Learning English

Callie
Hit me.

Nikesh
Right, so the company’s files were taken ransom with this computer virus – malware, last night. It’s pretty simple, the files are stolen and held until the ransom is paid. In this case twenty five thousand pounds. The threat is usually either to delete them, or to publish them online. According to Mrs Arnott, the threat here was to publish. They’ve got some high profile clients – privacy is important.

Callie
And people pay these things?

Nikesh
Yeah, it happens a lot. They’re smart enough to ask for amounts of money that people might be able to scrape together.

Callie
Who is “they”?

Nikesh
Cyber criminals. Anyone – anywhere in the World, even a kid in California in his bedroom…

Callie
So Jamie got one of these last night…

Nikesh
Well it happened last night, but he only realised this morning.   

Juliet (on tape)
He called me from the car. Said we’d been hacked and he was on his way in. They’d sent emails to his personal account and the company’s.

Nikesh
And how did he seem on the phone?

Juliet
A bit shaky, shocked. I shouldn’t have told you. He made me promise to keep it a secret. I know it’s a lot of money, but I daresay he’s got savings and investments… The thing is, if the files were released… it’s not only his career that would be destroyed. Some of our clients, you know…

Nikesh
She wouldn’t talk after that. I think it occurred to her that she might be about to lose her job.

Callie
Ok, ok ok. So, the brother confirmed to me that he spoke to Jamie this morning. Apparently, Jamie called him asking for a loan. But reading between the lines, there’s not a lot of brotherly love going on there, and Paul, charmer that he is, said no.

Nikesh
Nice. So he’s broke, lost all of his savings, his business is being blackmailed and his brother…

Callie
…financial advisor of the year, by the way…

Nikesh
…won’t bail him out. So the next person… last person? he speaks to is…

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