Dangerous Pursuit
If you want to listen:
Serdar was a fleet manager for a large logistics company in Turkey. The GPS devices they used to ensure the smooth running of daily operations were specifically the MiCODUS MV720 model. These devices allowed them to track the current locations and movements of all vehicles, and Serdar thought he had everything under control. However, the default passwords of the GPS devices had never been changed. It had never even occurred to Serdar that this system, which had been working flawlessly for years, could cause any problems.
One morning, while Serdar was drinking his coffee, a vehicle in the fleet suddenly stopped. At first, he didn’t care, because the vehicles could occasionally experience minor malfunctions. However, when the same problem was reported from other vehicles a few minutes later, things were not going well. His eyes locked on the map on the screen, the red warning lights started flashing. His heartbeat accelerated, and a strange restlessness filled him.
As Serdar watched the fleet from his office window, the warning sound echoed again. A few more vehicles had stopped. Serdar’s mind was in turmoil. The fleet’s sudden stop was a much more serious problem; there was an important route to deliver that day. His inner uneasiness was growing, but he was still trying to see it as an ordinary malfunction.
Meanwhile, Elif had just returned from a cybersecurity conference in England. Elif was a cybersecurity expert born in Turkey and educated in England. When she watched the presentation about security vulnerabilities in GPS devices at the conference, Serdar’s company immediately came to mind. She had learned that the MiCODUS MV720 devices contained hard-coded passwords that hackers could easily infiltrate. Elif knew that the devices were vulnerable to attack and thought about conveying this to Serdar.
Elif had to reach Serdar as soon as possible, because such security vulnerabilities could lead to major consequences. However, Serdar did not care much about such issues; after all, the system had been working flawlessly for years. This situation would cause trouble for Serdar, but he was not aware of it yet.
One day, one of the fleet’s vehicles suddenly stopped on the road. At first, Serdar thought it was a normal malfunction and contacted the fleet’s mechanics. “There’s probably a problem with the fuel system,” the mechanics said. They intervened and replaced some parts, but the vehicle still wouldn’t move. Serdar was confused; he couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
When the mechanics told him there was nothing physically wrong with the car, Serdar was filled with indescribable fear. He clenched his hands tightly together, and cold sweat began to form on his forehead. Elif's warning echoed in his mind. This was no ordinary malfunction. This could have been a cyber attack !
Serdar called Elif immediately, his hand shaking . "Elif, I need your help. We had our vehicles' fuel systems checked, but there seems to be no problem. Is this an attack?" he said. His voice was full of desperation.
Elif understood the situation immediately and warned Serdar immediately: "This could be a cyber attack. They could have hacked your GPS devices." Elif contacted her colleague Tom in the UK and Khaled in Dubai . Tom immediately took action to examine the security of the devices. Khaled, on the other hand, evaluated the situation from a broader perspective. "This could be the work of dangerous hackers like Ivan and Ravi ," he said.
Meanwhile, Russian hacker Ivan and his Indian partner Ravi targeted the GPS system. They easily infiltrated the system thanks to the hard-coded passwords in the MiCODUS MV720 device. As a first step, they stopped some of Serdar's vehicles in the fleet and then sent Serdar a small ransom demand.
When Serdar read the message on his phone, the last shred of hope inside him disappeared. “Ransom demand… If you don’t pay more, we will disable your fleet.” His throat went dry, cold sweat forming on his forehead. This had to be a joke, he thought, but his eyes caught the amount shining below the message. The numbers danced before his eyes. A warning sound, indicating that another vehicle had stopped, echoed through the office. The tension inside him had become unbearable.
Ivan and Ravi knew that they were only at the beginning of their plan. Serdar paid the ransom immediately so that the incident would not escalate further. However, the hackers decided to increase the ransom. A sly smile appeared on Ivan's computer screen. "This won't end here. We'll ask for more."
At that moment, a vehicle in the fleet veered off the road rapidly under the control of hackers. A driver’s panicked voice echoed over the radio: “I can’t control it! The brakes aren’t working!” Then the sound of a crash echoed all the way to Serdar’s office. Serdar’s mind went blank. The fear of the accident had settled on his chest. He put his hands to his head and had forgotten to breathe. “This is my fault…” he muttered. The hackers had not only stopped the vehicles, they had also begun to threaten lives.
Serdar had now fully understood that Ivan and Ravi posed a serious threat. His trust in Elif had increased. Elif made a plan with Tom and Khaled. As a first step, they had to cut off access to GPS devices. Tom developed special software to prevent the attack that infiltrated GPS devices. Elif aimed to stop Ivan and Ravi by following their digital traces. Khaled, on the other hand, was working to control the attack on a larger scale using his technical infrastructure in Dubai.
Ivan and Ravi thought they had the situation under control, but Elif and her team’s counterattacks were starting to take effect. Elif was trying to wipe her sweaty forehead as she quickly tapped on the keyboard. “Okay, we found Ivan and Ravi’s entry points,” she told Tom. Her mind was completely focused on this moment; any wrong move could ruin everything. Khaled called out quietly, “Come on, now is the time.”
Elif held her breath and sent the commands. The computer screen paused for a moment, as if the entire world had stopped at that moment. A deep silence… Then a red sign belonging to Ivan’s system flashed on the screen. “We caught them!” Elif said. This sentence released all the tension that had accumulated inside in an instant. After a few seconds of silence, a triumphant smile appeared on Elif’s face.
Ivan and Ravi's attacks had been stopped. They had managed to regain control of Serdar's fleet of vehicles. Serdar had learned many important lessons from this experience. He now understood that he needed to be much more careful about the security of his fleets.
He thanked Elif and said, "If it weren't for you, we could have lost our entire fleet." Elif smiled and replied, "Cybersecurity is just as important as physical threats. Don't forget to change your passwords again."
Serdar immediately put Elif’s suggestions into practice. The passwords on all GPS devices in the fleet were changed and stronger firewalls were added. Two-factor authentication was also made mandatory on every device. Serdar’s company was now much more secure, and he had become much more conscious of this issue.
Elif, Tom and Khaled knew how dangerous hackers Ivan and Ravi were, but they managed to repel this attack. They had now ruined Ivan and Ravi's game, but they were also aware that this was not a new threat. A new danger could arise in the cyber world at any moment.