[Lystella]

duke9509 wrote:

Lastly, regarding the obvious cipher, what types of encryption can use entire sentences as keys?

From what I'm familiar with, Vigenere, Caesar, and one time pad can use sentences (but not necessarily every individual letter in the sentence).

Based on a frequency check, Caesar shifts don't seem likely.

[duke9509]

Ok, first, LAINSY confirms the text is Lorem Ipsum, so its purpose is not in its meaning. She also says that with my clearance of L4 (I guess Inno gave us all that clearance with LAINSY. Does anyone know if we have any valid ids from previous episodes that are higher than that?), she can only give me info from the last 30 days. She's taking a little while longer to process it.

I'm sure Daisuke has the proper clearance to get those other messages, but we can't ask him without raising suspicions. I'll ask Inno if there's a way we can pass secured messages through LAINSY. If not, we might try and come up with a way of our own (I'd suggest Google Wave again, but it's been decommissioned). Also, ask LAINSY where on the SFS he made his file operations, what clearance is needed to access it, and who else (besides he, himself) could access the PFS directory he was in. Oh, and see if the files he deleted are recoverable.

Lastly, regarding the obvious cipher, what types of encryption can use entire sentences as keys?

[posse]

Sorry (again) for double post. I'm headed out for the night but here's something of interest! James Barron logged in twice since he disappeared -- on March 7 and March 25. LAINSY reported his activity:

Quote:

On his last two logins, his account accessed the MAIN INTRANET SITE, INTRANET FILE STORAGE, SECURE FILE STORAGE, and PERSONAL FILE STORAGE. His activities include modifiying files at the IFS and SFS, file copies (PFS to SFS, SFS to IFS), and file deletions. It also seems he has posted a couple of messages on the MAIN INTRANET SITE.

I asked LAINSY to retrieve the messages and it was able to return an interesting one! The rest seem to need a higher security clearance (hey since when am I level 4?):

Quote:

RESPONSE: Retrieved! Posted on: March 7, 2012 Posted in: Help and Support/Other/Urgent Subject: YGU25LLD7LY MESSAGE: glqtcrtktdiquxpwkzocedevmejpbsigidzhmqujgr joqtsgglmqlfhqldxjcmzqsejisqfvfhtqss cwrivureptrgfuyjfqdqfemqeuidfrgmh kylhnycuqrdmnggbxccppclzfssjgqzoffzwg ndshmqngbvfnjhiqndzqsgbxcsigyajngszvmjoqu signdprjdjnceudcgjpblzummnanzsglstclcna zqpvfdsyfnnjyufjysffkdbnms ujcqfuykpvrnugjkcwrmpvcmpwegukkd sgkdndcqsgkdndcqsgkdndcq eqlnuhmqhgrgpyrnxcjj The other messages seem to be locked of from your current clearance. Please provide a clearance higher than your current security clearance of LEVEL 4.

I'll try and take a look at this later tonight but hopefully someone else has time to take a shot at this.

EDIT: Before I head out this entry in the rcom.lainsymatrix file could be a hint:

Code:

<xaro>       <ID>20</ID>       <ENC>YGU25LLD7LY</ENC>       <KEY>in lobortis tellus justo sit amet nulla. Donec</KEY>       <CRYP>risus. Morbi metus. Vivamus euismod urna. Nullam</CRYP>       <CHECK>4578</CHECK>    </xaro>

[posse]

Inno says we should probably not contact our old contacts for now:

Quote:

I'd recommend sticking to your current contacts. Elevating the case to higher levels of the company will just disrupt the investigation as it will completely alert who ever is within the comapny doing mischief. We might not have a chance to track down who it is. I'm sure you are quite familiar to what happens to the company once the directors are involved.

[duke9509]

I thought I mentioned this earlier, but I emailed Daisuke asking for every little bit of info he had on Joseph Dillinger. He just told me to ask LAINSY. So I did. I sent the following email, including an amendment to my previous command. We'll see what she returns.

Quote:

Please provide all possible information on Joseph Dillinger. Include all types of possible output (location, most recent movements and activities, recent network activity, complete list of current projects, associations past and present, online identities, any prior complaints filed against him, and anything else you are capable of finding out/outputting). Also, due to a recent revelation regarding the rcom.lainsymatrix file, I would like to make an amendment to my previous command: Before attempting translation, compare Latin text to known Lorem Ipsum. If the dif returns with more than 80% similarity, cancel translation and return the similarity percentage. If it becomes absolutely certain that the text is Lorem Ipsum, a result of 100% is acceptable.

Did I leave anything out? If you can think of anything else to ask for just mention it and I'll be sure to bring it up if she doesn't already provide it.

[posse]

Ok, so far here's what I've been working on:

• Suggested to Althea to track down James Barron's online activity prior to his disappearance and check for any activity after his disappearance. Hope she'll ask LAINSY who will point out that rcom.lainsymatrix file for her. She's also on the hunt for who last saw James Barron the day he disappeared, and looking into that PDA thing James left behind.
• Daisuke Nakamura (head of AMSR dept) is checking in with the rest of his teams to see if there's any other suspicious activity going on.
• Queried LAINSY to see if James Barron had any other online activity since his disappearance. His last login was to modify the rcom.lainsymatrix file I think, and the login originated from the Colorado Facility (which is odd, since isn't the AMSR department operating in the Alberta Facility)?
• I asked Inno if we can contact our previous FAILTECH contacts, like Daniel Miller. I want to see if Daniel or Ryan Bruno would be willing to check out that rcom.lainsymatrix file, since they're part of the LAINSY Dev Team.

[duke9509]

I contacted Inno to ask if that codeworded email meant that we ALL could speak "freely" with Althea or just posse. His reply:

Quote:

Yes, I was supposed to visit her personally but something came up, so instead I contacted her about you guys. She is aware that you work for me, but I require that you still assume identity of being her volunteers and she will also assume in all her communications that you are still her volunteers. The codewords I posted are carefully selected so that they would still seem workable in the current situation but not directly words Althea would normally say. She'd most likely use them in a sentence that is still very much in contect of the conversation. This is so that we could avoid further suspicion. You do not need to trigger any codewords further, as long as you are now aware she knows, it is all good.

So I guess that's a yes. Also, if that file was uploaded by James, then I guess we should try to translate at least part of it to see if the sentences are relevant to anything. Maybe we could direct LAINSY to the file? She might have a translation mechanism. If not, then we'll have to figure out which among us have knowledge of that language (I'll go ahead and add myself to that list now).

EDIT: I just noticed that the first phrase contains the "famous" phrase "lorem ipsum," so that could be all this is. If that is the case, then that just makes the whole thing all the more odd...

EDIT2: Also, just thought I'd let you know as well: I already sent the request to LAINSY (before making the above realization).

[posse]

Sorry for the double post. I got a lead on the rcom.lainsymatrix file by asking LAINSY about it:

Quote:

.lainsymatrix files are chunks of data stored in my primary data storage modules. 'rcom' and 'xaro' are not familiar to me, and they could possibly represent any kind of data that is stored in my system. However, access to .lainsymatrix files are restricted to the LAINSY Dev Team as they can only be read and loaded if you access my storage modules directly.

I then asked about the rcom.lainsymatrix file in particular and how it came to be on the IFS:

Quote:

I have located the file you mentioned and checked my logs. The file was uploaded by James Barron on February 7, 2012 and was last modified by the same person on March 25, 2012.

So... if James Barron has been missing since Feb 23, how can he have modified the file on March 25? I think I'll be posting this info on the portal. Will try to lead Althea to discovering this, though I kind of want to wait until Inno can tell us more about it.

[posse]

I don't know why it's not active yet, but the Week 4&5 project does have a tasklist. There's no link to it from the project overview page, though. But if you subscribe to the Agent Portal's Recent Activities RSS feed (as I do, I'm an RSS junkie) then you'll see that the tasklist has been added. The link to the tasklist is here, but I'll post it on here for those that can't find it:

Quote:

Recent turn of events show that we have a compromise in the company. Either that, or someone in the company is up to something. Work with Althea to determine what's going on. I will personally (upfront and in person) inform her of your standing in the company as our agents. Only the department head, and her, will know you work as agents for us. DO NOT UNVEIL YOURSELF AHEAD, WAIT UNTIL SHE EMAILS YOU WITH THE KEYWORDS: "PROCEEDING CAREFULLY AND ACCORDINGLY" Your communications with her should still assume you are still a volunteer, even after your cue that she already knows. We do not want to raise suspicion that your guys are working on this. You will tackle this case on a different perspective from ours. I believe we could see more of what's happening from your perspective than ours, as who ever is behind this probably has the ability to filter information going to our end. Accordingly mark your objectives as completed, as I/we cannot determine if you have successfully acquired the information we need. Your findings should be posted on the messages section.

Basically the main tasks are:

• Investigate Joseph Dillinger
• Find Team Epsilon's missing files
• Figure out who is responsible/involved in all this.

The additional objectives are:

• Investigate what happened to James Barron
• Get log LOG00000591F0.log
• Investigate the other AMSR teams and their situation

I guess we need to be careful what we say to FAILTECH employees via email, since it sounds like someone might be monitoring FAILTECH communications for signs of an investigation.

EDIT: Okay, looks like the tasks are visible now, and I got an email from Althea that contains those keywords, so I'm good to go. I don't think I have anything to go on though since I don't have a Level 3 clearance, but I've been steering Althea to look at LAINSY's tracking history and log files. She also appears to have found something of interest when I suggested looking at James Barron's work area for clues:

Quote:

Now that you mentioned, I'll also look into his log to see if anything comes up in that aspect. Also, he had this device given to him by another FAILTECH employee from another department. It's some sort of PDA, or at least I assume that's what it does. I didn't really look at it since I don't want to mess with other people's stuff. You think I should check it out? Other than that, I don't know of anything he "might" have left behind. Proceeding carefully and accordingly in this investigation is really important and I hope we could get this figured out.

[duke9509]

That file looks like encryption keys In the form of Latin sentences. Do you think we should take the time to bother translating them (there a quite a lot)?

EDIT: Inno replied to my comment. We are no longer required to obtain that log file. Also, for me, the Week 4&5 project just has the overview tab. There are no tasks, messages, or files tabs. Is it like this for anyone else? Or could it just have to do with the fact that I'm quickly checking the site on my phone (although I've been doing that for a while with the last project)?

[zeighy]

posse wrote:

zeighy wrote: oh, and it seems the week 4 and 5 has been updated on the site... new objectives.... aaand, it seems we have a file on the IFS... check the Level 1 of proto... they have some sort of LAINSY file.... not sure if I'm gonna post it I'm a bit confused where you're talking about for the IFS... link? Althea has been worried about her missing team member (I'm guessing she means James Barron), so I suggested checking LAINSY's tracking history and determining who in FAILTECH might have seen James the day that he disappeared. She'll give me an update if she finds anything. Hopefully she'll be able to talk to those FAILTECH employees whose names LAINSY retrieved when I queried about this a few days ago.

IFS< the Intranet File Storage? the one duke posted a couple posts back... just scroll up,

anyhow, link: http://intranet.failtechnologies.com/ifs/proto/L1/
username: amsr0247
pass: testvol

[posse]

zeighy wrote:

oh, and it seems the week 4 and 5 has been updated on the site... new objectives.... aaand, it seems we have a file on the IFS... check the Level 1 of proto... they have some sort of LAINSY file.... not sure if I'm gonna post it

I'm a bit confused where you're talking about for the IFS... link?

Althea has been worried about her missing team member (I'm guessing she means James Barron), so I suggested checking LAINSY's tracking history and determining who in FAILTECH might have seen James the day that he disappeared. She'll give me an update if she finds anything. Hopefully she'll be able to talk to those FAILTECH employees whose names LAINSY retrieved when I queried about this a few days ago.

[zeighy]

oh, and it seems the week 4 and 5 has been updated on the site... new objectives.... aaand, it seems we have a file on the IFS... check the Level 1 of proto... they have some sort of LAINSY file.... not sure if I'm gonna post it

[duke9509]

Alright! Althea didn't have anything for me at the moment so she did two things: first, she gave me the name and email of the department head, and second, she upped that test login to L3 to accommodate future tasks! That's another task in the bag (plus some)! See the whole message below:

Quote:

I suppose I could send you to him, since he reffered you, after all. Maybe he can re-assign you or something. Not sure, I'm really sorry your volunteer job had to go like this. Remember, you still signed an NDA from us. This issue shall not be known outside of FAILTECH. You can contact him at daisuke.nakamuraSPLATfailtechnologies.com I will inform you if anything comes up that you can do. Maybe we can do this, also I just elevated the login I gave you up to Level 3 Security Clearance. I think we might have some use for it soon. I'm still not sure though if the permissions had already been fixed.

Now she does mention a key point I had forgotten about: This is the guy Inno put the name of on our recommendation. How should we go about communicating with him, if at all? Maybe ask Inno?

As for the remaining Week 2&3 task, I left a comment for Inno asking how we should proceed with these errors. We'll see what he says.

What do you all think our next move should be? Should we try to track down the root of these errors? Or maybe focus on the AWOL?

[duke9509]

I asked the same. I also requested I be given the name of the department head if she didn't have anything I could do. maybe knowing who's running the show could help us track down the problems at our end.