The Highwaymen (ハイウェイマンズ Haiweimanzu), also called the Highwaymen Forum (ハイウェイマンズ・フォーラム Haiweimanzu Fōramu), are an international group of cyberhackers specializing in corporate espionage. The hackers, including Jane, took a job to expose the Chinese government's involvement in a cyberattack on Reinbach A.G., a German national defense company.
Structure[]
The Highwaymen are a decentralized group where no particular members are the leader, but rather they collaborate with one another on jobs using their particular skill set. Additionally, there are several rules that members must follow, such as not being allowed to know other members' locations. Nonetheless, for a particular job, there must be at least one member directly involved as a point of contact.[1]
History[]
The Wired Red Wild Card[]
Months after Jane began to date Benny, the Highwaymen got a job to from the German avionics company Reinbach A.G. to expose the culprits of a cyberattack on their main server based on information about a fellow German company, Annenheim Distributions, being used as a stepping stone to execute the attack.[2] Around the same time, Jane was contacted on the Electro Bandits forum by a user named Violet Spear, who wanted to join Jane's Counterfeit Club, a group independent of the Highwaymen.[3] Violet Spear had previously carried out a cyberattack on the United States Justice Department. Recognizing the hacking methods that Spear had used against the U.S. government since they mimicked techniques that came from unknown hackers in Beijing, Jane did some quick research into the People's Liberation Army's Xi'an Communication Institute's student records. To her pleasure, she discovered a photograph matching Violet Spear, who was really a PLA soldier named Li Xinlin.[4] Subsequently, Jane invited Xinlin to come to Roanapur, where the counterfeiter herself planned on visiting to reunite with her boyfriend Benny. Meeting up with Xinlin immediately after she was robbed several times, she promised to cover her expenses and replace the equipment.[3]
Contacting Reinbach, Jane and the Highwaymen alerted them about the PLA spy and how they could use her to steal solid evidence and emails from the Chinese government. Because of this, Reinbach agreed to triple the Highwaymen's payment. At an outdoor dining place, Jane clarified to Xinlin, who was using the alias Feng Yifei, that she could not join the counterfeiting group yet until she proved her skills by doing a hacking job for the Highwaymen. Feng confirmed that she knew about the underground forum, and Jane claimed that she needed to gather as much avionics data as she could from Reinbach using the Leiden-based Annenheim Distributions as a stepping stone. When Feng showed hesitancy about the backdoor because it was used once and she was confident in her own skill, the counterfeiter smugly smiled and responded that she did not have time for newcomers. Feng then agreed to the job since she could not jeopardize her chance to infiltrate the group, making Jane smile while advising the spy to prove herself as more than an amateur hacker. Once Feng began using the stepping stone to slowly break into Annenheim's main server, the hacker Maggie D kept track of her movements until Feng's dictionary attack succeeded.[4]
Later that night, Jane called in to her group so that they could begin the setup. At an internet café in Nankwai, Jane accessed the forum and chatted with the other Highwaymen about Feng being oblivious to the plan. Reiterating the mission, the hackers made sure that Feng only accessed dummy data in Reinbach's main server so that they could record her break-in while ensuring that she did not access any genuine avionics data. Coordinating with Reinbach's operators, the Highwaymen exploited Feng's cyberattack to access and steal emails and money records from the People's Liberation Army. While speeding up the data retrieval to confuse Feng, the Highwaymen quickly scavenged for the Chinese government's money records in the shell company's server and made it a competition among themselves to see who could get the item fastest. The cyberhackers also joked with each other while another user threatened to spam post another's perverted emails if they got in their way. At the same time, Jane smilingly reminded the other Highwaymen not to leave anything behind as they recorded Feng's movements. At that point, the panicking Feng exited the server and stopped the Squid service.[5]
The next morning, Jane called Feng and told her that she was firing her, smugly giving her advice to avoid using a backdoor controlled by other people. Admitting that she was monitoring Feng, she ended the call by warning her that people would probably chase after her, throwing the cellphone out the car window.[6] With Feng cut loose by her own government and assassins after her, Jane decided to celebrate her pay from the job by hiring the Black Lagoon to cruise her and Benny out to sea.[7] Wanting revenge against Jane, Feng hacked back into Annenheim Distributions and accessed the correspondences between the PLA and the Sigurimi, which Jane had not scrubbed from the record.[8][2] Finding out about hidden financial assets on the internet, Feng managed to access Zamid Dhiyab's accounts and sent some of his money to Jane and warned Reinbach A.G. about the counterfeiter allegedly stealing the money. Furious because the London Metropolitan Police could investigate Reinbach for the Highwaymen stealing Zamid's money, Reinbach contacted Rodney XX, who was the group's point of contact. In turn, Rodney demanded to know Jane's location so that she could explain herself to Reinbach. At night while Jane was having sexual intercourse with Benny, she answered her phone and heard from a fellow Highwayman about Rodney's request, which was normally against the Forum's rules.
Confused, Jane opened Benny's laptop to view the email that the man sent her, and to her shock she also saw the sudden deposit of funds from Zamid. Hearing about Reinbach's complaint that the theft was not part of the agreement with the Highwaymen, she also wondered who Zamid was. Although he understood her position, the hacker commented that the Highwaymen Forum could not put up with the mess, telling her that she either had to explain herself to Reinbach or lay low until things calmed down. Jane shouted that she could not explain something that she had no knowledge of, and the hacker answered that she either had to choose or be cut loose from the Highwaymen Forum. He recommended staying somewhere in the southern hemisphere like southern Africa or New Guinea, but Jane retorted that she did not want to lay low since she could not work nor have access to the internet. Declaring that he would send everyone in the group a condolence email, the hacker added that he would contact her later at an unknown time. After the man hung up, Jane angrily threw Benny's laptop in deep frustration, breaking it.[1] After an argument with Benny due to her predicament and the laptop, Jane was dropped off at another place to lay low, becoming isolated from the Highwaymen.[9]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 100: The Wired Red Wild Card Part 24
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 87:The Wired Red Wild Card Part 11
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 77: The Wired Red Wild Card Part 1
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 78: The Wired Red Wild Card Part 2
- ↑ Chapter 79: The Wired Red Wild Card Part 3
- ↑ Chapter 80: The Wired Red Wild Card Part 4
- ↑ Chapter 81: The Wired Red Wild Card Part 5
- ↑ Chapter 91: The Wired Red Wild Card Part 15
- ↑ Chapter 101: The Wired Red Wild Card Part 25