Elliot Richards is Vice President of Technical Support for Hawthorne Industries. He was in the office of the Vice President of Finance, Gary Peters. They were discussing computer security issues.
"Elliot we do have a major confidentiality problem," Gary said.
"The Head of security checked all office computers and found no breach. So, if an outsider is accessing data it is not from any of our office computers," Elliot replied.
"Then the information is being accessed at the officer level," Gary replied.
"With the President's authorization I can monitor the officers' home business computers if he thinks it is necessary. Given the sensitivity of privacy verses security, I would personally conduct the monitoring activities," Elliot told him.
Two days later Elliot had authorization. The President instructed him to personally find the security breach. It was to be his primary assignment. From his office desktop computer Elliot began systematically and secretly accessing the home computer of the officers.
To begin his monitoring, he would routinely run a series of file searches to identify and list all of the business files that had been accessed at home. He was surprised to find file GFD2006 was constantly being updated on Gary Peters' computer. To investigate, he tried to open the file. It was password protected. It was clearly a company file name so he ran a special administrative program which would enable him to unlock the file. Minutes later the program dinged. He hit the open file icon to find out why General Financial Data for 2006 was constantly being accessed and changed. What popped up on the screen was not what he was looking for:
Gretchen's Fantasies & Diary 2006
It was a personal file. Immediately he closed it. However, he couldn't help but smile. He had only recently met Gretchen. Elliot judged her to be in her mid-thirties. Gary is 43 and Elliot is 29. Elliot recalled how she waltzed into the office, the perfect picture of wealth, beauty and social grace. His inadvertent discovery seemed to contradict her proper lady appearance. His curiosity grew. He wondered. What sort of entries would a wealthy socially connected married woman make in such a journal?
He resisted his growing urge to find out. However, he did allow himself to go back into his program and pull up the password it used to open her file. Password: BADGIRL popped up on his screen. His curiosity kept growing. Elliot wondered if his meeting Gretchen had been included in her diary. What did she really think of him? His curiosity was winning. Elliot decided to take a look. He opened Gretchen's diary and scrolled to the day he met her. Elliot started reading:
TUESDAY:
I had to take the Jag in for an oil change today. It seems like any time I have an unusual outing it can cause my suppressed erotic juices to flow. Today was a perfect case in point. I just knew from the moment I woke up that today was going to be one of those days. I had a sixth sense that today I might end up chronicling an illicit forbidden fantasy.
All be it futilely, I made an attempt to prevent my erotic imagination from surfacing. I figured my best defense would be offense. Attempting to keep my imagination in check I decided to be as sexually daring with Gary as he will ever allow. So when he was about to leave for work I struck. I followed him out of the kitchen and into the marble entry. He reached for the door and gave me a customary peck on the cheek. I launched my attack.