Are You Crazy? He’s only an Intern Lawyer?
Chapter 407 - 403: Forged Evidence? Liu Xiaotao’s Expertise

Chapter 407: Chapter 403: Forged Evidence? Liu Xiaotao’s Expertise

Liu Xiaotao had testified.

On the witness stand, he pointed the finger at Zhao Xiaoxiao and two others.

And the main target of his and Qin Yang’s accusations was surprisingly Zhu Erdan.

Was this an attempt to divide and conquer?

Zhang Wei pondered this question.

Was it a tactic to actively attack one of the three defendants with evidence, thereby giving the other two defendants a chance to plead guilty?

Or was it a strategy to focus on one individual, thereby affecting the jury’s overall impression of the three?

Zhang Wei couldn’t guess because Qin Yang was an experienced prosecutor, and it was difficult to determine what tricks he might use.

Overall, though, he needed to start considering his counterstrategy.

He quickly leaned over to Zhao Xiaoxiao beside him and whispered, "Second daughter, Zhu Erdan told me before that he did indeed miss deleting one photo during the attack but dealt with it immediately afterward. So how could this photo still appear among the prosecution’s evidence?"

"How long was the photo left over on the server?"

"It was only a few seconds. He deleted it quickly. I specifically asked about the timing," Zhang Wei answered while flipping through his notebook.

"A few seconds? Their internal audit tools might have detected it, or they might not have—hard to say..."

Zhao Xiaoxiao muttered as her eyes darted, then her gaze swept over the witness Liu Xiaotao.

"That uh, if Fatso really deleted it, it’s possible that the photo is forged."

"Forged?"

Zhang Wei was shocked; that was the prosecution’s evidence, how could it be forged?

Zhao Xiaoxiao beckoned Zhang Wei with her finger, and naturally, he leaned closer to whisper back and forth with his "second daughter."

"I’m telling you, we all have our specialties. Zhu Erdan likes hacking into data. Sending pictures is indeed his M.O., while Keyboard loves tinkering with electronic devices, researching some clever and precise tools. As for that guy on the witness stand, his forte is forging data."

"You’re sure it’s forged?"

"It’s possible. I don’t know if that fatso deleted it on time. Honestly, I don’t trust any of these guys!"

Speaking, Zhao Xiaoxiao pouted her lips, showing a face of distrust toward the other two.

There was no help for it; there was already one traitor among them.

It wouldn’t be surprising if a second or even a third appeared.

In Zhao Xiaoxiao’s mind, besides herself and the guy beside her, everybody else was untrustworthy!

As for Zhu Erdan and Defendant Liu Dashun?

Sorry, they were nothing more than passersby with common interests and hobbies.

"Forged, adept at mixing the fake with the real?"

Zhang Wei looked at the spectator’s bench, his eyes on Liu Xiaotao.

"But Senior Procuratorate Qin also said that network signatures are unique, didn’t he?"

"Yes, but who says that the signature in the photo is actually Fatso’s?"

"Oh, now that you mention it, that does make sense!" Zhang Wei understood.

He wasn’t very knowledgeable about computers. His biggest strengths when it came to computers were turning them on and off and browsing the web for information.

Data, environment, code, infrastructure—he was clueless about all of it.

Naturally, he also didn’t know how to identify network signatures.

By the same logic, how many among the jury and those in the spectator’s bench were professional IT experts?

They naturally couldn’t determine whether the so-called network signature was genuine.

All they knew was that the prosecution’s Senior Procuratorate had mentioned something about network signatures, and there was testimony and accusations from special departments, so they believed it must be true.

But if the photo was forged and the network signature in the photo was also forged, how could that be verified?

In the courtroom, apart from the three defendants and the tainted witnesses, no one else possessed this technology.

Not correct, there was one person on the spectator’s bench who also had enough expertise!

Zhang Wei turned his head and glanced at a corner of the spectator area.

There hid a person "fully armed."

Zhang Wei retracted his gaze and looked back at the court.

At this moment, Qin Yang continued his questioning of Liu Xiaotao.

"Witness, you said Defendant Zhu Erdan is skilled at stealing information, and he has done this quite a lot, but what about the other two defendants?"

"Defendant Liu Dashun is adept at tinkering with surveillance equipment; he even installs cameras on mice to bypass some ventilation ports for eavesdropping. As for Defendant Zhao Xiaoxiao, her techniques are more covert. She specializes in brute-forcing firewalls, causing massive outages in networks and servers."

"Oh, so one is good at surveillance and spying, while the other is adept at causing large-scale network paralysis?"

Qin Yang looked at Zhao Xiaoxiao and Liu Dashun with interest.

"Based on what you’ve said, it sounds like the harm caused by Defendant Liu Dashun is somewhat limited, but Defendant Zhao Xiaoxiao could cause significant economic losses and not a small danger to public safety, correct?"

"Yes."

Liu Xiaotao certainly wouldn’t pass up on an opportunity to showcase his knowledge, and promptly gave an example: "Last July, Ghost attacked the central processor of a large foreign financial institution, causing the financial operations of the entire country to halt for more than a week. The direct economic loss is said to be in the tens of billions, with the subsequent collateral damage being immeasurable."

Qin Yang raised his hand again as a cue, and Tan Yingying clicked frenetically on the PowerPoint.

The projection screen at the back immediately displayed relevant reports.

"As everyone can see, in reports like this, the cybersecurity department of that nation couldn’t even trace which country the hacker came from. It’s fair to say this hacker is extremely formidable."

Qin Yang began with praise, but then his tone chilled, "But what if, this hacker’s target had been our Dragon Country?"

As soon as these words were said, the courtroom fell silent.

Yes.

Thankfully, the attack happened abroad, but even so, it caused such massive losses.

If it were to target financial institutions within our own country, wouldn’t the consequences be unimaginable?

How many people, like the former employees of Yuanfeng Enterprise, would lose their jobs, not to mention possibly their life savings?

Allowing someone capable of such harm to roam free is indeed a very dangerous matter.

No one wishes to live in perpetual fear.

Qin Yang’s goal was precisely this, but he decided to add another cut.

"By the way, witness, I’m somewhat curious, after this Ghost hacker breached a nation’s financial system, how did she behave?"

Liu Xiaotao lowered his head to recall, and then immediately said, "She was quite smug, even boasting about her achievements in chat rooms. I feel that if one day she takes a fancy, she might just launch a second or even third such attack."

"Oh, smug, huh? So that’s like a child who, once experiencing joy, can’t help but seek it out again."

Qin Yang said, turning to emphasize to the jury: "Some things, after happening for the first time, lead to a second, a third, and countless repeats."

"Especially when criminals realize that they can do these things without facing any legal consequences, their audacity will increase accordingly."

"I firmly believe being unrestrained turns anyone into a beast, and that’s our duty as prosecutors. We must bring all offenders before the law to show people that crime comes at a cost. Only when individuals are restrained and possess self-control can society truly be stable."

With that, he raised his hand toward the defense bench, his tone intensifying: "The three individuals on the defense bench are clearly destabilizing factors. Given the right opportunity, the level of destruction they could wreak on the internet is beyond imagination!"

On both the jury and audience benches, many nodded, evidently agreeing with Qin Yang’s words.

When a person possesses power that exceeds those of ordinary individuals, and lacks restrain, they may pose a danger to others.

It’s for this reason that society requires such restraint, and why law is necessary to maintain order.

Qin Yang’s speech resonated with many, and at the same time, they looked at the three accused with clear animosity.

"Judge Li, my questions for this witness are finished."

The prosecutor’s speech had gone over very well and Qin Yang naturally returned to his seat with satisfaction, smiling.

"Senior Procuratorate Qin, impressive!" Even Zhang Lang gave Qin Yang a thumbs up.

"Mr. Zhang, stay calm and let’s see how the defense attorney deals with this!"

As for Zhang Wei, Qin Yang barely considered him an opponent, but some vigilance was still necessary.

"Hmph, with Senior Procuratorate Qin’s statement, I doubt Zhang Wei will be able to stir up much turmoil!"

Zhang Lang looked very confident, his eyes filled with strong disdain and ridicule as he looked at Zhang Wei.

And under the scrutiny of everyone, Zhang Wei slowly stood up.

"Hello, witness!"

He approached Liu Xiaotao with a smile, beginning his questioning.

"Hello, attorney,"

Liu Xiaotao replied, still composed, as he had practiced this many times in the past few days.

"Witness, you talked about a lot just now, including digital signatures, foreign cyber-attacks, and so on. These are all issues that we ordinary people hardly see, aren’t they?"

"This..." Liu Xiaotao didn’t know how to respond.

Whether others could see it or not, what did it have to do with him?

"Oh, sorry, that question might be tough for you to answer, so let me be more direct. The last cyberattack you mentioned, did the local cybersecurity department catch the perpetrator?"

"It seems, no."

"So that means, the hacker behind the attack could be anyone, right?"

"Ah, this..."

Liu Xiaotao didn’t know how to respond.

"Objection, the defense attorney is speculating!"

Qin Yang was not about to let Zhang Wei get away with it and immediately stood up to interrupt.

"Judge Li, I believe it was the prosecution that began with speculation!"

Just when Old Li was about to speak, Zhang Wei also spoke up to interrupt him.

"The prosecution, without any definitive evidence, accuses my client Zhao Xiaoxiao of being the real culprit behind last July’s international hacker attack. This is an unfounded speculation. Isn’t this the prosecution’s attorney speculating?"

"This..." Old Li was also in a dilemma; what you’re saying makes it seem like indeed the prosecution hasn’t submitted any evidence.

"But we have the chatroom records!" Liu Xiaotao became anxious and hurriedly interjected.

"Oh, the chatroom records!"

Zhang Wei simply laughed and immediately returned to his seat to pull out his phone.

"Then I’ll send a message to my girlfriend now, saying that I am the mastermind behind the hacker attack last July, and then brag extensively about my actions. Do you think she would believe it?"

He actually opened WeChat, found Xia Qianyue at the top of his contacts list, opened the chat window, and began composing a message.

A message was truly sent out in front of everyone in the courtroom.

Ding!

In the front row of the witness stand, Xia Qianyue’s phone buzzed once.

Everyone witnessing this scene had a strange expression on their face.

Good grief!

You’re throwing dog food in court again?

So what if you have a girlfriend?

But more people looked puzzled because they all knew Zhang Wei couldn’t possibly be the protagonist in the hacking incident.

"Chatrooms are, theoretically, a place where you can say whatever you want. You can send any message, even if you claim to be a reincarnated immortal or a traveler who can journey through different worlds. No one cares what you say because many people chat just to vent; most of the content they share is for amusement and entertainment."

"Just like many men say unrealistic things to make their girlfriends happy, things they can’t guarantee."

"Yet based solely on some chat records, you depict my client Zhao Xiaoxiao as a notorious cybercriminal. Isn’t that a bit too arbitrary?"

"This..." Liu Xiaotao looked at Zhang Wei, already at a loss for words.

But Zhang Wei was brimming with confidence, and the source of his confidence stemmed from his second daughter’s faith in her own abilities.

The reason she was known as TheGhost was naturally that she moved like a shadow on the internet, a true Ghost!

Because of this, she hadn’t left any traces during her hacking actions, so naturally, she couldn’t be caught.

And not being caught meant there was no evidence to prove that she was behind those hacking attacks.

Without evidence, Zhang Wei was free to play his cards, right?

"Witness, please tell me, during last July’s international hacker attack, did the investigating agency explicitly list my client Zhao Xiaoxiao as a criminal suspect?"

"This... seems not."

"Then aside from the chat records, does the prosecution have any other evidence to prove my client was involved in that attack?"

"No..."

"Then have you personally seen my client Zhao Xiaoxiao using hacking techniques to breach foreign and domestic security data and steal confidential information?"

"I haven’t seen that either..."

"Well, there you have it. You haven’t seen it with your own eyes or heard it with your own ears, and you accuse my client based solely on some chatroom records. Isn’t this just trying to make something out of nothing?"

"Objection!"

Seeing how Zhang Wei questioned, Qin Yang stood up again.

"I retract my last statement!" Zhang Wei smiled faintly and acted before Old Li could speak.

Old Li rolled his eyes in exasperation and thought, "Kid, you are impressive, even able to predict the future."

The atmosphere in the court shifted slightly.

In the same back row of the hearing area, the fully equipped man finally lifted his head, and under the sunglasses and mask, a hint of excitement appeared on his face.

At the prosecution bench, Zhang Lang’s face darkened.

He gave Liu Xiaotao on the witness stand a secret glance, and the latter immediately understood.

"But I have a network signature, and that’s tangible evidence!"

"I am glad that you finally brought up the matter of the network signature!"

But Zhang Wei was already well-prepared for this move, and he approached Liu Xiaotao with a smile.

"Witness, you just mentioned a few techniques that my clients may be proficient at. So I am very curious, since you can chat with them in the same chat room, are you a decent hacker yourself?"

"I am!" Liu Xiaotao did not deny it.

"Good, then I’d like to ask, what is your specialty?"

"This..."

"Let me put it this way then, is your specialty forging data, especially forging other people’s information, forging ID cards, forging login credentials of company executives, and even forging some people’s network signatures?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the whole court was abuzz.

Didn’t they just say that network signatures were unique to each person, like fingerprints, and couldn’t be forged?

So how come you can now say they can be forged?

"In fact, network signatures are not fingerprints!"

Zhang Wei looked toward the jury and explained, "Fingerprints are innate, so they cannot be forged, but network signatures are just a string of character codes. Who says a string of characters and codes can’t be forged?"

"Moreover, the witness Liu Xiaotao is an expert in this field. He has been living off of internet fraud."

Saying this, Zhang Wei walked up to Liu Xiaotao again, "May I ask you, witness, have you ever forged the internal login credentials of an executive of a cosmetic company, logged into the company’s backend account, and taken more than 1 million of the company’s operational funds?"

"This..."

Seeing Liu Xiaotao struggling to answer, Qin Yang immediately stood up, "Objection, the question is irrelevant to the case at hand!"

Zhang Wei also looked toward the judge’s bench, "Judge Li, the question I asked pertains to the witness’s credibility, and I believe he must answer it!"

Old Li thought it over and found Zhang Wei’s argument reasonable.

"Witness, please answer the question!"

Qin Yang sat down reluctantly.

On the witness stand, Liu Xiaotao was also very reluctant but could only nod under the watchful eyes of the entire court.

"So, witness, did you forge a man’s phone number, send a message to his wife, and trick her into transferring 5 million to your offshore account?"

"Yes."

"Have you forged the email of a senior executive of a company, sent mass emails to its subsidiary groups, instructing them to make payments..."

"Yes..."

Zhang Wei continuously listed Liu Xiaotao’s dirty laundry, and since he knew the truth behind these wrongdoings, he could only nod in response to each one.

A few minutes later, the questioning was over.

"Witness, you can be said to live off of fraud, using your skills in forging information to do so many bad things."

"Now, you want the jury to believe that you, a person full of lies, who is most adept at deception, is speaking the truth in court. Don’t you think that’s a little disrespectful to our intelligence?"

Although the remark was said in a jesting tone, it caused many in the jury to nod in agreement involuntarily.

Indeed!

You are skilled at forgery, and now you say you didn’t forge anything, how can we just take your word for it?

"Witness, one last question. The evidence photo relating to my client, Defendant Zhu Erdan, which the prosecution displayed earlier, I suspect there is an issue with that photo. Tell me honestly, did you forge it?"

These words caused uproar throughout the courtroom.

Forging evidence, especially in the sacred court, is a serious felony.

If the witness admits it, then the prosecution’s use of forged evidence could potentially result in a mistrial.

In that moment, not to mention Zhang Lang on the prosecution’s side, even Qin Yang couldn’t keep his composure.

They had not anticipated that when Zhang Wei struck, he would go for a counter-kill!