Kid Digg confirmed for Ed that some suspicious activity was happening at the Technical University firewall and should be further examined. Ed got on the phone. He contacted the IT department and was put in contact with a system administrator named Dan Cheadle. “Hi Dan, this is Ed Grepworth of Tower Aegis. We’ve run across what we like to characterize as suspicious network activity on your web servers. We think you may be a target for either an attack, or someone may be trying to locate some type of confidential information.”

Cheadle was wary at first. But after Ranger Ed explained to him that Tower Aegis was an independent agency supported by benefactors. They studied network activity and weren’t trying to sell the University a bill of goods. Cheadle loosened up. Ed went on, “Would it be possible if we were to take a look at your firewall logs? I’ve got a guy that can data mine them for the information that may tell us what is going on there.”

Cheadle asked him how much data he would need to get a handle on the activity. “I only happened across this, so I can’t say for sure. But I know the activity happened last night, so if I could have about a week’s worth of logs, that would give us a good start” Ed said. “We’ll be glad to work with you on this, to let you know what we are finding. I’m sure you will be a big help to us, too, if we see where it is leading, you may be able to put your finger on what it is better than us. You know your systems and network.”

Cheadle was bolstered by Ed's candor. agreed to copy the week’s worth of activity to a dvd and have it at the front window for Ed to pick up. Ed assured him that he would impart any information that could help them avoid a disaster if his suspicions ended up being proven to be more than just an anomaly.

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