Stocks & Blondes
16
What was I so worried about?
AS A FORMALITY, you try all the most common passwords. But even the single most common—123456—is only used by 0.2% of people. The real question is what would be the most likely password for Georgia.
Password
We completely cleaned out Georgia’s room last night, packed the clothes in boxes marked ‘Goodwill’ and ‘Second Hand Hooker Supply,’ and piled them in the corner. We flipped the mattress on Georgia’s bed and put clean linens on it. All the sex toys, ropes, cuffs, gags, whips, plugs, and other accoutrements went into a box that was destined for a dump. I put all the jewelry in a shoebox (there were plenty of them in the closet) and decided I’d go through it more carefully later. We flipped a coin for bedrooms and I won, so I get to stay in the little single room and Cinnamon gets the stage.
This morning, I settled down to open Georgia’s computers. All the hard drives are backed up now and I feel pretty confident that I can work on a computer without destroying any data… or evidence. I’ve examined the box in the office off the kitchen and it seems most likely to be command central. Just to be sure I didn’t corrupt anything on the network, I disconnected the box from the router. Then I ran the list of 250 most likely passwords through the device.
One of the things Dag impressed on me was to use a biometric scanner of some sort when possible, and when not, use a random generator of 12 characters to create my passwords. He said if my mind wasn’t sharp enough to memorize a new twelve-character password at least every ninety days, then I probably wasn’t sharp enough to do this work. But given the choice, most users will choose a simplistic six-character or less password. Almost sixty percent of users choose passwords from a very limited set of alphanumeric characters. Half of users will use names, slang words, regular words you’d find in a dictionary, or consecutive digits or adjacent keyboard characters like qwerty. 123456 is the most popular password on the internet.
For years, a popular internet site allowed the word ‘password’ as a password to almost any account. The first ones you try are things like 123456, password, qwerty, abc123, and so on. But the trick to breaking a password on a device is a little different. Ordinarily, I’d just reboot the machine from an external disk and plunder whatever was on the disk since I’d have access to the machine. But I wanted to know what applications had been running on the thing. I figured that at least the webcam software was running even though I’d disconnected the cameras. What I wanted to know was if she was connected to any websites, what her email looked like, and where her bank information was hidden. If she had any of those programs running, I’d be able to get into anything on any of her computers.
So, what would Georgia have considered an easy clever password she could remember? When I brought the computer screen awake, the password screen sat there waiting my wise input. User name: Georgia. Password: blank. I had a lot of information about Georgia. Social Security number, no good. Address, no good. Name, middle name, last name, father’s name, no. Phone number, no. I clicked on the password hint button and got ‘Future paradise.’ Hmm. Georgia was looking forward to a future paradise or to becoming a future paradise. What would future paradise be?
I absently typed in the address in Savannah: 431Duffy. Nothing. 431DuffyLn. I was in. That was almost too easy compared to what I had to go through to get Simon’s password.
As I suspected, she had a messaging system, email, a chat room, her video, software, an adult internet site, a music player, and a Web phone service open. Now I was going to find out all about Georgia’s life and loves.
The first thing I did was go into the admin or account screen of every running application and change the password to ‘State04.’ Nope, that wasn’t a particularly secure password; it was just one I could use to get in and out of fast if I need to and all these services and applications would have the same password. Georgia was the fourth state to join the union. I had to connect the computer to the ISP in order to make the changes, but I plugged directly from the computer to the modem instead of connecting to the router with all the other devices. I wanted my own secure network before I started exposing any of the other devices to the outside world. This seemed to be Georgia Central, so I was counting on getting what I needed from this computer.
Secret Life
We locked up the house and left about six in the evening. Cinnamon volunteered to stay and guard things but there was no way I’d be leaving her there. The place is spooky with both of us and dangerous for either of us. I did leave a few surprises around the house should anyone come prowling.
I rebooted all the computers, checked them, and shut them down. Since I had the password (same one for every computer, of course) I didn’t need to have them all running. They were all running webcam software when I woke them up. Of course, they were all dark since I unplugged the cameras. But with a little bit of tinkering I got all the cameras to run from the main computer in the kitchen pantry. I created a network of security cameras throughout the house and both Cinnamon and I could monitor them remotely on our laptops. I guessed we’d get another visitor and if we did, I’d simply call the police on him. No reason I needed to be there for a confrontation.
Cinnamon dropped me off and I checked into the W this time and ordered a room service dinner. I ate while I changed out of my makeup and old lady gear to switch back to being Deb Riley. Oh, what a relief! I put the used dinner tray outside the door, hung the do not disturb sign on the door and left the hotel. I walked down to the waterfront and went to my office to leave the hotel key in an envelope in Cinnamon’s desk. She planned to come by later in the evening and go stay at the hotel so if there were any calls or oddities, someone would be there. The bed will have been slept in and the room will get made up like normal tomorrow. That would also keep my disguise safe.
Then I picked up my car from the lot where Cinnamon left it and drove home to my puppy!
Maizie was happy to see me, though she seemed to think I’m an invited guest in her house. I could see we would need to have a talk when this assignment was over. After about half an hour sitting in her chair ignoring me, she finally hopped up in my lap on the sofa where I was trying to finish preparing my thesis defense for tomorrow.
So, what did we find out?
Georgia was a MILF: Mommy I’d Like to F***. And she encouraged people to fantasize about it. I don’t think she ever had a child, but she milked the mommy look for all it was worth. Here’s a review of her as Miss Peaches on MILFcam.com.
It’s hard to believe this beautiful and incredibly sexy woman is really fifty-one years old. But that she is and in this reviewer’s mind she is everything a true MILF should be. A real lady, experienced in life and love, erotic, passionate, charming, and witty. This Southern Belle will turn you on with her gentle drawl as much as with her sexy body.
Even better, she has a fully stocked wardrobe of outfits, from lacy lingerie to full-body fishnet stockings and pantyhose in every imaginable color. Oh, and if that’s not enough, she’s got big soft natural boobs, too!
Yes, Miss Peaches—the state tree of Georgia—was a performance artist and got great reviews. Her menu of options included free twenty-four-hour access to her kitchen or office cams but you had to be a subscriber to see her living room and dining room, and a premium subscriber to see in the bedroom or the cell. I’d been sleeping in the cell. The stark austerity of the room wasn’t because it was an unused guest room. It was a theatrical setting for her prison scenes! Her whole house was so creepy! I’d need to check the basement for prisoners when I went back.
Hmm… Was there a basement?
MILFcam.com listed her feed as terminated, even though the profile was still there. The cameras had been running until I disconnected them but it appeared nothing was being broadcast or recorded since Christmas Eve. I needed to find out what is stored on the other computers and if there is anything stored on the webcam site. I had a couple of terabytes of data to sift through and I really didn’t think it was going to be all that pleasant.
I received paperwork from the estate lawyer in the afternoon and it looked like I should have all I needed to go into the bank tomorrow and get all her financial records. If I have any energy left after I defend my thesis.
I think Lars put me on this case just to distract me. Cinnamon finished typing the damned thesis last week and sent it out to the review committee. Now we’ll see if they concur that file encryption is a normal part of privacy and security or if they go with the Minnesota ruling that the presence of encryption software is evidence of wrongdoing. They will agree with me. Lars, Jordan, Professor Martin, and Oren Rawlings of Microsoft will listen to the defense. Dag’s chair will be empty. But if it weren’t for Dag, I’d never have finished it at all.
What then?
I’ll go back to the creepy house and tear those computers completely apart to find out who tied the rope around Georgia’s neck.
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