Andy Ledger loved puzzles but this one was truly a test. He used every trick of the trade and countless generations of sophisticated computer codes but he had found what he really wanted after eight months of endless hours and money.
Any person with some mathematical skills could learn modern computer language skills and write simple programs or come up with their own web site designs and functions.
Andy wasn't looking for the secrets of e-commerce he was looking for the keys to the kingdom. His D.O.D. contract grant money also came with security keys into certain areas that gave him some limited direct access for research and development.
Many complex programmers left so many back door entrances into their complex programs it was just a matter of time that the most multifaceted programs could be hacked and all the knotty codes could be made simple again.
In just a few minutes Andy Ledger would be looking inside the most complicated and highly developed computer software on planet earth using his own software programs and applications. He had been making some good money protecting mom's and dad's from credit card theft but his company was about to graduate.
The citizens of the United States were caught in some terrible cultural storm that the President had promised as transformational. Andy knew about change and opportunity but the President had something else in mind and it wasn't a simple make over.
In the computer programming business the answers were always at the back of the book. If a person could find the back door to the software you could look inside all you wanted without being detected in most cases. His D.O.D. security keys were the digital keys to unlock countless programs and their operating systems.
Andy Ledger started his own company seven years ago as a software security provider for major corporations around the world and business had never been any better. His company that consisted of fifteen total employees could write programs and security codes to protect email accounts, general ledger information, supply chain secrets and even porn site access.
With the explosion of the internet and the thunder of e-commerce Andy was surely in the right business at the right time and his company was on the rise and expansion was planned next year.
His most popular software security package was called "CORKER" which you could find on the shelves on Wal-Mart, Staples and Amazon that sold for $179.95. "Corker" would protect the customers computer from external threats and virus attacks and internal abuse.
He had spent several years borrowing money, selling software direct to customers, saving money to buy new packaging, talking up his product in online chat rooms but "Corker" put all that behind him.
He had made enough money to buy his home in Virginia or should say qualify for a mortgage. Outside of Richmond Virginia Andy bought five acres of land and built a good sized home but not too big. On the far side of his property he built a larger building for his business which was the general office for his tiny software empire.
Andy's neighbors could see Andy and his dog walk to work every morning from his homes back porch and unlock the single side door every morning about seven fifteen or so. Andy and a few guys would work some and stop for coffee often but as "Corker" sales went up so did the pressure. Andy hired some more guys and gals out of school and started spending some money on research and development. He didn't want to be a one product company so Andy was in a hurry for something else to sell.
Last year Andy sent a presentation to the D.O.D. Department of Defense requesting a open grant to develop a new security package for military use and some civilian applications.
The D.O.D. would often times hand out cash for software companies to work on certain specific projects or brainstorm new ideas. The success of "Corker" opened a lot of doors because people had heard of the product and loved the little green frog logo. Andy Ledger got some money.
Andy had never had one million three hundred and fifty thousand dollars in cash at one time without some big bills to pay. He sat in his office and looked at the documents and the Treasury check and wondered what his dog was smelling at the door.
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Mr. Tom Harris was the D.O.D. Department of Defense grant representative that delivered the contract and check directly to Andy Ledger just two hours ago. Andy signed all the paperwork and accepted delivery of the check payment from the United States government for computer software research and development.
He stared at the check a long time and started making the first list of the things he wanted to look at in the software business. He could draw a circle of ideas on his legal pad and every starting point ended up being the ending point. The software business was like that when you drew a picture of the business model. Everybody started at one point and raced to the end point which would start another circle and another chase. He worked several days just writing down ideas and then scratching them out with his mechanical pencil. You could drown in ideas and go broke or baffle them with something new.
He drew a square on his legal pad representing all the government computers and then drew three little circles inside the square representing the software programs running inside.
Every computer had software and every piece of software required at times very complex programming and security codes. He drew another square with little circles inside and then another. The internet would connect all the squares together allowing all the government computers to talk to each other. Between the squares he drew tiny squares with even more software to act like gatekeepers between computers. A computer at N.S.A. could not simply talk to D.O.D. computers without the security codes to pass through the tiny squares that guard the larger boxes on his legal pad.
The internet connected one big government square to another big government square but the data had to pass through a security portal first. The security portal computers housed the most sophisticated high-level dedicated software ever created on earth which allowed top secret information to be passed around to and from people with the proper level access.
Big banks used the same software packages to move billions of dollars in less than a second from bank to bank or country to country. Government officials used the protected computer networks to send encrypted messages, secrets, money and family pictures.
The keys to the world was just a bunch of 0 and 1's floating around cyberspace and Andy Ledger could read them all sitting inside his backyard office.
It took Andy months of work and late nights. He had built eight rooms inside his large building in the backyard that now housed by various arrangements departmental codes for government programs.
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