with ethics,’ Harry said. ‘Who’d have thought it?’

She marched to the door as fast as she could without actually breaking into a run. The damn room was longer than a tennis court. She yanked open the door and slammed it behind her.

She was halfway down the corridor before she realized she was shaking. She blundered around a corner, searching for the way out. Dammit, the lifts must be back the other way. Her sense of direction was dyslexic at the best of times, but this was no time to get lost and call for help.

She doubled back, retracing her steps past the boardroom, and found the lifts. She punched the button, pacing up and down while she waited.

The boardroom door opened, and voices growled from inside the room. She checked the lift. Two floors to go. She scoured the corridor for somewhere to hide. No doors, no closets. Nothing but polished marble floors.