Here is a short story NOT based on our clients and all characters are fictional.
Meet the characters:
- An evil dragon named Ransom – a metaphor for evil hackers
- The noble knight, Sir Waident – the hero who saves the day
- King and Queen – pragmatic rulers guiding their kingdoms when encountered by evil dragons
- Sorceress NIST – the good witch who helps those threatened by evil dragons
- Realm of SMB – a fictional place of small and mid-sized kingdoms
- Igor the guard – that one employee that opened a phishing email
Ransom was ingenious and cloaked himself in the city, changing shape every day while preparing and laying the seeds for his master attack. He was poisoning the crops, letting mice into wheat storage, and gobbling all the apples. But, this was just the beginning of his plan for he had his deceitful heart set on the treasure hidden in the main tower. Not only was he a dragon, a shapeshifter, but he also possessed magical powers (not only the office workers wear many hats, ok?).
Ransom put encrypting charms over the kingdom’s infrastructure (editor’s note: 100+ laptops, VMware hosts, and servers). To the horror of its citizens, all SMBizlandia’s farms and garrisons became non-operational during the high season of harvest! Terrible timing!! All the subjects were helpless and could do nothing but cry for help and beseech the royalty.
The king and the queen were distraught, and they had every right to be upset (all feelings are okay!) as they worked so hard to protect the kingdom and its people. Before this incident, the kingdom wisely relied on the guidelines given by the powerful sorceress, NIST. She was pretty awesome and had woven spells that added layers of protection and detection to fight the likes of the diabolical Ransom. Her defenses had saved the kingdom from sure annihilation, but more assistance was needed.
To be continued….
