Extortionware

The story unwinds in a typical American city. Jason, a talented computer programmer found himself thrown into captivity with Tasha. She was a woman caught in the snare of human sex trafficking from the darkest parts of the internet. Alone, but together they embarked on an unparalleled journey of greed, extortion, theft and human cruelty through the use of the very connection of simple, home-based communications.

Trip Elix is the author of the new novel Extortionware. The novel exposes one of the darkest sides of the internet that is rarely discussed and often times considered to be a taboo topic. Hackers and cyber thieves make the nightly news but they are only part of the story. People who have read the book have a greater understanding of other vulnerabilities we all face in our daily lives in cyber space. The book is written in a way that even those without technical understanding will still learn and enjoy it at the same time. The problems explored in the text are not inclusive computers, but our phones, tablets, televisions and anything else that connects the user to the internet.

I started in computers when I was 12 years old. Back then the personal computer wasn’t yet invented. I spent my weekends with a cousin who was a Vice President of a mainframe computer company. At his office I learned how to program on punch cards. I made several small programs that ran on the machine and I quickly became entranced with the possibilities. By the time I entered high school the Apple company had created its first computer. Soon a host of companies got into the act including; Commodore, Ohio Scientific and Tandy. I would spend every day after school teaching myself how to program in machine code. Eventually the school acquired the basic and C programming languages for some of them and I was hooked. One of my teachers and a doctor from the district, recognized that there would be a potential need for developing a computer class. Together we created the school district’s first 2 quarter computer instruction class. I got my name on the cover as a co-author, and at only 14, I didn’t understand the importance authorship would have on my life. I had to wait two years to take my own class, as it was written for seniors only. During my high school years, I had several friends who had computers at home. One had a modem—the kind that you put an old telephone handset into. At that time, there wasn’t any real issue with security and many companies left their modems to auto answer. I will not ever talk about the systems that we explored. or my love hate relationship with SCO without having a handbook, though I will say that AT&T did change many of their systems’ passwords the day that War Games, the movie, came out. That was in 1983 and well after my graduation. Over time I have used or owned almost every version of every operating system used since the 1980’s. I have watched the computer industry rise and fall. Though I was interested in computers, for a very long time they were not very popular. I tried skip tracing for a while, that was finding people who didn’t want to be found. I worked for one of the first data brokers in the country. The company brokered information and sold it to private investigators, bounty hunters and law enforcement. Law enforcement didn’t really have computers either. I met others along the way and have attended meetings of hackers, phreaks and pirates. I have been to some of the big ones that make the news; I have met the infamous before and after their jail sentences. I have also witnessed the dawn of the internet. I joined Dialog the second day the internet was available. Back then the internet was a series of servers, and there really wasn't any security because the internet truly was intended to be a place to share information. I do remember telling a hacker friend about the internet and he commented that it is a “phase–no one will ever take it seriously.”