Bruce Schneier's 7th Annual Movie Plot Contest
Theme: NSA wins! But how? (full description and all entries are here)My entry:
Creative Destruction
June 2014 – March 2015: Stock market booms.
June 2014: Snowden revelations trigger international political scandals.
July: Feinstein-Rogers Intelligence Reform Bill passes, breaks up NSA. “Largest garage sale in history”.
Headline: “NSA Nuked”
August: 10,000 NSA workers are laid off.
September – December: Open Source projects, Working Groups see influx of volunteers.
September – November: “NSA garage sale” draws small contractors and public-private partnerships spread over 50 states. Private equity firms are buyers – Flatiron Partners, Narsil Capital, and Tech Disruptions.
September – November 2014: Flurry of privacy and security scandals hit big firms. Lawsuits, investigations, and criminal indictments follow.
November: “Alt Apps Group” formed: “Secure, private, and ad-free”. Most members are majority owned by Flatiron, Narsil Capital, or Tech Disruptions.
July – December: Symantec goes on buying spree: Webroot, Cloudflare, StackExchange, Disqus, Rapid7, and MaaS360 – all funded by Flatiron, Narsil Capital, or Tech Disruptions.
December: Puerto Rico Bridge Initiative announces completion of 50GB fiber optic cable.
January 2015: Private equity firms, led by Flatiron, make offer for Symantec.
February: Loren Reynolds, rookie Equity Analyst at JPMorgan Chase working on Symantec project, is accidentally copied on email from Flatiron:
“Confirming that Launch has been accelerated to March. Don’t use email anymore.”Loren is puzzled by the distribution list:
March: Traffic and membership surges at Alt Apps Group members. Fatherly achieves 70% share in Certificate Authority market.
- Puerto Rico Bridge Initiative (PRBI)
- Economic Development Corporation Utah (EDCU)
- Fatherly (formerly GoDaddy)
- DuckDuckGo
- Safebook (startup)
March: Loren receives email from friend Zoltin, networking expert:
“PRBI isn’t 50GB. It’s 75TB – the highest capacity in the world!!! WTF! There’s more. Same capacity cables to Bermuda and to Azores. Looks like they are bypassing US-Europe cables. Big news: Big data center on PR now complete.”April: Google earnings due 4/15; then Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Microsoft, and Verizon on 4/22.
April: Over beers, Loren hears rumors of large short positions in technology stocks from a few “weird” hedge funds.
April 4: Loren receives email from Sarah:
“EDCU is gatekeeper on NSA Utah Data Center.”
April 15: Google disappoints. Earnings down 40% on flat revenue. Stock falls 30%, overall market falls 10%.
April 20: Loren discovers link between former NSA executives and Flatiron, Narsil Capital, and Tech Disruptions. Finds NSA people behind tech firm scandals in the previous Fall 2014. Tip of the iceberg, she suspects.[This has a few lines added, so it's beyond 500 word limit. But the entry on Bruce's site is below the limit.]
April 21: Loren sends IM to her husband, an Assistant DA in the Southern District of NY:
“Must see you ASAP. NSA & GCHQ live on. They’ve gone legit – running private businesses and funds. THEY ARE KILLING THE INTERNET AD BUSINESS.”After clicking “send”, her computer freezes. She reaches for her smart phone to call her husband, but the directory is empty. She dials the number manually, but gets an “out of service” signal, followed by “low battery”. The phone dies.
Running down seven flights of stairs, Loren races to her car. She jumps in, starts the engine, and backs out with a screech. One turn from the exit the car engine suddenly cuts out and brakes lock. The car crashes into a cement pillar. The airbag fails to deploy. Loren is out cold.
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