"Did you see anything strange?" Betty Ross asked the man operating the computer one-handed while drinking hot coffee.
Setting down his coffee, Henry rewound to a certain point in time. Pointing at the text on the screen, he said, "May I ask, is working overtime common here? For example, would anyone still use the computers in the middle of the night?"
"No, of course not. As you can see, there's no one else in the institute. It wasn't because of today's accident that everyone was told to rest. Normally, once work is over, everyone goes home to live their own lives."
After thinking for a moment, Betty Ross looked uncertain again. "But Bruce sometimes comes to the lab at night to do things. He's the project lead and places a lot of importance on so-called inspiration."
"Is that so?"
Betty Ross asked again, "Can we see what the person using the computer at this time did?"
"Let me see what I can find."
Wherever one went, one left traces behind, especially on a computer.
The Linux system itself kept command histories. Bruce Banner's homemade system did not distinguish between users; everyone went straight in with an account that had root privileges. So anyone could see everyone else's operations.
In addition, the files themselves had timestamps. Besides their creation times, they also had modification times. With a little comparison, the altered files could be found.
However, the filenames alone did not reveal the purpose of the modified files. Besides, these were not ordinary text files, but parts of an application.
So, after obtaining Betty Ross's consent, Henry continued his investigation. He discovered that, outside the control program used for the entire experiment, there was a simple batch executable disguised to look like something else.
Its purpose was to activate the functions