Chapter 9: Eternal Heart

Shelves that were over a hundred meters tall still stood densely packed, and their ends could not be seen. Only in a scene like this could one marvel that knowledge was truly endless.

Chen Mo walked to the desk and opened the dark red book. Elder Shu’s figure instantly appeared within the library.

Elder Shu looked at Chen Mo and gave a slight nod.

“You’ve been quite diligent, finishing 100 books so quickly. Now you have a chance to draw one piece of technology. Do you want to draw it now?”

“Elder Shu, I wanted to ask if there is any computer antivirus software here that can detect and remove the ransomware?” Chen Mo asked.

If he researched it himself, he definitely could develop antivirus software, but it would take too long. If he had that energy, he would rather use the time to read books in exchange for technological knowledge.

“What kind of ransomware?” Elder Shu asked.

“The one on the two computers outside, on my desk,” Chen Mo said.

Elder Shu closed his eyes. After a moment, he pointed a finger. A huge light screen descended from above in the Science and Technology Library.

On the light screen was the lock screen image of the ransomware.

“Is it this kind?” Elder Shu asked.

“Yes.”

“Detecting and removing this kind of computer virus is simple; you can handle it,” Elder Shu said. “Now I give you two choices. First, you freely choose one antivirus software technology. Second, I give you the virus’s source code, and you design the antivirus program yourself. As the cost for obtaining the source code, your right to freely choose technology becomes a random selection.”

“Elder Shu, are you testing me?”

“You can think of it that way,” Elder Shu said. “I told you from the beginning, the Science and Technology Library is not for you to sit back and do nothing. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many books.”

Elder Shu pointed toward the endless rows of shelves.

“Then I’ll take the second option,” Chen Mo said resolutely.

Having read nearly a hundred books on computer technology and hacker techniques, plus having the source code of the ransomware, he believed it wouldn’t take too long for him to design an antivirus program.

But the randomly selected technology was a bit uncertain. He had nothing at the moment. If he randomly got a technology he couldn’t use or one that wasn’t very useful, he would have to wait until next time. Now it was time to rely on luck.

“Good.”

Elder Shu nodded, pointed at the light screen, and dense lines of code appeared on it. Then the light screen shrank and turned into a book that fell into Elder Shu’s hand. He pressed it onto Chen Mo’s head.

Dense lines of code were engraved in Chen Mo’s mind. The essence of the ransomware also became completely clear in his thoughts.

Various ideas intertwined and emerged in his mind.

“Come back to choose technology after you design the program to detect and remove the virus. Perhaps there will be an unexpected gain by then,” Elder Shu said meaningfully.

After leaving the Science and Technology Library, Chen Mo sat back in front of the computer. With the virus’s source code, the next steps became much simpler.

He already had ideas, but these ideas needed to be validated by designing the program and testing it.

Chen Mo turned on the computer and started typing code.

…

The news that Binhai University was attacked by ransomware quickly spread online. In this information age, the event spread across the country in the shortest time possible.

The emergence of this news seemed to sound the horn for an attack.

Major universities across the country also reported being attacked by ransomware. The affected universities’ Moments and forums were filled with lamentations.

The virus was named ‘Eternal Heart,’ a variant of the ransomware ‘Eternal Blue.’

Similar to last time, it mainly spread through email attachments, mass-sent download links in phishing websites, users downloading virus files from malicious sites, and drive-by downloads from compromised webpages.

The difference was that if opened, the virus would infect the computer’s local area network and then spread throughout the entire area, greatly enhancing its propagation ability.

The previous ransomware outbreak only locked documents, videos, and hard drive data. This time, it directly locked the entire computer system, making it impossible to even log into the desktop.

The main scope of the ‘Eternal Heart’ ransomware variant infection in Huaxia was still major universities and companies, spreading through university local networks and corporate networks.

Many universities shut down their campus networks to avoid infection by ‘Eternal Heart.’

The virus continued to spread and could not be stopped.

More and more computer virus incidents appeared. The internet was buzzing, with a mix of worry and relief. People became cautious while browsing, afraid to casually click on suspicious links or unknown software.

This was a variant of ransomware, more refined than the last one. The vulnerabilities had been patched, and its spread speed was much faster than before. It had already spread extensively in a short time.

Following the previous ransomware crisis, another computer virus crisis swept across the globe.

All news media placed the ransomware story on their front-page headlines.

《Huaxia Has Shut Down Virtual Currency Transactions; How to Solve the Computer Virus?》

《Eternal Blue Variant: Eternal Heart? Nearly a Million Computers Infected.》

《Influenced by ‘Eternal Heart,’ Bitcoin’s Price Continues to Rise.》

…

Online, various reports were everywhere. In Europe, where the new ‘Eternal Heart’ ransomware variant was first discovered, almost all areas were affected.

The whole of Europe was covered in gloom. This time, the main targets of the attack were stock trading centers, banks, government departments, universities, energy companies, subway systems, businesses, supermarkets, etc.

The European Stock Exchange was forced to suspend trading, causing chaos in the stock market. Many banks’ computers were attacked, ATMs couldn’t dispense cash, and banks couldn’t conduct normal operations.

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service was hit again. All hospital computer systems under its umbrella were infected, leading to some rescue and ambulance services being unable to be dispatched.

In just one day, ‘Eternal Heart’ had already spread to the Middle East, South America, Oceania, and Southeast Asia.

As ‘Eternal Heart’ spread, the ransomware officially evolved into a global virus crisis. This ransomware variant was several times more terrifying than the last virus crisis.

Globally, over a million computers had been infected and locked. If the operating system was reinstalled, all data on the computer would be lost.

Many people had important data still on their computers and definitely couldn’t reinstall the system. They were still waiting for a solution.

Influenced by ‘Eternal Heart,’ Microsoft’s stock promptly fell by 2%, with its market value losing nearly 110 billion USD.

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation also opened a case to search globally for the hacker group that created the ransomware variant.

Tracing the source of ‘Eternal Heart’s spread, they quickly found it was the result of careful planning by advanced hackers months in advance. Currently, there were still no leads.

Many cybersecurity companies also issued warnings immediately, advising users not to open suspicious emails.

Various measures and reports flooded the scene.

Five days had passed, and the number of computers infected by ‘Eternal Heart’ had exceeded one million.

Numerous cybersecurity companies could only offer preventive advice but had not yet produced a real antivirus software that could detect and remove the ransomware.

Only two days remained for the first batch of infected computers. If a method to detect and remove the virus couldn’t be found within two days, all data in the computers would be destroyed.

Many people had already given up hope and started paying the hackers with Bitcoin and other virtual currencies to get the decryption keys and unlock their computers.

Since the last ransomware outbreak, people had seen the regulatory loopholes in Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, which provided avenues for crimes like money laundering, fund transfers, and tax evasion.

After the first virus crisis, Huaxia’s market regulatory authorities gradually shut down virtual currency trading platforms.

This virus crisis made it impossible for infected computers within the country to even “ransom” themselves.

Some could only pray that a method to detect and remove the virus would emerge at the last moment; otherwise, all the important data in their computers would be lost.