Rich (Benson Security 5)

“Or,” Elle carried on, “this is a case of The Princess and the Pea. Which I could totally see, because if ever there was a princess…” She trailed off and glared at Harvard. “Stop looking at her backside. There’s no place for flirting on this job.”

His grin was wicked. “If I don’t flirt, how will I tease her into giving in? There’s a bet to be won.”

“Could we please focus on the reason we’re here?” Rachel snapped.

Harvard’s wide smile seemed far more intimate than it should have. “Tell us what you found on the servers, Elle,” he said.

Elle looked up from her laptop and reached for her drink on the small glass and steel box that served as a coffee table. “To cut a long story short, there’s been no tampering with the main backup server in the basement. It’s locked up like Fort Knox. Someone would need access from security and one of the tech team at their side to get in there. Any hacking of research files must have been done in the labs.”

“And we’re sure we can strike the IT department techs off our suspect list?” Rachel asked.

Ever since accepting the job from her father, Benson Security had been hard at work investigating the staff and eliminating them from the suspect pool. Unfortunately, all the clues they’d uncovered so far had led the team to believe that a senior staff member of TayFor must be selling secrets. And most of the senior members were family.

“The IT department isn’t involved.” Elle took another gulp of her coffee and followed it with a blissful sigh. “The way things are set up, they wouldn’t recognize the pertinent information in order to sell it. All research files are encrypted before storage. The only way you’d know what they were would be if you knew the research and went in looking for particular information.”

“In other words,” Harvard said, “the IT team has the ability to steal from the system but can’t read the files, so they wouldn’t know what was worth stealing.”

Elle nodded. “The only thing they could do is copy everything and sell it in bulk, hoping whoever bought it could crack the encryption and find something useful.”

“It would narrow down the search for the thief if we knew whether they were selling encrypted files or ones they’d already decoded,” Harvard mused.

Elle’s attention snapped to him. “If they were unencrypted before they were sold, that would mean someone had to have read them here. The encryption key is localized to this complex. But all TayFor files are automatically encrypted when they’re saved or copied…”

Elle stared at Harvard, but it was clear her mind was elsewhere. It was fascinating. You could almost see her brain working.

“We need to run a search for anyone who might have acquired a copy of the encryption key. That would be damn hard to get. It’s coded into the system. I doubt even the IT guys know what it is. But…if someone has one, there would be a ghost trail on their computer. With the right program, we can find it.”

“All I’m hearing is blah, blah, blah computers,” Rachel complained. “Which makes me think we could have run this investigation from Benson Security, so I didn’t need to come here in the first place. Surely you could have hacked the system from there?”

“Rachel!” Elle sounded shocked. “Please tell me you know that most of the computers at TayFor aren’t connected to the internet.”

“I haven’t been here in ten years; how would I know that?” Now she was definitely losing patience. She paced her office, feeling the walls close in on her with every step she took.

“Each building is a standalone network with its own server that backs up everything in an encrypted format. And that’s backed up by the server in the basement. Even the connection between that server and the others is a closed system. In other words, no way to get into it from the outside.”

“How on earth do the research scientists communicate with the outside world if they don’t have internet access in their labs?” Rachel asked.

“The office building has internet access.”

“So, all the thief needs to do is download the research onto a thumb drive, take it to the office building, and email it out,” Rachel said. “Shouldn’t we check those computers and get this over with?”

“No.” Elle shook her head, making the bright red waves bounce. “Apart from the fact most computers have all unnecessary USB ports disabled, every machine in the building’s fitted with a program that records downloads. If one occurs, both security and the section boss are sent an automatic notification. Even if they did somehow manage to download the files without being noticed and email them from their office, there are firewalls upon firewalls to stop anything like that getting out. It just isn’t possible.”

“Could they have transferred it to their phone and sent it that way?” Rachel said.

Harvard answered, “Phones, smartwatches, any personal devices are left at the security station in each building. Staff then go through metal detectors and scanners. No form of electronic storage is allowed into the labs—including thumb drives.”

“Okay, but they must have laptops they take home to work on.” Rachel’s parents had often brought work home, some of it sensitive.

“Any data that’s taken outside the building has to be

approved by department bosses, and it’s only allowed out on TayFor’s own encryption-enabled laptops,” Elle said. “Each of which is examined by the IT division when it’s returned, to check there’s been no unusual activity. No personal laptops are allowed within the facility.”

“This is impossible.” Rachel threw up her hands in disgust.

“No, but it’s going to be hard. The thief is hacking the system from inside, somehow. We just need to figure out how.” Elle’s voice had lowered as though she wasn’t even aware they were in the room with her anymore. “I need Harry’s help. He literally writes the code to catch ghost programming. I’ll shoot him an email and see what time zone he’s in, maybe set up a meeting.”

“He’s in Scotland,” Rachel said. “They’re busy setting up home in Invertary. I’m not entirely sure he’ll be available to help. He has other priorities now he’s sold his share of Benson Security.”