7 Meeting with Felix and a talk with Sarah
CAFE
Aron arrived at the meeting place where he had planned to meet with Felix and give him a detailed explanation in order for him to prepare for the meeting with the Facebook officials and negotiation with Facebook.
Three Minutes after Aron had gotten his drink, Felix arrived, shaking hands with Aron and giving him a hug. Aron's friend sat down on the opposite side.
"How have you been coping since that day?" Felix asked with slight worry, he was aware of Aron's condition and also thought that his friend wouldn't have done such a thing.
"Though, it was difficult at first, it has been going pretty well now, in fact, I'm even surprised at myself," Aron smiled while answering and waving his hand.
Although he didn't explain the reason as to what was helping him cope or gave him hope, it didn't mean he wasn't grateful for it. Without the arrival of the system, it would have taken him longer to be able to recover and move on from what had happened to him, and since those nasty people had decided to add a massive debt on top of the fact that he was already down, Aron would have definitely gone crazy if he didn't have any assistance from someone.
"I'm surprised too, I thought you would still continue to ignore my calls, but I didn't think that you would be the first to call me on your own," Felix replied with a smile.
"Since many who called themselves my friend decided to abandon me right after hearing the rumors without even trying to verify it with me, I was afraid that you two, who were among the last of the few who did not express their stance, would also leave my side. That's why I was avoiding you and Sarah," Aron answered with a wry smile on his face, indicating the pain of betrayal.
"You didn't answer even Sarah's calls?" Felix repeated with a surprised look on his face, meaning that he wasn't expecting Aron to avoid her since he had been friends with Sarah even before he had met Aron.
"I was avoiding her because she would be nagging me all around, asking if I was cheating and why didn't I hide it better or something," Aron chuckled dryly, knowing very well that Sarah would never abandon him no matter what, since she was his friend ever since their high school year when they met Felix.
"Yeah, I expected that," Felix chuckled with a reply, remembering Sarah's behaviour and then decided that it was better to talk about why he had come here as he calmed himself from the laugh, "So what is this thing about you and Facebook."
"Oh yeah, so this is what happened…" Aron then started explaining to Felix that he found some weaknesses in Facebook's system and emailed them to inform and demonstrate some of the weaknesses as examples to prove his legitimacy and how he had also informed them that he had more of them but he would need them to compensate him for the work.
Additionally, Aron also revealed that the Facebook team had contacted him and they had even managed to set up a meeting with him next week on a fully expense-paid trip. This was also included with anyone who would be coming with him and the reason he called Felix was that he needed a lawyer who was specialising in tech to make sure that he would receive the right compensation he deserved.
After finishing explaining everything to Felix, while keeping anything related to the system as a secret, Aron only briefly mentioned the fact that he had developed an app which could exploit weaknesses like these in other apps, without going into full details on how it works and then waited for Felix to digest the information.
It took Felix about 5 minutes, during which they continued drinking their coffee while he was thinking as Aron waited.
"So, about those weaknesses, exactly how many of them did you find and what level are they?" Felix asked, wanting to know more since he wanted to be completely prepared.
...
Okay, back to school now.
So what are the different levels of vulnerabilities?
Security weaknesses can be categorised into several different levels, each level depending on the severity and impact of these weaknesses.
The 4 levels of security vulnerabilities are:
1) Low-level vulnerabilities: These are the most common types of security weaknesses and are relatively easy to exploit, they may include aspects like weak passwords, unpatched software, or poorly configured systems.
2) Medium-level vulnerabilities: These types of security weaknesses have a higher significance than the low-level vulnerabilities but still do not pose an immediate and severe level risk to the system.
3) High-level vulnerabilities: These types of security weaknesses are serious and can lead to serious consequences if they remain unaddressed quickly enough.
4) Critical-level vulnerabilities: These are the most severe types of security weaknesses and can pose an immediate and severe threat to the system's security and it's better to check for their presence before releasing the system so as to not compromise any user data or other critical information about the system itself.
...
Now let's get back to our story.
"I have found about 50 Critical-level, 150 High-level, 500 Medium-level, and over 1000 Low-level vulnerabilities," Aron answered calmly.( Of course, he didn't disclose all of them)
"WHAT?!!!!!!!!!" Felix was so shell-shocked that he stood up while shouting, making his chair fall and causing everyone to look in their direction.
"Calm down a little bit, man," Aron said, having a hard time stopping himself from laughing out aloud after witnessing his friend's reaction.
After apologizing to everyone with embarrassment, Felix sat down and replied to his friend, "How the fuck did you find out that much? And how the heck do you even expect me to be calm after what you just said?"
"Sorry!" Aron apologized, still a bit amused by his friend's reaction.
"So what do you plan to do with all of them?"
After a moment, Felix asked before asking another question as if he had thought of something.
"And do you have anything else in your mind?"
"Oh yeah, I also have the solution for all those vulnerabilities," Aron answered calmly.
"WHAT? Oh, for fuck's sake, Aron, just say everything at once! Don't make me have several near heart attack situations at every interval," Felix grumbled.
"I want you to use these solutions to make them double the payment in return for including both the vulnerabilities and the solution pack together." Aron lightly explained his plan..
"Oooh, now I understand why you would need a lawyer. Just with the number of vulnerabilities you have discovered, they will need to pay millions, but if you also provide them with the solutions to these vulnerabilities, not only will it save them time but it will also make them have a step ahead of their competitors," Felix continued speaking, because the longer the time passed, the more his mind came with ideas on how to exploit these vulnerabilities to their benefit.
The duo of friends continued talking for 2 more hours until they agreed to have one more meeting before they went to have their meeting with Facebook.
However, Aron decided to call Sarah on his way home, because he knew that the longer he postponed doing so, the longer the nagging he would have to deal with in the future.
….
Aron dialed Sarah's number nervously, expecting her not to pick it up in a fit of anger, but to his surprise she picked up and answered the phone, however, with a hint of anger in her voice she asked. "Hello, who is this?", acting as if she didn't recognize him.
Aron replied with a wry smile on his face, "Hi Sarah, it's Aron. I know you know it's me and I wanted to apologize for not answering your call. When I got dismissed from the university, I was really struggling to cope with the situation and thus ended up not answering anyone's calls."
Aron then continued, "I also lost many friends during that time. It was really tough to deal with, especially because they didn't even try to verify what was going on before abandoning me. Now that I've had some time to think about it, I can understand that ghosting you and everyone else was a real dick move. I'm sorry for hurting you and I hope that you can forgive me."
Sarah was initially taken aback by Aron's apology since she was expecting him to reply to the banter like he usually did whenever he had a problem, but after a moment of silence, her tone softened, "Sorry for answering like that, also thank you for apologizing, Aron. I was really worried about you when you didn't answer my calls and I had some idea as to what was really going on but I didn't know that there would be people who would abandon you. It hurt more knowing that you didn't try to reach out, but I now understand that you were also going through a really tough time."
After a moment of pause from both sides, Sarah asked.
"So how are you coping and are you fine now?"
Aron sighed in relief, grateful that Sarah had understood, "I really appreciate your kindness, Sarah. It was a dark time for me, however, now I'm already getting back on my feet, one step at a time."
"Aron. I'm always there for you, you know that right?" Sarah replied, her tone warming up.
"Yeah, I know that you are always on my side. It's just that I didn't want to stress you while you were busy dealing with your graduation and other things."
With that, the two continued to chat for a while, catching up on each other's lives and making plans to meet up soon after his upcoming meeting with Facebook was concluded.
After finally ending the call, Aron felt as if a heavy weight had been lifted off his shoulders as he reconnected with a friend who had stood by him during all of the difficult times in the past, and he knew that he had made the right decision to reach out now to reconnect and apologize to her.
After the call, Aron rushed back home to have dinner with his family, after which he cleaned himself up, helped his younger brother, Henry, with his homework, put him to sleep, went back to his room, spent some time thinking about the future, before falling asleep as he dreamt of a bright future that lay ahead for him and his family and friends who remained on his side.
