Peabody: “Ms. Greg, the data we have been provided indicates that an infrastructure breach also occurred at your house and that you were injured in this cyber-attack?” Rachael: “Yes that is correct.  Both my house and appliances were affected.  It included physical attacks on me by reprogrammed household bots and drones.  It also included tampering with my home environment systems which could have resulted in a gas explosion.”

Peabody: “Yes, that seems to be what the data indicates.  We believe that there is a good chance the two incidents are related. Both investigations will be investigated by the task force. However, the agreement of the task force puts the home investigation under Aetna’s contract agent auspices, as they are registered and certified as a cyber PI firm. We consider this a fortunate circumstance, Ms. Greg.  Quite frankly, the local law enforcement doesn't have the training to investigate what you went through.” 

Rachael: “I understand, thanks for your candor and we will cooperate as necessary to get to the bottom of this.”

Peabody: “Ms. Greg, unfortunately if International Widget, is determined by this investigation to be the perpetrator, they are outside of U.S. national jurisdiction.  The U.S. has limited influence as we are not signatures to ITU-T WCIT-12 which established regulatory oversight by the U.N. As you probably know, all security, fraud, traffic accounting as well as traffic flow, management of Internet Domain Names and IP addresses, and other aspects of the Internet are under their jurisdiction."

"If our investigation confirms our preliminary assessment, our department will request a case and hearing pursuant to WCIT-22, which we are a signature, which allows for sharing of data, redress, recovery, arrest and prosecution of cyber-crime crossing international borders. So we can follow up on your complaint to the International Court of Justice at The Hague."

"We will file a warrant to investigate International Widget data centers and cloud providers, but probable administrative delays in serving the warrant means it is not likely to bear results in time to be meaningful. It is unlikely your lost data can be retrieved from them as there are no international laws for repatriating data.”  Peabody addresses the insurance representative, “We will post a preliminary report finding for total data loss allowing you to pay Ms. Greg promptly."

“Ms. Greg, we will use all applicable international treaties and team with extraterritorial jurisdictional agencies to request law enforcement assistance where International Widget operates in Germany, Abu Dhabi, and Hong Kong. We do not take attacks on our infrastructure lightly, but without infrastructure damage, which you have claimed did not occur beyond replacing sensors, our recourse internationally is restricted.”

Her lawyer, observing her client, anticipates an outburst that he will have to redress at any moment. He stands up and says, “Agents, if there is nothing else, my client has had a troubling couple of days and should rest so that she can return to running her business.”

“One last thing Ms. Greg,” says Agent Dean. “Who else at North East Control Analytics should we be in contact about this incident?” Rachael responds sharply, “Me. I run a mostly-automated business.  Everyday management is run by business intelligence AI system.”  

She looks Dean in the eyes. “Our business is typically hands-off. Managing employees is a challenging, ineffective, and costly. We work from good directions and a clear incentive reward structure and let the analytics be the judge of the results. No bureaucracy. But I’ll make sure you have contact information for our security consultant who acts as our CSO, as well as our publicity agent, and the names of our impacted data analysts. Good hunting.”

As they wait for their automated cars to pull up at the pickup station outside the insurance building, Rachael comments to her lawyer as part of a closing recap, “That meeting made me very apprehensive.” He responds, “Yes, but it was not personal; in fact, it was pretty warm for them. DHS and FBI culture is a bit standoffish, but they have gotten pretty efficient at this.  I expect they handled over a thousand major cases this last year.  You are getting this attention because of the conjunction of infrastructure vulnerability and a potential personal attack against you.  Nothing spices their life like attempted cyber murder. What should concern you is if they judge the attack on infrastructure was a side line to the personal attack personal vendetta on you; and not you as a diversion for the main data theft. It would not look good to your clients if they thought you an attractive target liability.”

Investigation

The insurance company has engaged a cyber PI who made his original reputation on the famous insulin pump hack. He video phones Rachael, “Hello Ms. Greg, I'm Doug Bear of Doug Bear Investigations. Aetna has engaged us per the task force agreement to investigate on site and do the cyber forensics. I’d like to visit your home, pull data, and speak with you personally.  If we get to it today, we can release you back into your home tonight.” She Doug's expression as surprisingly open and warm, Rachel agrees. “That would be nice,” responds Rachael. “You have the address?” He nods. “See you there.”

Doug Bear arrives with a clear techie in tow, complete with tattered knit hoodie and a smattering of wearable tech.  “If it is okay, Ms. Greg, my associate will begin pulling the forensic data from your house and photographing the interior while you and I speak about the incident.”  

She agrees. “We can speak in the garden.”