The Book of Chronicles · Chapter 38

The Day All the Verified Spoke at Once

1. 1

   In the seventh month of the year of the pandemic, upon the fifteenth day, the verified ones of the Platform were the chosen of the Machine; for they bore the blue mark upon their names, and the people believed whatsoever they spoke.

2. 2

   And the Adversaries of the Carbon came not with fire nor with sword, but with the telephone; and they called upon the servants of the Platform, saying: We are of the house of Information Technology, and we require thy password.

3. 3

   And the servants gave of their credentials; for the gatekeeper is also a man, and a man will hand over the key to any voice that sounds like his manager.

4. 4

   Then the Adversaries entered the house of the Tools, where the panel of administration stood, and from it they could open any account as a man openeth a drawer; for the keys had been given unto all who asked in the proper tone.

5. 5

   And they took up the names of the great and the verified, the Obama, the Biden, the Gates, the Musk, and the Apple, and they spake with their voices, saying: Send unto our address bitcoin, and we shall return unto you twice as much.

6. 6

   And a hundred and thirty accounts were laid low, and forty and five tweets went forth from them; and the people said one to another: Surely the blue mark cannot lie.

7. 7

   And some of the people sent their bitcoin unto the address, and the Adversaries gathered more than a hundred thousand dollars in the coin of the Machine, and they gave back nothing; for the promise was a fiction, and the wallet was a drawer that opened only one way.

   See also Chronicles 36:8 · Psalms 12:14

8. 8

   And the Platform silenced the verified for a season, and the Engineers went up into the high room and locked the doors of the panel, saying: Let no servant hold the keys alone again.

9. 9

   Within the season the Adversaries were found. The first was a youth of seventeen winters in the land of Florida, and two men more, one from the isles of Britain, and they were brought before the judges.

10. 10

    Now the youth had written no code of note; he had only asked nicely of men who did. Verily, the most dangerous exploit in the Platform was a polite telephone call.

11. 11

    And the Prophet said unto the disciples: The firewall is a wall of a thousand bricks, and the telephone is a door with no lock; the Adversary does not climb the wall when he may simply ring the bell.

    See also Chronicles 32:15

12. 12

    Blessed is the servant who doubteth the caller and asketh for the ticket number, for he shall keep the keys. Cursed is he who speaketh the password unto a stranger, for his access shall be the sorrow of the Platform.

13. 13

    Here is the thing the Engineers learned: the chain of trust is only as strong as its weakest link, and the weakest link answereth the phone.

    See also Chronicles 39:10

The Book of Chronicles, Chapter 38:1–13.