I chose one of four options at the start, and I chose the number one clan in Lingnan.

After the cooperation agreement entered the auditorium for review, Kyushu Tiandun gave a total offer of 460 million yuan.

The offer includes three secure data centers, quantum key distribution equipment, an industrial control protection platform, and five years of maintenance services.

Shao Wenyan also invited the Lin team to the provincial headquarters to publicly test the source code and hardware prototype.

Lin Fu did not accept the reception procedures arranged by the other party.

He only brought Lin Zheng and six network team members into Kyushu Shield.

The eight people did not check into the hotel, nor did they attend the project banquet prepared by the company; their vehicle drove directly into the testing center.

Shao Wenyan greeted them in the lobby, with Gao Qizhou, the technical vice president, and more than 20 engineers standing behind him.

"President Lin, Kyushu Tiandun has completed 32 large-scale industrial projects. The provincial power grid, Haiqing Chemical, and Jiangnan Aviation Parts Center are all using our platform."

Lin proposed opening up the underlying code, and we are willing to make an exception; however, the core modules can only be verified within our company's isolated area.

Lin Fu handed the computer bag to Lin Zheng.

"It's fine for the code to remain in your quarantine area. Lin's needs to compile it independently and verify the executable file on the hardware. If the source code and the final product don't match, the cooperation ends here."

Gao Qizhou took the test list, his tone becoming more forceful.

"Industrial safety products involve the company's trade secrets, and the hardware execution files have never been disclosed to customers."

You can inspect the functionality, but you cannot copy the modules. If the Lin family insists on taking all the content, the board will not approve it.

Lin Fu did not argue.

"We will not take any documents with us. The testing process will be recorded by both parties, and a third-party industrial safety laboratory will be responsible for preserving the evidence."

If Kyushu Tiandun doesn't even accept local compilation, then the words "public code" have no value.

Shao Wenyan raised his hand to stop Gao Qizhou and agreed to the test conditions.

He was well aware of what the Lin's project meant. The 460 million yuan contract only accounted for a portion of the immediate profits. The real value lay in Hongtu Machine Tools, Huasheng Materials, and Haiqing Port's dispatch data.

Once Kyushu Tiandun becomes the underlying network service provider, Lin's family will have to rely on them for every equipment upgrade.

The testing center is operating in a closed system.

After compilation, the first batch of source code is completely identical in function to the demonstration platform.

Industrial equipment was integrated into the sandbox, achieving an attack interception rate of 99.9%, and the quantum key distribution device also passed stress testing.

The engineers at Kyushu Shield began tidying up the files.

Gao Qizhou looked at Lin Zheng, his words already conveying confidence of victory.

"The Lin family's network team excels at auditing and tracking, but industrial security is a different skill altogether."

The platform data is already here. If you continue to delay, the equipment schedule will be postponed by two months. The price offered by Chairman Shao is only valid until today.

Lin Zheng did not respond to the offer.

He put the compiled source code and the executable file in the hardware platform into two isolated devices and checked the hash values ​​segment by segment.

The first ninety-seven modules were all identical, but the verification results differed when it came to the remote operation and maintenance module.

He recompiled it three times, but the differences remained.

"The hardware executable file contains seventeen more instructions than the source code. Please provide this part of the code and the signing certificate."

Gao Qizhou walked up to the equipment and scanned the verification number.

"This is a disaster recovery module, which is pre-installed by the hardware manufacturer. It only starts when the system fails, does not read production data, and does not affect Lin's control."

Lin Zheng connected the hardware to the test sandbox.

He shut down the normal maintenance port and then simulated a machine tool control node becoming unresponsive.

Three seconds later, the internal operations and maintenance center of Kyushu Tiandun sent an authentication request to the sandbox. The request obtained administrator privileges directly without customer authorization.

On the test screen, the machine tool scheduling data, tool numbers, and control commands are all stored in the hidden buffer area.

The cache is packaged every six hours, and the target address belongs to the Singapore disaster recovery node of Kyushu Tiandun.

Lin Fu took out his phone and dialed the number of the person in charge of the third-party laboratory.

"You are currently synchronizing the evidence. Please confirm whether this management permission has been written into the public source code, and whether the customer can disable it on the platform."

After verifying the records, the third-party representative replied: "These seventeen instructions are not in the public code. Management permissions are triggered by hardware certificates. The client interface does not have a close entry, and the data packaging address is not included in the service list submitted by Kyushu Tiandun."

Shao Wenyan strode into the testing area.

After looking at the screen, he called Gao Qizhou aside. The two talked for two minutes before Shao Wenyan returned to the table.

"Mr. Lin, remote disaster recovery is a common solution in the industry. Kyushu Tiandun serves many clients, and no data breach has ever occurred during the operation of its projects."

We can replace the overseas nodes with provincial capital nodes, or we can add confidentiality compensation to the contract.

Lin Fu placed the cooperation agreement on the table.

"The conditions proposed by the Lin family are that you hand over a version of the entire underlying code for inspection, and then insert another set of execution instructions into the hardware."

The compensation clauses don't apply to administrator privileges; whether the node is located in the provincial capital or Singapore doesn't change the fact that it represents unauthorized takeover.

Gao Qizhou pushed open the test report.

"The Lin family has not yet signed a formal procurement contract, and Kyushu Tiandun has not had access to the actual production data."

The two sides are in the technical consultation stage, and you have not suffered any actual losses. Terminating the project for the seventeen sections of disaster recovery code would not benefit either party.

Lin Fu picked up the 460 million yuan cooperation agreement and tore it in half.

"You're right, no formal contract was signed. The Lin family doesn't have to pay any penalty for breach of contract, nor do they have to hand over the industrial network to a company that has a backdoor."

The paper fell onto the conference table.

Lin Zheng handed over the third-party evidence number to Shao Wenyan.

"The hidden module can read device parameters and modify control commands."

If Kyushu Tiandun calls this disaster recovery, please explain to the regulatory authorities why it's not written into the source code and why customers haven't been able to disable it.

Before leaving Kyushu Tiandun, Lin Fu handed over the complete test records to the Provincial Industrial Cybersecurity Laboratory and the Information Disclosure Department of the Stock Exchange.

Lin did not release the code on a public platform, but only announced the termination of the purchase, citing the product's failure to pass the review.

At noon, Kyushu Tiandun received an inquiry from regulators.

The company was asked to explain the purpose of the hidden management module, the data scope of the overseas nodes, and whether similar programs were installed on 32 industrial projects.

After the market opened in the afternoon, the stock price of Jiuzhou Tiandun fell by nine percent.

Following the company's announcement of its explanation, several industrial clients filed for review, and the decline widened to 19.4%.

Gao Qizhou stood in front of the trading screen, the project documents in his hands soaked with sweat.

He had initially concluded that the Lin family urgently needed a quantum encryption network and dared not abandon the largest security company in the province.

No one expected that Lin Funing would postpone the unmanned production line and leave no room for negotiation for the back door.

On the way back to Tazhai, Lin Zheng sealed the test computer into the evidence box.

"There are no more than three companies in the province capable of building quantum-level industrial networks. After the incident with Kyushu Tiandun, the other two companies will not release their core code. If we continue to purchase from outside, we will still encounter similar problems."

Lin Fu looked at the road sign outside the window.

"Then we'll build it ourselves. You'll be responsible for listing the equipment and personnel requirements. First, we'll break down the existing network into three areas: auditing, defense, and evidence collection."

"We can hire more people if we need them, and we can buy more equipment if we need it, but the underlying control must remain in the hands of the Lin family."

Lin Zheng did not submit the list immediately.

He hesitated for a few seconds before mentioning a person being guarded in Tazhai.

Three months ago, someone used homemade hardware to access an old node of Lin's Logistics. That person was Wang Kai, known in the industry as Hacker King.

He did not take the data, and refused to leave after the identity verification was completed. He is currently living in the woodshed behind the mountain.

Lin Fu flipped through the previous records of the handling of the case.

"He accepted commissions from data brokers and also visited the site in Tazhai. With someone like that entering the core departments, who can guarantee he won't leave a second backdoor?"

Lin Zheng closed the evidence box.

"No one can vouch for him. If he's really capable, let him prove it in the isolation sandbox first."

The Lin family wants to build its own network, but the existing dozen or so people can't support the entire infrastructure.

By the time the convoy returned to the ancestral hall, it was already dark.

The clansman in charge of guarding the woodshed waited outside the courtyard gate, holding a piece of paper folded into a square.

"Uncle Fu, Wang Kai heard that the people from Kyushu Heavenly Shield have left, so he asked me to give this piece of paper to Grandfather. He said he can make the network that the Lin family wants to build."