Tina

President and founder of Evans Business Solutions, Tina is a fierce competitor and number cruncher who is always looking for a way to gain advantage in the industry by doing more with less. She has little tolerance for employees who play fast and loose with security. She and Extar Systems president Jim Tarskan are old colleagues.

Brian

Based in California, Brian is Evans Business Solutions' Senior iSeries Manager for the western US and Asia. He carried out a MessengerConsole implementation in 2003, and Tina has been thrilled with his management of the company's operations. He has risen rapidly through the ranks and recently received a job offer from Extar, which he rejected.

Nathan

Another programmer working on “the big project,” Nathan is a former employee of Extar. Young but gifted, his move to Evans was seen as a key addition to the company and a big blow to Extar. Peter is suspicious of Nathan, however, believing that Extar would have never let him go unless they planned to use him as a spy.

Michael

Son of the company’s VP of Sales, Michael is a junior at the University of Ft. Worth. During the Christmas holidays he was caught stealing customer data using his dad’s VPN connection. He is a gifted student who loves to hack into computers. Peter has warned Tina of the VPN security risk, but because the VP lives in Ft. Worth she is reluctant to do away with the remote access.

Jimmy

Kate’s teenage son, Jimmy, has been given the role of IT Manager in an upcoming Evans Webcast entitled “Is Your Security a Joke?” To prepare for the part he has spent several months helping out in the computer room at headquarters, giving him regular physical access to the iSeries. He once was suspended from school for hacking into the teacher’s computer and changing his grade.

Bill

Senior IT Manager for Techanada, and Jessica’s boss. Bill is trusted with sensitive information on Evans projects and customers. He recently suffered a total data loss after ignoring a recurrent system problem. His inconsistent procedures resulted in a five-month lapse in backups and the third system failure in six weeks cost Evans more than $1 million dollars in revenue. He’s in the doghouse with Tina and is afraid to show his face around the office.

Violet

A JPEG e-mail attachment with a hidden EXE extension, Violet is a sample photo from a racy website sent out to millions of users every day. Nathan, Jimmy, and many others at Evans headquarters look forward to this spam and open these photos without a second thought. Peter has issued many warnings about these types of messages and is certain that one day a photo is going to provide more than just visual excitement.

Slash

His friends call him Slash, and he's well-known in the hacker community as a pro at slipping into systems and making off with company data. He has a strong preference for technology and financial companies and has alleged ties to a terrorist network. He uses the Internet for most of his attacks, but has also been known to sniff out and use wireless networks that extend beyond company walls.

Debra

The office eccentric, Debra is Peter's secretary who plays flute in the community orchestra and has a fetish for dressing in medieval clothing. Recently she's been roaming the office with her flute attempting to rid all of the computers of viruses just as Peter Piper led all of the mice out of the village. Peter has told her that this approach simply won't work. Tina is on the verge of letting her go.

Kate

Director of iSeries Operations, Kate oversees global operations of Evans’s computer network. Samuel and Brian report to her. She has an almost eerie ability to anticipate problems before they happen, and is trusted implicitly by Tina and Peter. Her full access to all company systems gives her the ability to correct a problem or modify systems from any Evans office worldwide.

Jessica

Member of the technical staff for Techanada, Evans’s key Canadian reseller. Jessica is in charge of monitoring the iSeries for errors or other problems and correcting them. Although her system generally runs smoothly, she spends a lot of weekends in the computer room. Recent system problems have created hardships for her family life and she accuses Evans of passing infected data to her iSeries.

Samuel

Senior iSeries Manager for the eastern US and Europe, Samuel is based in Ohio. In 2003 he oversaw implementation of MessengerConsole on the iSeries systems he coordinates. Once reprimanded for allowing a cascading systems failure in Europe, he has a lukewarm relationship with Tina. Despite this, he is considered a reliable and trustworthy member of the IT management.

Jason

A fierce fan of the Cleveland Browns, Jason is Samuel’s right-hand man. After missing most of the 2002 NFL season thanks to systems problems at the Ohio office, he was key in bringing about the MessengerConsole implementation, which allowed him to follow his team in 2003.

Diane

Controller of Evans Business Solutions, Diane has full disclosure of the company’s finances. As holder of several thousand shares of company stock, Diane has a vested interest in the success of the company’s surprise announcement. Unbeknownst to Tina, however, Diane also holds considerable stock in Extar.

Peter

CSO for Evans Business Solutions, Peter is Tina’s brother and is in charge of systems security for global operations. He is also responsible for keeping the information flow to the media in check and for signing off on security clearance for marketing plans and announcements. Peter often works from his home and depends on his flash drive to shuttle files back and forth, not trusting VPN connections. He is suspicious of many within the company.

Sandy

A door-to-door salesman for the virtual age, Sandy is what many would call a spammer. She sends out mail from her home offering a whole slew of products to people she’s never met. Competitive advantage is very important to her, so she’s slyly crafted her mail with HTML code that executes when the mail is viewed, downloading Trojans onto systems with less than adequate security.

Matt

A programmer working on the development of Evans’s new surprise product, Matt had been unhappy for more than a year about being overlooked for promotion. Six months ago he was fired and is currently a waiter in a cafe. A non-compete clause in his contract prevents him from working for any competitor of Evans for a period of two years. He has decided to move to Los Angeles and pursue his dream of becoming an actor, but he still holds a considerable grudge against Evans.

Juan

Known around the office as “Mr. Standup,” Juan is an accounting assistant who dreams of appearing on the Conan O’Brien Show and does standup routines in local comedy clubs on the weekends. He also sends e-mail jokes—including “cute” EXE attachments—to everyone in his address book almost daily. Peter is certain that Juan will eventually bring the network down with his careless approach to e-mail.