I did it for the lulz (Monday)

Lulz, a young Italian hacker, on commission, sets up an online trap in the shape of an Astrology website to steal Giulia's personal information. However, the trap is so well designed that it ends up entangling everybody in this girl's orbit and Lulz, thanks to his computer skills and a good dose of cynicism, becomes 'the hand of fate' that steers their lives, revealing betrayals and orchestrating showdowns, until he himself is entangled in Giulia's existence and in the overpowering fondness that grows towards her.

— 0x1 —

Annoyed by the pointless reading, Lulz put the book down among the papers scattered on the desk. Those handbooks for would-be hackers had put him in a bad mood; always the same geeky platitudes, that never dealt with an in-depth look at hacking techniques. He had been asked to write a review of that book for a computer security magazine, but he didn’t want to sell out for a few bucks, that’s why he was going to turn the offer down.
“That stuff’s for lamers”, he said to himself as he turned on his laptop, “just as I thought”.
He stood up to get something to drink, making his way through stacks of photocopied academic books, that were lying in large boxes arranged haphazardly by the bed. The minibar was in a corner of the tiny room, next to a shabby armchair which he usually chilled out on in the evening in front of the TV.
“Damn, I need to stock up on beer!”, he exclaimed, grabbing the last can.
Back at the computer he logged in to Twitter, took a look at his latest messages, then wrote a new one for his followers: ‘Don’t buy Hacker's Book by John McLoan, it’s too expensive and it’s useless’.
He watched contentedly as the message appeared at the top of the list of other tweets.
“And now let’s get back to the serious stuff”, he said, opening a new browser window.
He entered the darknet, an encrypted subnet of the Internet whose data traffic couldn’t be intercepted from the outside. In this digital world where there were no rules or laws, Lulz felt at home. In there he was free to do anything — at his own risk or peril — and he had built a reputation for himself as a computer hacker. Yes, he did it for the lulz but also and, above all, for the money, passing up the chance to join the elite, despite being one of the best hackers around. But it didn’t matter, at that moment money was more useful to him than glory. He entered the chat, in his virtual office; there was only one user online — a certain Rimor — who Lulz had never seen before, for sure a new customer. He clicked on the nickname and launched the command Whois in order to find out the address the guy was connecting from: he was behind an anonymous proxy server, useless for trying to trace his location.
“Okay, so let’s see what he wants”, he murmured, while writing in chat.

Lulz: Hi Rimor, welcome to my office
Rimor: hi lulz nice to meet u
Lulz: Do you need help?
Rimor: yes i need to ask u a favour
Lulz: Hmm I’m a bit allergic to favours
Rimor: obviously well-paid
Lulz: But who sent you?
Rimor: kylie .... she told me ur the best in the field!!!
Lulz: LOL she’s always over-the-top :)

Hmm can he be trusted?
He set up a network monitor in order to check that there weren’t any outside attempts at intrusion.

Lulz: What do you need?
Rimor: a hotmail pwd
Lulz: What a shame! I don’t deal with that crap sorry
Rimor: pls it’s important i will pay u > the going rate
Lulz: Who’s the target?
Rimor: my girl XD
Lulz: What a bummer! I bet you want to know if she’s cheating on you
Rimor: wot else could i want?
Lulz: Can’t you find it out by yourself? If you got here you should know how to ...
Rimor: i’ve tried brute but didn’t find anything

Who is this moron? He uses brute force to find an email password? You’ll grow old trying thousands of combinations, my dear.

Lulz: Only lamers use brute force, you’ve got to use your brains!
Rimor: come on pls help me
Lulz: How much are you willing to donate to the cause?
Rimor: up to 150
Lulz: Ok, you need to give it to Kylie in advance
Rimor: already done!!! XD
Lulz: Son of a ... oh alright, give me your girlfriend’s email
Rimor: [email protected]
Lulz: What’s her name?
Rimor: Giulia Morandi
Lulz: Age?
Rimor: nearly 18
Lulz: Where’s she from?
Rimor: Bari

Oh wow, one of my neighbours.

Lulz: Ok, you’ll get word from that little tart Kylie
Rimor: thnx lulz ur a friend!!!
Lulz: Don’t spread it about ... and careful not to screw up!
Rimor: i already know all that
Lulz: Ok, bye
Rimor: bye ;-)

He hated those casual lamer jobs, but he needed them to make a bit of cash. They then allowed him to perfect his phishing techniques; it was just a matter of finding the right bait and waiting for the victim to bite. In general, his business partner Kylie got him those jobs and also looked after his PR. He was a great guy and a trustworthy friend but he just needed to learn how to control his impulses better, especially during their cyber raids. But he didn’t understand why he insisted on using that female nickname.
“Let’s have a little look at this Giulia”, he said opening a new browser.
He logged in to Facebook as Anna Rinaldi, an account that Kylie had set up to manage for him, right down to the smallest details; with three hundred and fifty friends it didn't run the risk of looking like a fake one by requesting new friends. He typed Giulia’s email into the search bar and happily discovered that the girl was signed up to the social network. From her photo she looked cute: straight brown hair, soft features, light make up and large, bright eyes. He went into her public profile to see if there was any other useful information.
“Crazy!”, he exclaimed, shaking his head with fatherly disapproval. Giulia’s virtual diary had everything: photos, friends, family, hobbies, and interests.
“I don’t need to go into her private profile, but while I’m here ...”, he remarked, clicking on Add friend.
He took a look at Giulia’s hobbies and interests: astrology, swimming, volleyball, playing around, recipes, horoscopes, Prada, Puglia, Bari, Vodafone, pizza, Tiziano Ferro. It turned out that in her relationship status she was involved with Gianni Guarino.
“So you’d be Rimor?”.
He placed the cursor under the guy’s name, making his photo appear.
“You look exactly like a lamer”.
In contrast to the girl, Gianni had made his profile private, for which, apart from the name and photo, there was no information. He went back to Giulia’s page and clicked on the list of friends; he quickly scanned the list of around four hundred contacts: he didn’t seem to know anyone.
“Okay, let’s see if she accepts my friend request”, he said, getting up, “in any case, finding her password will be child’s play”.

— 0x2 —

Giulia was trying to concentrate on a history book, but she just couldn’t. The Partisan Resistance reminded her that she would still have to endure another few months and then she would be finally free of that loathsome school.
She turned on the computer and logged in to the Studenti.it website in order to find a lesson summary, but did so half-heartedly. Her intellectual biorhythm was going through a critical point, so it was normal that there was a drop in clear thinking.
Let’s take a break, she thought while logging in to Facebook. The friend request icon was lit up: a certain Anna Rinaldi had added her.
Who is she?
She clicked on the name to peek at her wall, but she didn’t seem to know her. She scanned the friends list and some faces seemed familiar.
“Wow ... how many hot guys does this girl know!”, she exclaimed, accepting her friend request and continuing to snoop a bit further among Anna’s photos.

Lulz received a notification on Facebook: Giulia had accepted Anna’s friend request, and he wasn’t surprised. Now that he could access her page he made the most of it so he could suss out as much information as possible. He found a massive list of messages about the zodiac and astrological readings, alternating every so often with things typically shared on Facebook.
“Well, well ... you’re keen on Astrology, hey?”.
He also took a look at other photos.
“You even have a good body. And those eyes ... amazing”.
The most recent message announced the daily horoscope: ‘Neptune in Aquarius, with a disharmonious aspect, will prevent you from seeing your limits clearly and, therefore, from being able to fix your mistakes’.
“Oh no, too late to fix anything”, he muttered with a sadistic grin.
Now that he had found the bait, he could get to work immediately. From a desk drawer, he pulled out a portable hard drive that contained his work tools and connected it to his notebook. He had to lure Giulia into the trap. The idea was to send her an email that could somehow arouse her interest and that would tempt her to click on a fake link; in this case the Hotmail session would have expired – or so it would seem – so she would be requested to re-enter her password, which Lulz would then intercept. It was disturbing, but they always fell for it. For men, the bait usually consisted of a message from a young, attractive girl, and for women, the theme varied, and Lulz amused himself by inventing endless new contexts. Given Giulia's passion for Astrology, he decided to build a web page for her to register for a fake astrological reading service.
Putting on the graphic framework was a matter of a few minutes. He nicked some photos from other websites and used them to make up his own logo: a golden dragon on a black background that enveloped a spherical Taijitu made up of stars. To make the site more convincing, he also made a real registration form, with a thank you message attached. He amused himself by inserting some unnecessary fields, just to gauge the girl’s level of naivety: ‘Describe how others see you’, ‘Describe your true nature’, ‘What do you do at the moment and what would you like to do in life’, ‘Three things you like’, ‘Three things you hate’ and ‘What is happiness for you’. From the list of registered personal domains he chose the one that seemed most fitting for his purpose: ilmondodilulz.net.
“Lulz’s world ... yes, I like it!”, he exclaimed satisfied, then going on to publish the website.
The last step was to send Giulia a convincing email that tempted her to click on the website link. He had to make her believe that the invite came from a trustworthy person, so he searched among her Facebook friends and read a bit of her conversations relating to Astrology, smiling from time to time at the seriousness with which certain topics were dealt with. In the end, he chose a girl named Elisa De Cecco who, to him, seemed the most experienced in the field.
“Elisa, you have been nominated”, he said, sneering as he wrote the email.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Free astrological readings
Hi Giulia,
Elisa De Cecco recommends you register at Lulz’s world website so you can get free astrological readings, and she is sending you the following message:
‘Hi gorgeous, look what I have found. It’s an amazing website, sign up and you’ll love it :-)’
To register free to this service, CLICK HERE.
We’re waiting for you,
The Lulz’s world staff

The bait had been thrown; all that was left was to wait. He could have done better, but the mission seemed very easy and he didn't need to go out of his way too much. Half an hour of work and a hundred and fifty euro profit.
Not bad.

— 0x3 —

Messenger notified that a new email had arrived. Giulia opened her inbox and read Elisa’s message curiously. Without hesitating, she clicked on the link in the text, but the session had expired, she would have to re-enter her password.
That’s strange, I just logged in.
Without thinking much of it she re-entered her Hotmail password and pressed the Enter key, thus, ending up inside Lulz’s world.
“What is this rubbish?”, she said to herself.
A very unconvincing message invited her to sign up.
‘WELCOME to Lulz’s world, where you can find out about your future. Our astral forecasts are based on a revolutionary theory that allows you to build a highly accurate personal birth chart and to find out when you were born with amazing precision. If you answer the following questions honestly, we will, in fact, be able to determine the exact position of the planets at the moment of your first breath, and from that moment on you will be able to control your destiny through our personal readings. Register free via the form below’.
Even the questions that followed were meaningless.
“What a load of rubbish!”, she exclaimed.
And yet Elisa had always given her great advice. She hesitated a moment, uncertain whether to go ahead or not.
Oh, go on then, at most, it’ll just be a waste of time.
She registered on the website by filling out all the required fields on the form and then went back to studying.

Her password was leo123. He could have found it even by making several attempts given its simplicity. To Lulz, it seemed strange that Gianni hadn’t already tried it, he asked himself if that Rimor was really her boyfriend; maybe by reading a few emails he could have discovered it. He peeked at Giulia’s mail; it was surprising how many emails that girl produced. As he read, Lulz’s curiosity grew, and it became increasingly difficult to stop meddling in things that were none of his business. In that small digital corner, hidden in a hard drive of who knows what server in who knows what part of the world, there was Giulia's real life. If Kylie had known about this, he would have immediately stolen her identity, but Lulz had no intention of telling him about it, at least for now. In the meantime, another notification had arrived. Giulia had registered on the site, filling out the entire registration form.
“Brilliant ... you are naivety personified!”, he exclaimed, reading the girl’s answers.

Describe how others see you
At first sight I can seem aggressive and intrusive, but only because I have a habit of saying things to your face and taking relationships with people very seriously. For this reason, instinctively I can end up being unpleasant, but those who know me well, know that I am an honest person and not at all hypocritical.
Describe your true nature
As I have already said, I think I'm always honest with everybody, at the expense of appearing grumpy, but I hate hypocrisy and people who talk behind your back. I am very possessive of my things, as well as my boyfriend, my friends, etc .. I am proud, loyal, ambitious, courageous, generous, but I can also be a bit of a bitch with those who deserve it, I admit that .. indeed, I am like my sign's typical characteristics.
What do you do at the moment and what would you like to do in life?
I’m in the last year at secondary school. I would like to be an Astrology Expert, but I think I will enroll in Law.
Three things you like?
Astrology, volleyball and art.
Three things you hate?
Lies, betrayal and my Maths teacher.
What is happiness for you?
Happiness is a delusion, you can pursue it but you'll never achieve it. However, we can be contented with the small pleasures that life gives us every now and then. I would be really happy if I had complete control of my destiny because then I would only make good things happen =)

“Wow”, he exclaimed a bit bewildered by such an abundance of material, “it’s going to be fun with this girl”.
All that excitement had made him peckish. He got up, went into the kitchen and grabbed the jar of Nutella from an old cupboard, then took a teaspoon and slumped on the deckchair in front of the window. He stayed like this, in silence, watching the university campus roofs darken as the sun went down and, while his palate basked in that sublime pleasure, his mind began to create a crazy idea.
When he returned to his room his mobile was vibrating on the desk, barely having time to grab it before it fell. It was a Skype call: Kylie’s sexy avatar flashed on the display.
“What’s up, gorgeous?”, he answered, jokingly.
“You never think about me anymore”, said Kylie, “there’s another girl, I can sense it”.
“And where would I find someone else like you?”.
“So you are thinking about me? And how often?”.
“How can I not think about you when you are forever in front of my balls? On the laptop, on the mobile, on television ... you’re everywhere.”
“Yes, I’m your shadow, never forget it”, said Kylie, with a macabre laugh.
“Listen man, what’s up? Because I’m busy”.
“What are you doing?”.
“A secret for now, I’ll tell you later”.
“There should be no secrets between us”.
“I can surprise my girl, can’t I?”.
“Oh well, if it’s like that, I’ll wait impatiently”.
“Good”.
“Look, but aren’t you going fishing?”.
“Are you talking about the password of that guy ... Rimor?”.
“Indeed”.
Lulz became serious all of a sudden.
“I’ve already found it, but tell him he can forget it. He told me a load of crap, so now he can go screw himself”.
“Hey, cool it! Look who paid pretty pennies”.
“Who gives a shit ... I don't like bullshit. He said he was her boyfriend, instead, he is only a loser who is trying to get involved with someone who is already taken. Tell him that I found out who he is, and if he doesn't stop I'll give him hell”, he continued angrily, “and then ... then she is your surprise”, he added, calming down a bit.
“And the money?”, stuttered Kylie.
“We’re keeping the money for the time he cost me”.
“Hmm ... you know it’s better not to go looking for trouble”.
“Blame everything on me. In fact, tell him to get in touch with me directly, and then I can explain it to him myself”.
“Alright, you’re the boss”.
They were both silent for a moment, then Lulz replied, “I gotta go; I have a lot of work to do”.
“Okay, bye gorgeous. Don’t get in trouble though”.
“Alright, mummy”, he finished.
He hung up the mobile and threw it on the armchair, then sat down at the desk and began again to mess around with the laptop.
It was going to be a long night.

(to be continued)