Chapter 9

When Feng Xiaotian first saw the book "Computer Programming Languages and Programming," he carefully pondered it. The book mainly discussed computer programming, and the programming languages mentioned were entirely for the purpose of programming. A programmer's primary job is to write code, but there are differences in skill levels among programmers. The more skilled a programmer is, the fewer bugs there are in the programs they write.

Feng Xiaotian had a deep understanding of this, as he spent over half a month writing a data conversion software. He knew that the larger the software, the more content it involved, and thus the more bugs it would have. The best way to reduce bugs was to minimize the size of the program. The smaller the program, the less content it contained, and the lower the risk of being exploited by others.

This involved the functionality of the program. A short, concise program that did not affect its functionality was the highest realm of programming. With the knowledge he currently possessed, Feng Xiaotian believed it was not too difficult to achieve this, and he had the ability to do so.

The issue of vulnerabilities in computer operating systems was closely related to computer programming. Only those familiar with computer programming could possibly find system vulnerabilities. What is a computer operating system? In simple terms, it is a program, a relatively large one. To find potential vulnerabilities in it, one must have a deep understanding of computer programming.

The two main attack methods used by hackers are closely related to computer programs, further emphasizing the importance of being familiar with computer programming. Feng Xiaotian had already mastered this, but it was hard to say what level he was at, as he had never compared himself to others. Without comparison, it was difficult to make a judgment.

Feng Xiaotian was an individual outside the realm of the system, which referred to the community of computer experts. All the computer knowledge he had was self-taught, and he had never exchanged ideas with other experts. It was indeed commendable that he had reached his current level.

At that moment, Feng Xiaotian was looking at a news article about a hacker, and many questions came to mind. The article recorded a loss of eight million dollars! If converted to RMB at the current exchange rate, it would be over forty million! Such a large amount left Feng Xiaotian, who was penniless, in shock for a long time. After a while, he muttered, "So... so much money, just gone like that?"

Feng Xiaotian now had a more direct understanding of hackers. To him, they were a group of lunatics. How could anyone do something that harmed others and brought no benefit to themselves? The hacker did not get a single cent from the eight million dollars lost. What was the point of doing this?

Feng Xiaotian, of course, could not understand this. Growing up in China, he had formed a good sense of social values. In his view, such actions were absolutely unacceptable, as anyone who harmed others for any reason was not a good person.

Feng Xiaotian was still quite naive and did not understand the inner world of hackers. Generally, these people were computer experts. They hacked into others' systems and controlled computers out of personal interest. They were not doing it for money but to prove their own capabilities. In simple terms, it was to show off.

Time quickly passed, and it was midnight. Firecrackers began to explode continuously outside, marking the arrival of the new year. Feng Xiaotian had grown a year older; he was now fifteen.

At that moment, it was noon in the Eastern Time Zone of the United States. On the 32nd floor of the Empire State Building in New York, a young man was busy at his computer. He typed very quickly, and after a while, he finally stopped. He stretched and said, "Ha! I've finally breached the New York Times website! Hmm... should I do something interesting?"

The young man thought for three seconds and snapped his fingers, "That's it! I just wrote a Trojan program, let's test it on the New York Times website!"

After saying this, the young man used the administrative privileges he had obtained to implant the Trojan program on the New York Times website. It was a very hidden program that even professionals would find hard to detect. Its main function was to infect every computer that logged onto the New York Times website and send the IP address back to the young man's database.

Then it would quietly lie dormant in the infected computer. Once the young man issued a remote command through the known IP address, the Trojan virus would automatically activate and continuously replicate itself. This would cause the computer to overflow due to the excessive use of storage space, eventually leading to a system crash.

Although it sounded simple, achieving this was not easy. This young man was undoubtedly a programming expert. After implanting the Trojan virus on the New York Times website, he immediately opened his database, which was actually a large computer he had captured. The young man observed the information transmitted by the Trojan virus. As the information lines changed, he knew he had succeeded!

The New York Times had many readers, so the Trojan virus infected many computers, including Feng Xiaotian's.

He was browsing news on the New York Times website when, upon opening a news page, his computer screen suddenly flickered abnormally. Although it was for a very short time, Feng Xiaotian did not ignore it. He had just read a news article about a hacker, so he was very alert. Feng Xiaotian immediately stopped browsing the news and began checking his computer to see if anything was wrong.

According to Feng Xiaotian's knowledge, there were several reasons for such an issue: first, unstable voltage causing the computer screen to flicker; second, excessive information processing leading to high computational speed and screen flicker; third, sudden network congestion causing the computer to change its adaptive processing speed and screen flicker; and fourth, the most concerning reason for Feng Xiaotian—unauthorized programs infiltrating the computer, causing a delay in processing speed.

The last reason was the least likely to happen because he connected to the internet through a proxy. Even if a hacker attacked him, they would first need to crack the proxy computer. However, Feng Xiaotian's cautious nature meant he would not overlook any possibility. Without hesitation, he immediately began a program search.

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