My autobiography is definitely not a tragedy!
Chapter 542 - 353: Scientific Research Has a Lot of Randomness

Chapter 542: Chapter 353: Scientific Research Has a Lot of Randomness

Across the ocean, at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

"A seismic event in the medical community? Does this paper carry that much clout?"

The individual sitting behind the desk picked up the document and raised an eyebrow.

Naji Pel, a senior intelligence officer, was once the right hand man to the renowned "Pinocchio" of the Secret Service.

In March of 2018, he was appointed by the current President as the CIA director, becoming the highest-ranking official of the intelligence agency.

"Director, we’ve consulted numerous experts in the field, and without exception, they all gave the same answer.

The market fluctuations in the medical sector today are a response from the capital backing it.

I’ve heard that the top brass of pharmaceutical giants such as Roche, Pfizer, and Lilly are livid, and are currently convening emergency meetings to discuss how to deal with the impact of this event.

Just last year, the NIH (National Institute of Health) invested 1 billion US Dollars in related fields. It’s as if all that money has been thrown away, a situation serious enough to alarm the President."

The media moguls with their keen noses have already dispatched a multitude of reporters.

Unless something unexpected happens, this news will probably be exposed by tomorrow."

The deputy across from him gave a report to Naji.

"WTF! 1 billion? That’s the taxpayer’s money!

Those damn cheaters should all be lined up and shot!"

Naji slammed the desk.

He obviously didn’t truly care about the taxpayer’s money; it was just essential to maintain a politically correct posture.

"What is the intelligence analysis team’s assessment of the impact of this event?" he asked.

"Based on the assessment, current market products such as Simufilam and other related drugs are likely to suffer a catastrophic hit in sales, and the associated medical sectors will be dragged down as a result.

Furthermore, the recent scandal about the heart stem cell paper from Harvard Medical School has not completely settled down yet.

The consecutive academic scandals will greatly damage our country’s reputation in the biomedical field..."

Naji furrowed his brows.

"Hmm... Go and send a message, make sure those media outlets keep a tight lid on this and minimize the impact as much as possible, to preserve the international image of our sacred medical land!

Also get our fifth column in other countries to start cleaning up and eliminating the negative effects."

"Er... The impact of this is too significant; I’m afraid we cannot cover it up."

"Then couldn’t you beautify it from another angle, like praising our advanced and effective correction system?"

"But... the one correcting us this time is someone from Country Hua..." said the deputy with an odd look on his face.

"What?"

Naji paused for a moment, quickly flipping through the documents in his hands, and found it to be just as his subordinate had said...

"Zheng Dalu... Changqing Biological? Is this some unheard-of company from Country Hua? Why don’t I have any recollection of it?"

"No, they’re completely off the radar. The company is just a small biotech firm based in the Yangtze River Delta Region with total assets not exceeding 500 million US Dollars, and it’s privately owned.

According to our investigation, their primary products up to now have been only contract-manufactured generic drugs; they’re absolutely obscure."

"500 million US Dollars..."

Naji couldn’t help but twist his mouth.

million US Dollars was probably just the entry level for domestic pharmaceutical companies...

"Are you telling me that an international problem that we invest over 1 billion US Dollars into every year, and which many Fortune 500 pharmaceutical giants are tirelessly working on with massive investment, has been solved by a Hua-ian company whose assets don’t even amount to a fraction of our yearly investments?

And they did it while stepping on our faces?"

The deputy spoke somewhat sheepishly.

"Director, you know, scientific research is very unpredictable..."

"Hmm... That’s true,"

Naji said with a somewhat resigned look, as if persuaded by the comment.

He glanced over the intelligence report again, then checked the time on his wristwatch...

Good! The market hasn’t closed yet.

He then picked up the phone and dialed a number.

"Hey! Nancy, long time no see... No big deal, just need to report a situation to you, Speaker of the House... Yes! It’s like this... Right! This is not favorable for maintaining stability in our financial market... Sure! What? Golf some other day? Certainly, and give my regards to your husband too."

Until the director hung up the phone, the deputy only watched quietly, standing off to the side, playing dumb.

He clearly knew who his director was calling; after all, "Congress-Mountain Stock God" was a name well-known to all...

However, politics and business are inseparable, and the political arena is just a revolving door.

Military executives become Secretaries of Defense, oil executives become Environmental Protection Agency heads, and Wall Street tycoons become Secretaries of the Treasury...

If you want to mix in here, you have to go through the revolving door, you absolutely cannot be the stumbling block...

Naji treated the hang-up as if he had done something completely natural and proceeded to handle the intelligence materials at hand.

"Captain of the Carnival, Baron Steve from Britain, arrested by Country Hua’s police for smuggling artifacts..."

He glanced at the intelligence report in his hand and then looked dissatisfiedly at his deputy.

"Is such a trivial matter even worth being placed on my desk? Do you think I have too much free time, is that it?"

"Director, this incident itself might not be significant, but according to intelligence from Britain, Country Hua’s police cracked the password lock of the latest Apple smartphone in just one day!"

"Hmm?" Naji frowned and then suddenly realized.

"One day? Did Apple send an engineer over there?

Hmph! A bunch of capitalists who bully the weak and fear the strong, always acting high and mighty when we ask for help, but now they’re all tails between their legs on someone else’s turf, aren’t they?"

"Sorry, Director, as far as we know, Apple didn’t even receive a request for assistance from Country Hua’s police."

"Hm? They didn’t?" Upon hearing this, Naji’s expression finally turned serious.

"Could it be just a fluke, like maybe they knew the unlock password of that Apple phone through some other means?"

"We originally thought so as well, which is why we didn’t pay much attention when the news first came in.

But a few days ago, just as our two intelligence officers were about to return home after completing their mission, they were suddenly apprehended before boarding their flight.

Upon reflection, it’s very likely that the Apple devices they were carrying were cracked, and certain files and communications gave them away...

Combining these two incidents, we have reason to believe... that Country Hua may have already mastered an unknown vulnerability in the latest Apple iOS X system!"

"What?" Naji’s eyebrows shot up.

"What does Apple say about this?"

"Apple’s headquarters was also shocked and wants to investigate, but Country Hua is tight-lipped, and we’re already sending our staff to investigate. We expect to have results back soon."

"Hmm..."

Naji furrowed his brows in thought.

This matter could be big or small.

On the one hand, history has proven that vulnerabilities will eventually be exposed and then patched.

As long as Country Hua makes widespread use of this technology, we will sooner or later be able to discover their cracking methods.

On the other hand, including those across the ocean, there are currently 900 million people in the world using Apple phones...

This is undoubtedly an exceptionally large user base.

Any minor issue, multiplied by such a massive number, becomes a problem that cannot be ignored!

An undetected vulnerability by Apple itself, if truly mastered by the other side, would be a significant problem for our own information security...

Because we still cannot assess how much risk this vulnerability poses to the safety of using the phones.

We certainly can’t have our people switch from Apple to Sanxin for their work phone, can we?

He pinched the bridge of his nose with a headache.

"Again with Country Hua! Even our CIA technical departments are still trying, how could they possibly do this with their level of technology?"

Although we have slowly come to regard the Eastern Kingdom as an all-around competitor, information technology has always been our forte.

"It truly is unbelievable. It is said that even Israel, which is making the fastest progress, has only just made a breakthrough, and it would still take time to crack it."

The deputy agreed and nodded, then spread his hands helplessly.

"But you know, scientific research is very much subject to chance..."

Naji: "..."

Chance! Again with chance? Is there any other explanation you can pull out of your hat?!

"As a professional intelligence officer, do you want to attribute all unexplained intelligence to probability theory?"

"Uh..."

Seeing the Director’s unfriendly gaze, the deputy felt sweat on his forehead and quickly added,

"Cough! Of course, the randomness in scientific discovery also necessarily relies on a solid technical foundation!

Director, as far as I know, in Country Hua there are only a handful of industry giants with that technical strength.

And the most likely possibility... is probably ’Hua Wei’!"

Hua Wei...

Hearing this name, Naji’s eyes narrowed slightly...