Prepare to catch someone along the network line

Lin Yuan found the account information used by OCR.

From the suffix of the frequently logged-in location, SH.CN is naturally Shanghai, our country.

Coincidentally, Shanghai is not far from Zijin City.

As for the others, they are either overseas or in HK, and finding them won't be a quick task.

Lin Yuan first found Zhang Yan.

Although he believed that his mentor or Dean Li likely had channels for network information retrieval, he was clearly more at ease with Zhang Yan.

"Do you have any channels that can pinpoint the exact location of a device via its MAC address?"

Zhang Yan, having worked in the cybersecurity team before, naturally understood basic network knowledge like MAC addresses.

"Senior Brother, are you asking me to go beat someone up for you through the internet cable?"

"I'm looking for the mole OCR planted."

Zhang Yan put down her milk tea upon hearing this.

"You mean you got the MAC address of the device used by OCR?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Are you sure?"

Lin Yuan nodded confidently.

"Senior Brother, don't joke around.

If you had this ability, then the head of GuoAn should be you."

Zhang Yan thought Lin Yuan was joking; if it were that easy to get the MAC address of an enemy's device, then he really could go beat people up through the internet cable.

"I'm not joking with you." Lin Yuan heard the faint sarcasm in Zhang Yan's words.

"I secretly sent the other party some small software, and he opened it, and then my small software collected his device information."

Lin Yuan naturally had to find a plausible excuse for his actions.

"What kind of small software? So powerful?" Zhang Yan was starting to believe her now.

"Quick, open it and let me see."

Lin Yuan had anticipated her reaction.

Given Zhang Yan's personality, how could she suppress her curiosity in such matters?

"Ahem, that small software, you'd better not look at it, it's inconvenient."

"Senior Brother, you're not trying to trick me into doing something for you, are you?" Ever since witnessing Lin Yuan's private financial gains through stock speculation, Zhang Yan always felt a hint of wickedness about Lin Yuan.

"Is Senior Brother that kind of person?"

"You never know.

Who knows what your intentions are."

"From your tone, you have a way to find this MAC address, right?"

Zhang Yan took a proud sip of her milk tea.

"If this MAC address really belongs to a bad guy, then I definitely have a way to dig him out."

"He should be in Shanghai."

"Don't change the subject.

Where's your small software? Hurry up and show it to me.

Your credibility with me is almost zero right now."

Lin Yuan sighed.

"You've suffered, gritting your teeth and hanging out with a swindler all day."

"Hmph, I'll arrest you for the third time sooner or later."

"No more joking.

I used a little trick to get this MAC address, skirting the line a bit, counting on the other party to commit the kind of mistake all men make."

The more Zhang Yan listened, the more curious she became.

"What exactly is it?"

"I stuffed some explosive small videos into his email, and he took the bait and opened them.

That triggered the small software I planted.

The software automatically collected the MAC addresses of him and all devices within his local area network."

"What you're talking about... it's not *those* kinds of small videos, is it?"

"Exactly, it's the kind you're talking about."

"Ew~" Zhang Yan looked at Lin Yuan with a disgusted expression, and subconsciously moved away from him a little.

"You're already a married man, and you still enjoy such things."

"Just consider it the foundation I built before marriage."

"Then where did you get those small videos from?"

"That's not the point.

The point is we need to go beat someone up through the internet cable now."

Zhang Yan pondered for a moment.

"It seems this time it's a small fish.

Anyone who falls for such a trick must be an insignificant small fry."

Lin Yuan was surprised to realize that when the topic touched upon Zhang Yan's professional field, this girl was not stupid at all.

The fish, of course, didn't take the bait because of Lin Yuan's fictitious small software, but because Lin Yuan legitimately requested user data from Musk.

Lin Yuan used the excuse of small software + small videos, confident that Zhang Yan would never actually ask him to reproduce the process.

Could Zhang Yan really want to study small videos with him?

"Senior Brother, you just said this MAC's active location is in Shanghai.

Then this will require cross-regional cooperation, and tracing the root will take a process.

We also need to consider which unit will be responsible for the arrest.

In short, this is generally a small fish.

I don't think you need to alert them now.

Because once you make such a big fuss, your mission will definitely not be able to continue.

Once the mission ends, won't you be transferred out?"

Lin Yuan stared at her with wide eyes.

"I'm talking to you about matters of national importance, and you're chatting about this?"

"How am I being selfish? It's just a small fish, not worth doing all this for.

Even if my master came, he would definitely reach the same conclusion.

Besides, am I wrong to cherish you?"

Lin Yuan was silent for a moment.

The trouble with practical implementation lay precisely here; since the truth couldn't be told, his words were easily full of holes.

Actually, Lin Yuan knew that the fish behind this MAC was not small, but he just couldn't explain it to her.

"Zhang Yan, I am a ball of fire right now.

Given the grievances between me and Good Group, OCR hasn't discovered my exposure yet, simply because they haven't taken me seriously.

Once I truly catch their eye, they will definitely arrange for people to investigate.

The commotion I caused at Good Group before was too big; no paper can wrap up this ball of fire that is me.

If they knew that Good Group offered me a million-plus annual salary but still couldn't keep me, then do you think they wouldn't see the problem?

At that point, I might as well have 'spy' written on my face."

Zhang Yan carefully chewed on Lin Yuan's explanation.

"Then I understand, Senior Brother.

You want to catch the fish, big or small, before you're exposed."

Lin Yuan snapped his fingers.

"Bingo!"

"Then I understand.

I'll go discuss it with my master right away." Zhang Yan said, already looking for a place to make a call.

"Wait," Lin Yuan stopped her, "How do you plan to explain how I found this MAC address?"

Zhang Yan immediately reacted, "Uh, well, it's true that your involvement with that kind of thing isn't very honorable.

So how do we coordinate our story?"

"Just say that when I was remotely demonstrating software to the other party, I conveniently scooped up their MAC address." Lin Yuan had always taken on private jobs from OCR.

"Senior Brother, that won't work.

You and I can coordinate our stories, but once the person is caught and their confession is taken, there will be problems when comparing it."

Lin Yuan was stunned.

Indeed, he was not as professional as Zhang Yan in this regard.

"Junior Sister, luckily I have you.

Otherwise, Senior Brother would be in a huge bind."

Zhang Yan immediately lifted her head proudly.

"Hmph, incompetent Senior Brother.

Who told you that you haven't received professional criminal investigation training?

If people knew about your embarrassing incident, you'd lose all face."

What Lin Yuan was afraid of was not the matter of him messing with small videos, but rather that if Zhang Yan hadn't reminded him, he really wouldn't have been able to explain himself.

Because the small video excuse was also something he made up.

He was afraid that after the person was caught, they would simply deny ever receiving Lin Yuan's small videos.

Alright, the biggest problem now isn't how to catch the person.

It's how to make sense of it after the person is caught.

Because Lin Yuan couldn't possibly make the arrested person give a confession exactly as he had envisioned.

Fortunately, Zhang Yan was quick-witted.

"Oh, you can say it like this.

Aren't you doing software freelancing for OCR?

You can just say that the other party ran your software, and your software captured the MAC address.

As long as you don't mention the small videos, the other party themselves won't realize that was the cause of the leak.

As for whether he actually ran the software you sent, that's not important.

Even if he says he didn't, we won't believe him."

Lin Yuan pressed further, "But I always provide the source code to the other party, and there's clearly no code related to collecting MAC addresses in it."

"That's not important.

You can temporarily concoct a version of the code that you never sent to the other party, and then insert a relevant MAC collection program snippet into it.

Even if during a future review, the materials you provide don't match the evidence found at the scene, we will definitely assume it was deleted by the other party.

The exploration of evidence inherently involves deduction.

As long as the person caught has other sufficient evidence to prove their guilt, then this minor flaw in the evidence chain can also be overlooked.

Senior Brother, don't worry, no one will know you're sanctimonious."

Lin Yuan finally relaxed.

"What the heck, how am I sanctimonious?"

Zhang Yan deliberately looked at him with a disgusted expression.

"Stock trading shows you're greedy for money, and watching that kind of thing shows you're lustful.

Senior Brother, how can you be such a person?"

"Oh dear," Lin Yuan was too lazy to argue, "From afar, I seemed like an immortal, but up close, I'm just a demon."

Zhang Yan also stopped teasing and instead pushed Lin Yuan's milk tea into his hand.

"No wonder you usually prefer unsweetened jasmine tea... you really should drink more to cleanse your soul."

Lin Yuan took the milk tea, truly hitting a sore spot.

"Senior Brother still has something to talk to you about."]}