A news headline on the Zhengyang Police Department Website was replaced with a Flash animation of a soaring eagle, and clicking it led to an acapella DJ dance track.

Many people found out about this.

Not many outsiders knew, as the police website hadn’t been up for long and was mainly used for information release without providing any convenient services, so few people visited it.

Everyone working in the police department, from leaders to the cleaning ladies who swept the stairs, knew about it.

Many people talked about it in the morning, but most just laughed it off.

The website was undergoing a security upgrade, which wasn’t a big secret, but the logistics department didn’t announce it on the website. They were more interested in the acapella DJ track.

Although it sounded weird without music, both the tune and the lyrics were interesting.

A lot of people also found out about the name ’Eagle.’

"Who is this Eagle? Recommended by Director Lin, and quite impressive, cracking the website within a day."

"Those in the logistics department, they don’t understand a thing about websites or security. I say, for these new and technological things, you need to find specialized people like Eagle to hire, which would definitely improve network security. At the very least, I wouldn’t worry about my Penguin Number being hacked."

"Hahaha, didn’t you guys know? Director Lin’s Penguin Number might have been hacked yesterday, and he logged in from the computer in his office."

"Now hackers have infiltrated our department, and we’re relying on those people in logistics. There’s no sense of security at all."

The logistics people would not be happy to hear this.

Li Jiandong arrived earlier than anyone else, entering the office at around six, opening the computer to find the source code, and using the database content to overwrite the modified picture and link. Due to network speed and operational errors, the website was down for more than ten minutes.

Of course, it didn’t matter.

Nobody would check the website so early in the morning.

What Li Jiandong didn’t realize was that all his operations sent to the server had to pass through a device called a ’router’, and the router used by the police department was being monitored remotely 24/7.

In the morning.

Zhou Hongwen, head of the logistics department, approached Li Jiandong about the website being hacked yesterday.

Li Jiandong’s answer was, "I know how the opponent hacked the website; just patch the vulnerability directly, and there’s no need to report it to the higher-ups. Let the opponent submit the vulnerability, alright?"

Zhou Hongwen felt that it made sense.

The police department website was managed by the logistics department. Knowing the vulnerabilities could be fixed directly would save having the opponent submit them. The "vulnerability reported by outsiders" would be a small stain on the logistics department’s work record.

More importantly...

’Eagle’ was recommended by the Criminal Investigation Division, not the logistics department. The higher-ups meant that each department could recommend people, but how did a group of investigators recommend someone who cracked the website, while the logistics department’s recommendation didn’t do anything?

This was a slap in the face!

Zhou Hongwen decided to trust Li Jiandong and didn’t follow the established procedures to report it.

Lin Xudong and the Criminal Investigation Division were unhappy with this, but there was nothing they could do since the logistics department suppressed the issue.

Noon.

Lin Xudong called Zhao Yi and apologized for the morning’s event, "You succeeded yesterday, but the logistics department brushed it under the rug. The inside story is complicated, so I won’t go into details with you."

"Anyway, I’m really sorry. I’ll personally reward you one thousand Yuan."

Zhao Yi was surprised to hear this.

Originally, he thought the matter was over.

He created a router monitoring software, attacked the police department website, and tried to submit the issue following the procedure. Reminding the police of their hidden management website entrance and the router’s security and encryption upgrades, his job would be finished.

He didn’t care how much money he could make from this job.

A few thousand Yuan wasn’t a big deal, just an hour of part-time work. Even without a dime, he could still help the police department and improve their network security.

It sounded... a bit grand!

Zhao Yi didn’t plan to do any more work since he wasn’t an insider of the police department and didn’t need to spend too much time and energy on the website’s security.

That wouldn’t be grand; it would be sick.

Hearing Lin Xudong’s explanation, Zhao Yi was secretly annoyed. Even if he didn’t care about the bonus, it shouldn’t have ended like this, right?

"No need, Uncle Lin." Zhao Yi declined before asking, "Do I need to help you out anymore? Should I go back and put up another picture on your website today?"

"You can still get in?" Lin Xudong was surprised.

Zhao Yi asked, "Why not? Do you know how I got in?"

"I’m not sure."

Lin Xudong didn’t understand network technology issues but knew the logistics department had suppressed the matter, implying they found the vulnerability. He was upset and suddenly excited when Zhao Yi said he could still get in, "If it doesn’t take up your time, just give it another try. Go big, don’t worry, I’ve got your back!"

"I’ve already put your name up; the police department knows ’Eagle’ is one of us."

"Once the bonus is released, I’ll personally give you more..." Lin Xudong gritted his teeth and said a number, "Two thousand!"

"Thank you, then."

Zhao Yi hung up the phone with a smile.

Lin Xiaoqing was lying on the table, her eyes blinking as she stared at him, "What exactly did my dad ask you to help with?"

Zhao Yi looked around and leaned in close to Xiaoqing’s ear, whispering slowly, "It’s a secret!"

Lin Xiaoqing bent her ears eagerly, only to get annoyed by the word ’secret.’ She sat up and pouted, "What’s the point of being secretive if you’re not going to tell me?"

Zhao Yi grinned, "There’s a fragrance on you, I just wanted to sniff it!"

"What are you talking about? Shameless!"

Lin Xiaoqing’s face turned red, and she quickly looked away. After a while, she turned back, still curious despite a light snort, "What is it? Tell me."

Zhao Yi was still immersed in the joy of ’Study Coin +3’ when he heard Lin Xiaoqing’s question and felt it was time to step up his game.

In one breath!

Fill up with Study Coins!

He leaned in again, pointing at his cheek with a playful smile, "Like this, you... hehe, I told you!"

Lin Xiaoqing took a deep breath, stood up abruptly and slapped the table.

"Bang!"

The whole class looked over.

She stared straight at Zhao Yi, rubbing her wrist and putting on a pugilistic appearance, "Will you say it or not!"

Zhao Yi knew that Lin Xiaoqing was just bluffing and never actually acted violently, but he still pretended to be scared, constantly waving his hands and saying, "Heroine, spare me! Don’t, don’t, don’t, haha, I’ll say! I’ll say!"

Only then did Lin Xiaoqing sit down satisfied.

Zhao Yi said, "Actually, it’s not that much of a secret. A while ago, Zhengyang’s Police Department Website was attacked by hackers..." He explained briefly.

Zhao Linlin also leaned in to gossip.

For high school girls, this kind of thing was really interesting. When they heard Zhao Yi say ’continue the invasion,’ they started chattering about how to modify it to make it more interesting.

"You just put a picture of a hawk? How boring!"

"You should have used a spoof image!"

"Change the background to our Thirteenth High School so that the police website turns into an education website..."

Zhao Yi ignored them.

That was just some idle talk from the girls.

Even though it was Zhengyang City Police Department’s website, and even if it was a spoof image, there had to be a limit; leaving traces of the invasion was enough.

Once Zhao Yi dismissed each of their suggestions, they began brainstorming other ideas.

Zhao Linlin truly was a little witch.

The suggestions she came up with made Zhao Yi’s eyes light up, and he decided to adopt one of them.

...

Around nine o’clock at night.

Zhao Yi arrived home on time and rushed to his computer, opened the police website’s management page, and tried to log in, only to find out that he couldn’t.

"Changed the password?"

He opened the monitoring software.

The software was always on, accumulating more data throughout the day. Since he knew that the website was restored in the morning, he didn’t need to sort through it thoroughly; he quickly found what he wanted--

An ID for the login and several new passwords.

"Changed it several times?"

Zhao Yi tried the passwords one by one and quickly logged back in. He continued with his operation from yesterday, replacing the large news image with an animated hawk, and added a link to a pre-recorded DJ track.

The next operation was different.

He elevated the modification permissions for the image and link to the highest level, making it only modifiable through the source code.

Without knowing the password, the other party would have two choices: either attempt a brute-force hack, which is technically difficult, or modify the underlying code and re-upload and load the website.

The second option was different from the day before.

On the previous day, all that was needed was to use the source code to retrieve the database content and override the hawk Flash animation and link; however, with the highest level of modification, the database cannot cover it, and it must be temporarily closed for external access. After that, the modified source code must be uploaded to the server, and the server rebooted.

Due to the delay of the Internet service provider, the website would be paralyzed for at least a few hours.

Of course.

Zhao Yi didn’t intend to paralyze the police website for several hours; he still left a backdoor for recovery.

If someone went to the management page, they could see a hidden high school math problem next to the hawk animation.

This math problem was incredibly brain-intensive; ordinary students couldn’t solve it, and even someone with Sun Liang’s math ability would need to ponder it for a long time.

Below the math problem was a note--

[The answer to the problem multiplied by pi will give you the final numerical password. (Special reminder: the password has more than ten digits, so guessing the answer is pointless, haha/smiley face)]

After completing the operation, Zhao Yi took a screenshot and sent it to Lin Xiaoqing, asking her to forward it to Lin Xudong and ask if this level of operation was excessive.

When Lin Xudong saw the screenshot, he burst out laughing.

A math problem?

What a great idea!

He immediately picked up his phone and replied, "Zhao Yi, well done. No problem, rest assured!"

Meanwhile.

Zhao Yi glanced at the message on his phone and, feeling reassured, turned his attention back to the computer screen. His Penguin Number had received a message from a stranger.

The security message came from Zhou Ming in the ’Computer Technology Exchange Group’: "Zhao Yi, do you know about last week’s hacker attack? Overseas hackers targeted our public service websites and initiated a wave of brute-force invasions."

"We’re preparing to launch a counterattack in the middle of next month. Are you interested in joining?"

"If interested, please join the group: xxxxxxxx."