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

The paper was spread out on the long table in the ancestral hall, with the contents covering both sides.

Wang Kai did not write a self-recommendation letter; the entire sheet of paper only contained a drawing of an industrial network defense architecture.

Hongtu Machinery Factory was divided into six physical areas. Design data entered the production area only through one-way transmission equipment. The control program adopted a dual-signature system, and quantum keys were responsible for the core nodes.

External maintenance personnel can only enter the dummy sandbox, and any unregistered commands will be directed to the trap node.

The back of the paper also lists the equipment model, budget range, and staffing requirements.

Lin Zheng examined each section and circled seven key design elements in red.

"His solution meets the security requirements of a fully automated system. Kyushu Tiandun uses quantum keys as an outer channel, but Wang Kai writes the keys into every device instruction. Even if someone gets the administrator account, they won't be able to issue effective control commands."

Lin Fu flipped to the last paragraph.

"He was locked in the woodshed and had no access to the research institute's documents. The procurement requirements for quantum equipment had been made public, so how could he have calculated that the grand plan required the parallel management of a thousand devices?"

"He didn't write down 1,000 units." Lin Zheng turned the paper over.

"This refers to a scale of thousands of nodes. Based on the Hongtu factory area, the number of existing machine tools, and the publicly announced expansion plans, professionals can make an estimate. He left a 30% redundancy, indicating that the data was not obtained from internal sources."

Lin Ting picked up the papers and headed towards the back of the mountain.

The woodshed was originally used to store wood for ancestral worship. After being converted into a guardhouse, windows and a separate toilet were added.

Wang Kai lived inside, and there were several old textbooks on the table. Because the access control panel had been removed the night before, one of his wrists was secured to the side of the chair with a soft rope.

Wang Kai was twenty-six years old, and his hair hadn't been cut in a long time. Hearing the door open, he first looked at the paper in Lin Ting's hand, then at Lin Zheng following behind.

"You've already reviewed whether the plan is usable. If you still have questions for the client, my answer will remain the same."

The other party made the payment through a dark web platform; I only saw the virtual account, not the real name.

Lin Fu closed the door.

"You accepted the commission with the goal of establishing the Lin's Logistics and Agricultural Traceability Platform."

After completing the mission, you ran back into Tazhai and removed the hardware you had installed. You said you hadn't handed over the data, so why should the Lin family believe you?

Wang Kai leaned back in his chair and recounted the whole story.

"Initially, they only asked me to do a security test, offering three million yuan. After I entered the old node, the task changed to obtaining the location of the Golden Fruit seed source, the cold storage route, and the fleet list, with an additional reward of ten million yuan."

"I didn't upload any data, nor did I take that money. The hardware had an automatic data return module, and I was worried that the client might remotely start it, so I went to Tazhai to remove the equipment."

"After Lin Zheng captured me, the server logs have been handed over to you. Whether any files were sent can be verified by checking the logs."

Lin Zheng took the audit report out of the folder.

"The data did not leak out, and there were no records of remotely starting the hardware used by Wang Kai. The dark web platform was shut down after the Qingshiling case, and the entrusted account could not be traced back to its real name."

Lin Ting walked up to Wang Kai and untied the soft rope on his wrist.

"The Lin family doesn't grant core permissions based on trust. Your proposal will be placed in an isolated sandbox and reviewed by the network team throughout the process. If it passes the test, you'll stay and work. If it fails, you'll leave Tazhai with compensation."

Wang Kai rubbed his wrist.

"Give me a computer without internet access, and three servers. I won't touch the actual data or the Hongtu equipment. I'll set up the first layer of defense within 24 hours."

The test was conducted at the auditorium network center.

Lin Zheng copied the virtual controllers of twenty machine tools from Hongtu's public equipment library and added the hidden modules left by Jiuzhou Tiandun. Wang Kai only received a blank operating system and a paper equipment list.

For the first six hours, instead of setting up a firewall, he rewrote the device certificate management rules.

In the tenth hour, all virtual controllers entered an independent zone, and any cross-zone instructions had to go through two signature nodes.

In the sixteenth hour, the stand-in sand table began to operate, and the data displayed to the outside world was different from that of the actual production area.

Lin Zheng had six network team members initiate the first round of testing.

More than 300 attack scripts were entered into the proxy sandbox one after another, but not a single command reached the production area.

When the Jiuzhou Tiandun hidden module attempted to access administrator privileges, the system returned a set of fake tool parameters and locked the access certificate.

Wang Kai projected the certificate number onto the big screen.

"The data obtained by external attackers is all bait. The production area will not respond proactively, and he will not be able to tell that he has entered the substitute sandbox."

Once the quantum key distribution equipment arrives, each control command will have an extended validity period, rendering certificate duplication useless.

Lin Zheng changed his attack entry point again.

This time, he simulated an internal engineer improperly inserting a removable storage device.

As soon as the malicious program read the directory, the console automatically reverted to production privileges, and the relevant devices switched to local control mode.

The test lasted for 22 hours, and not a single virtual machine tool went out of control.

Lin Fu reviewed the complete report and provided the hiring criteria.

"You can serve as the technical head of Lin's Red Hacker Department. All operations will be subject to auditing, and attack tools can only be placed in the quarantine area."

Lin Zheng is responsible for access control and evidence compliance; you are responsible for network architecture. If you overstep these boundaries, your position and all equipment will be revoked.

Wang Kai stared at the appointment document on the table.

"I need eight high-performance servers and a quantum key distribution system."

Give me at least twelve people in the existing network team. Within three months, I can get the first batch of nodes deployed on the Hongtu platform.

Lin Ting pushed the equipment purchase form back.

"Eight servers can cost more than one million yuan each, and the quantum equipment was purchased by the research institute."

We'll start with eighteen people, and recruit more from vocational schools and universities. The Lin family will give you a budget, you'll have the authority, and they'll also be able to check every line of your core code.

That evening, the 12 million yuan server purchase payment was deposited into the escrow account.

Wang Kai looked at the bank receipt, his eyes reddening. Ever since he accepted the dark web commission, everyone had treated him as a tool for stealing data.

Three million yuan could get him to set up a network for someone else, and ten million yuan could get him to take risks, but no one was willing to give him a set of equipment and let him build a network according to his own plan.

He signed his name and pressed his fingerprint on the appointment document.

"My grandfather gave me the equipment and the team, and I will safeguard every industrial node for the Lin family."

The server stopped for a minute while I was handling it, then I left the Red Hacker Department myself. If someone tries to solicit business from outside, I'll first hand over their address to the auditorium.

Lin Ting put away the documents.

"Loyalty is proven by results. The Red Hacker Department will first safeguard the overall plan, then take over Washington and Haiqing Port. All countermeasures must be recorded, and no illegal entry points can be left for outsiders."

After the personnel list was confirmed, Wang Kai made a request.

"This architecture has a second half, designed by my university mentor, Zhou Huaiyuan."

He previously served as the vice dean of the Cybersecurity Research Institute at Beijing University of Information Technology and is a top expert in the field of industrial quantum security in China.

"Last year, when the lab experienced a leak of supply chain certificates, the blame was placed on him."

The project was halted, and the team disbanded. He lived in the suburbs of Beijing, and even his experimental equipment was sealed off by the creditors.

If the Lin family wants to expand its unmanned production line overseas, they need him to be in charge of the core layer of the quantum network.

Lin Fujie's information on Zhou Huaiyuan.

"The auditorium will first investigate the lab accident and debts. If the responsibility does not lie with him, the Lin family will fund the resumption of the project. You can contact your advisor, but you must not disclose the Hongtu program and its core parameters."

Wang Kai nodded and turned to begin the first round of deployment.

At 11 p.m. that night, twenty test nodes from Hongtu Machinery Factory were connected to the Red Hacker Department.

The fully automated control program remains in the isolation equipment, and only the basic control modules are open in the production area.

At 11:47, a red alert popped up on the main screen of the Red Hacker Department.

Thirty-seven overseas addresses sent handshake requests to the outer node of the macro map at the same time.

The request frequency is very low, and each address only touches one port, but when combined, they cover all the entry points of the machine tool control network.

Lin Zheng pulled up the attack fingerprint database and said:

"Kuroshio, an overseas hacker group, is probing Hongtu Machinery Factory."