Jin Corporation.
It was almost midnight already, but sleep was the farthest thing from Jin Liwei’s mind at the moment. His expression was grim, as he watched his expert employees desperately doing their best to prevent further data breach on the company’s system.
They were at the company’s main computer control room located half a floor above the massive server chamber. This area was off-limits to most of Jin Corporation’s employees. Only the people with the right clearance were allowed inside. Even Jin Liwei himself had only been here a few times in the past because there hadn’t been any major data breaches like this one since he had become the President-CEO.
The IT and security departments shared the main responsibilities in ensuring and maintaining the company’s cybersecurity. The best among them were members of Jin Liwei’s personal tech team.
At the moment, however, even these experts were helpless against the overpowering hacker currently combing the company’s most sensitive data. And he was doing it so effortlessly! Since the hacker had already breached the company’s system and they couldn’t kick him out with their own abilities, all they could do was to fortify their remaining defences to at least protect the rest of the data.
Earlier that day, everything was still normal. It was just a regular workday like usual. However, at around late afternoon, they started getting reports of other companies getting hacked one after another. These companies were among the top in the country, alongside Jin Corporation.
Jin Liwei immediately called all members of the IT and security departments to monitor the company’s system and to protect it in case they were attacked as well. A few hours passed and yet there was nothing.
The other companies that were hacked reported no devastating damage, but the fact that their sensitive data were accessed by an unknown entity was still disturbing. There were no damages now, but what about in the future? For multinational companies, data like these were gold.
Evening came and Jin Corporation hadn’t been attacked like the others. Jin Liwei and his tech team remained vigilant, but when the night started to deepen and nothing still happened, they started to relax.
Jin Liwei assigned a small group to work overtime throughout the night just in case. He was about to dismiss the rest so that they could finally go home for the night when it finally happened.
At first, his team of experts were still handling the situation quite well. It was because Iris fiddled with the company’s cybersecurity system before and inconspicuously strengthened it.
Of course, she asked Jin Liwei’s permission first before doing so. On the same day when she started sending him boxed lunches to his office,she complained to him that night at home.
“Darling, your company’s cybersecurity system sucks! I only intended on taking a quick look at it while checking up on you via the surveillance video feed, but I can’t believe a company of Jin Corporation’s calibre is still using that archaic system!”
“Archaic?” Jin Liwei couldn’t help but frown. “Love, my company is using the latest technology.”
She snorted at his claim. “The latest in the market doesn’t always mean that it’s the latest in the world. My Planet Monkey’s system is a thousand times—no, a million times more advanced and safer than Jin Corporation’s. Darling, how about you let me change Jin Corporation’s trash system to the more sophisticated one that I personally developed? It’ll be as secure as Planet Monkey’s, but of course I’ll customize it for Jin Corporation. I’ll give you a discount since you’re my darling and it’s for your company.”
Then her eyes widened as she remembered something. “Oh, right! I promised to give you a free service as my return gift when you gave me my LX bangle back then. Remember? You can use that promise to waive my expensive fee this time.”
Jin Liwei almost accepted her offer but stopped himself. He didn’t doubt her claims, but that was also why he couldn’t accept her offer no matter how tempting.
“Jin Corporation is the current number one company in the country. As such, it’s subject to close scrutiny not only by the public but also by the authorities. If we suddenly get a new security system that is practically impenetrable but is also unavailable in the market, I’m sure that people will start asking where we got it from,” Jin Liwei told her.
He held her hands and looked at her. His expression was grave.
“We have the right to keep it from our rival companies, but if the authorities demand that we give the technology to them, we have no choice but to obey or suffer the consequences. Worse, they might even demand to acquire the person who created it. If that ever happens, even if they kill me, I’ll never hand them over to you, love.”
Iris froze after hearing his reason for rejecting her offer. Why didn’t she think about all of these? How careless of her!
Fortunately, Jin Liwei had the presence of mind to think about these possible scenarios in advance.
She moved and sat on his lap instead. She nuzzled his neck and whispered to his ear, “I love you, Jin Liwei.
“I love you more. So much,” he replied, wrapping his arms around her tiny waist. “I’ll do everything to protect you.”
She pressed her body closer to him. “I’ll protect you, too.”
The corner of his mouth lifted into a faint smile. “En. We’ll protect each other.”
They continued embracing until Iris straightened and looked at him.
“But darling, I’m bothered thinking about Jin Corporation’s current system. It’s trash! I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep knowing what a trash it is,” she told him.
“They’re probably just noobs,” she muttered under her breath.
He couldn’t help but chuckle hearing her words. “En. They’ll never be able to compare to you.”
She smiled before returning to talk about her concern.
“How about this, darling? Let me strengthen your current system. I’ll plug most of its vulnerabilities. Although it’s not the most ideal solution because the system itself is flawed, at least it’ll be a little more protected and less likely to collapse if a serious breach occurs. I promise to make the additions as seamless as possible. I guarantee that virtually no one will be able to notice them from the original framework.”
“Hmmm. Alright. Do what you want,” he finally agreed. “But make sure to be careful, love. Don’t let anything be traced back to you. I want you safe at all times.”
“Okay, darling.”
And with that, she immediately strengthened Jin Corporation’s system in the next few days. She worked on it during her free time.
All the system’s vulnerabilities were plugged and an extra layer of defence was even added. The coding of these additional features were almost identical to the original that, indeed, nobody noticed anything after she was done updating the system.
Even Jin Liwei’s team of experts who regularly monitored the system didn’t notice anything different. What they did notice was that everything seemed to be running faster and more efficiently than usual. However, they credited that to their own continued hard work.
