The Super Way to Super Encryption
"I got it chief, I got it," shouted cub reporter Jimmy Olsen, knocking down a floral arrangement as he bounded past Bertha the secretary into editor Perry White's office.
"Great Caesar's Ghost, Olsen, what's the meaning of this?" bellowed White as Olsen breathlessly threw a black leather case on his desk.
"I finally got it! I got a picture of Superman changing back into regular clothes!" screamed Olsen. "The solution to the greatest mystery in Metropolis history is sitting on my laptop! I managed to snap a digital photo of Superman when he went into a phone booth around the corner and came out dressed in regular clothes!"
Stone faced as always, Perry White turned to his intercom and pressed it. "Bertha, send Lane and Kent in here right now." Turning to Jimmy, he said, "Olsen, this had better not be another false alarm. This obsession you and Lane have with Superman's identity is getting out of hand!" Pressing the intercom button again, he yelled into it: "Bertha, tell them to hold the presses!"
"But just think of how big a story this really is, Chief," said Olsen. "Imagine running a story and an interview with Mr. X! We'll sell a million papers! No, two million! No - everybody in Metropolis will buy 5 copies! Gee Whiz! That's 40 million papers, Chief!"
"Alright, alright, we'll look at your picture," said White. "But it had better be the real thing. And stop calling me Chief!"
Just then, Lois Lane and Clark Kent, two of the Planet's veteran reporters came into the room. "You wanted to see us, Perry?" asked Lois as they sat next to Olsen in the conference area.
"Yes, it seems young Olsen here has a big story, so I wanted you and Kent to have a look and see if it really is what he says it is. Olsen says he has a photo of Superman coming out of a telephone booth in his secret identity," said the editor.
Clark Kent did a double take. Kent, of course, was Superman's civilian alter ego, but he had been very careful to keep his secret. His earthling parents, Jonathan and Martha, had taught him well: Never let anyone know of his super powers. It's dangerous for them, they told him, and dangerous for you.
It was a lesson Clark had taken to heart. Now he sat pensively, wondering where and how he had slipped up. Was it possible that he had failed to notice Jimmy when he scouted the area?
Suddenly, Kent was jolted back to reality. "Clark, wake up," Lois said as she jostled him. "This is it! Finally, all of us are going to have a chance to get to know who the real Superman is. What can you be thinking of after hearing that? Or don't you want to know Superman's real identity?" asked Lois coyly.
Clark, of course, knowing that Lois had long suspected him of knowing more about Superman than he had let on, was quite aware of the meaning behind the comment. "Oh, I was just thinking," he said as he turned to Jimmy. "Did you recognize the person who came out of the booth? Was it someone famous? A policeman, perhaps?"
"That's the problem, Clark," answered Jimmy. "I couldn't get a good look - or a good shot. But you know I'm a whiz with Photoshop - and my digital camera is the best one around. The best! I know I can get a clear image with the software. Then we'll finally know the truth about Superman!"
"Yes, I can see that you're right Jimmy," Clark said." Perry and Lois, you'll have to excuse me for a few moments. I've got something very important to take care of."
"Oh come on, Clark, what could possibly be more important than this," asked Lois. "Afraid the picture will show us something you'd rather not see?"
"No, not at all, Lois," replied Clark, as he rose to leave. "It's just that I've got to make a call at midnight to a stool pigeon who promised to spill the dope about the racetrack scandal. If I don't call him when I promised, he might be afraid to talk later. Anyway, it looks like you folks have got this under control. I'll be back before the late edition comes out to see the printed photo," he said as he walked out into the hall.
"That Kent," muttered Lois after he had left the room. "I'm sure he knows more about this than he's letting on."
Meanwhile, Clark was thinking of a plan. "I've got to get to that laptop and destroy that picture," he thought to himself, as he rushed down the hall to the abandoned utility room and changed into - Superman!
Back in Perry White's office, the editor was saying, "Okay Olsen let's see it! Get the picture up on the screen."
"Right away, chief," said Jimmy. But at just that moment, the lights in the office went out! It was a building wide power failure! "Oh, no," groaned Olsen. Perry White, followed by Jimmy and Lois, got up and stomped out into the hallway, where he found Al, the maintenance man. "Al, what's the meaning of this?" screamed White.
"I'm on top of it, Mr. White! We should have power back in a few minutes," said Al.
Little did Al and Perry realize the cause of the power failure. Superman had shut off the main feed for the building. "Got to get at that laptop," he said. If I rush in and work at lightning speed, I can get to the picture before they see it. But what to do?"
Then, Superman/Clark remembered an interesting column he had read by the Planet's computer expert, the Newzgeek, about a great encryption program called SecurEngine. If he tried to erase the picture, Clark realized, Perry would just call in a security expert who would be able to unerase the file and reassemble the bits and bytes to restore the photo. But if he kept the file and encrypted it into something else, Perry and Lois would believe that Jimmy had simply goofed again, and that would be the end of it!
Working quickly at his Fortress of Solitude, where he had flown at super speed, Superman plugged the laptop into his LAN and quickly downloaded SecurEngine, which lets you encrypt any file automatically using one of six encryption algorithms, like DES, Blowfish, GOST (used by the Russian military), and others. Clicking on the Wipe command, he knew, would enable him to not only erase the file from the directory, but would overwrite the original file with a string of bytes so that it would be unrecoverable; all that would exist would be the encrypted file, which he could secure with an impossible to guess the password (the program requires at least six characters).
Quickly, Superman shut the laptop off and rushed back to Perry's office and deposited the laptop back on the desk and then flew back into the Planet's utility room, from which he merged again as Clark Kent - just as the lights were coming back on.
"Okay, Olsen," said White as Clark walked back into Perry's office. "Let's see it." Jimmy opened his copy of Photoshop and tried to load the Jpeg image. But instead of a picture, there were lines, letters and numbers! "Oh, no," cried Jimmy. "I messed up! I must have saved the picture in the wrong format!"
Perry White's face started to get red. "Oh, oh, Jimmy," said Lois. "I think you had better beat it." Jimmy didn't need a second warning as Perry opened his mouth and started bellowing.
Turning to Clark, Lois said, "Well, Clark, it looks like Superman's secret is still safe. Did you have anything to do with this?"
"Me?" asked Clark in wonderment. "What could a mild mannered reporter like myself have possibly done? You think I told Superman to fly into the room at super speed and doctor up that picture? Don't be ridiculous, Lois!"
"I wonder," answered Lois. "I wonder."
Download SecurEngine from http://www.brothersoft.com/securengine-23496.html. Free, for Windows 2000 and XP systems. Superman copyright DC Comics. Story is fictional and for entertainment purposes only. All dialogue made up by me and does not utilize images, actual dialogue, or creative property of any copyright holder of Superman comics, movies, or TV programs. Yadda yadda.
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