Drew finally felt like he had succeeded in life. He was married with two kids, and had recently landed a great job as an IT admin for a major organization in the city. As someone who grew up relatively poor, it was a great opportunity for him. He thought, with enough tenacity and discipline, he might be able to afford to pay for his kids to go college. He didn’t want them to struggle like he did.
Drew wiped the sweat from his brow. The train for the morning commute was packed, and he couldn’t get a seat. He heard the muffled voice of the conductor, announcing his stop. “Finally,” he thought, “I really need a coffee”.
Drew gently pushed his way out of the train, then walked off the platform and tapped his transit card on the turnstile. The electronics chimed with approval and let him out. He started climbing up the steps to exit the station, and stepped onto the city sidewalk.
The cool breeze felt great, but also reminded him of his need for a warm cup of coffee. He stopped at his favorite local shop, just a few blocks from his office. He received his drink, and sat down at the bar.
This coffee ritual was often a part of Drew’s commute routine. He would grab his coffee, catch up on his work, and VPN in to debug any problems with the servers at work. He enjoyed working in the relaxing environment in the coffee shop, away from the distractions of the office.
Drew tapped his laptop touchpad a few times to open his VPN client, allowing him access to the organization’s protected servers. “Two-factor authentication required”, prompted the laptop. He fumbled for his phone, and opened his authenticator app, which would display the time-based authentication code he would need for access.
Out of the corner of his eye, Drew noticed that there was another man sitting next to him at the bar working on his laptop as well. This wasn’t too unusual for this shop, but there was something unsettling about this man. He had ordered the same coffee, had a similar laptop open (although his was clearly more modern), had the same VPN client ready for additional authentication, and was also fumbling for the authenticator on his phone. The two men made eye contact for a moment. The stranger broke eye contact and looked the other way, in a slightly paranoid manner. “Hm. He looks a lot like me,” thought Drew.
Drew casually looked over at the man’s authentication app. “201 483”, read the display. A progress bar ticked down, with only a second or so left. Drew glanced at his phone. “201 483”, read the display, with the progress bar ticking down at the same pace. “Strange coincidence. That’s a one-in-a-million chance,” thought Drew.
The authenticator app cycled to the next code. “997 410”. Drew typed the number into his VPN client, while also sneaking another glance at the stranger’s app. “997 410”, it also read.
“What… the.. fuck…” thought Drew, starting to become alarmed. This was more than a coincidence. He turned to look at the man, making eye contact again. It was as if he was staring at himself, except there were more wrinkles around the man’s eyes. The stranger’s eyes looked determined, but also strangely apologetic.
Words stumbled out of Drew’s mouth. “I… think we have a security breach?” He realized he was stating the obvious. It became clear that the stranger didn’t have good intentions for this encounter, and wanted Drew to know that.
The stranger ignored Drew and began rapidly typing. From Drew’s vantage point, he could see that the stranger had executed an IT automation playbook on his laptop. He saw the names of several of his organization’s critical infrastructure servers scroll by. Then, the stranger closed his laptop lid and sipped his coffee.
Not long after, the pager app on Drew’s phone started loudly bleeping. “What… what have you done?” asked Drew.
“I did what had to be done. You’ll thank me later.” said the stranger, as he accelerated his pace and began quickly packing up his things, leaving behind his coffee cup.
“What do you mean? How could I ever be thankful to you for this?” asked Drew, dumbfounded, following the stranger as he made his way to the back of the coffee shop at a brisk pace.
The stranger turned to look at Drew. “Because I am you,” said the stranger. “I don’t have time to explain. Some day, it will make sense to you.”
The stranger hurried to the bathroom in the back of the shop, closing the bathroom door with a loud click, as Drew followed closely behind. Shortly after the door closed, a brilliant blue flash of light could be seen from the small crack between the floor and closed door.
Drew stood in the corridor for a moment, stunned. He reached out and slowly grasped the door handle. It was warm to the touch, but unlocked. He turned the handle and slowly pushed the door open. There was no trace of the stranger.
Drew’s phone soon started blowing up with text messages. Malware had been planted on the organization’s systems, and a major data loss incident had occurred. This was an incident that could permanently cripple his organization. Furthermore, the security operations team had definitively tracked it down to Drew’s login, from Drew’s devices, with Drew’s authentication codes.
It didn’t take long for Drew’s phone and laptop to lock him out, disabling his access and erasing his data. It occurred to him that all of the family pictures stored on his phone had been wiped out as well.
Defeated, Drew put away his now-useless devices and sipped his coffee, unsure what to do next. Drew lost track of time as he sat in disbelief, pondering the events of the day. He lowered his coffee cup and saw three well-dressed men coming into the shop. They gestured in Drew’s direction. One of them stood by the front door, one of them made their way to the back door, and the other approached Drew.
“Sir, you’re going to need to come with us,” he said, displaying a federal law enforcement badge.
Drew’s life, as he knew it, was over.