NOVEL NEXT Chapter 39: Facebook Security Team
Facebook Headquarters – Menlo Park, California.
At exactly 2:17 AM PST, a flagged email notification appeared in the inbox of Nathan Caldwell, Facebook's Chief Security Officer (CSO). As the head of one of the world's most advanced cybersecurity teams, Nathan received countless pitches, security concerns, and spam messages daily. Most of them never made it past his filters—yet this one did.
Sipping his third cup of coffee, he skimmed through the email, his brows furrowing slightly as he read the contents.
A minute later.
Nathan's fingers tapped against his desk. His instinct told him this was either a phishing attempt, a scam, or someone grossly overestimating their abilities. But the technical depth of the email was intriguing—it wasn't the usual marketing jargon.
Without hesitation, he forwarded the email to Facebook's Red Team, a specialized group of security engineers whose sole job was to simulate and counteract cyber threats.
Fifteen minutes later, inside a secured facility in the Facebook cybersecurity division, three senior engineers were called in to analyze the situation.
James "Jim" Wallace – Head of Intrusion Detection
Alice Park – Machine Learning and AI Specialist
Robert "Bobby" Lin – Senior Network Security Engineer
Nathan leaned against the conference table, looking at the three engineers as they read the email displayed on the large screen.
Jim was the first to scoff. "This smells like some next-level social engineering. No way in hell I'd deploy this software in any network, let alone Facebook's."
Alice, who had been quietly skimming the message, leaned forward. "That's what I thought too, but look at how it's structured. He's not asking for access—he's offering an isolated trial instance, meaning it won't interact with production data unless we let it."
"Doesn't mean it's safe," Bobby interjected, his arms crossed. "This could be an elaborate trojan, designed to stay hidden until it gets inside."
Nathan nodded. "That's why I called you guys. I want you to treat this as an unknown cyber threat and analyze the software before we respond."
Jim cracked his knuckles. "Let's get to work."
The team moved to a secure testing environment—a sandbox server completely isolated from Facebook's main infrastructure.
Bobby initiated the first layer of security analysis, scanning the uploaded trial software for known malware signatures, hidden scripts, and obfuscation techniques. The results came in quickly.
No malicious signatures detected.
No suspicious outbound connections initiated.
No hidden payloads or backdoor functions.
Jim leaned back in his chair. "Alright, nothing obviously malicious, but that doesn't mean it's safe."
Alice ran the binary through Facebook's proprietary AI-driven threat scanner, which analyzed code execution patterns, looking for any anomalies that could indicate an advanced zero-day exploit.
No evidence of hidden execution commands.
No attempts to escalate privileges.
"This isn't a virus or an exploit," Alice said, adjusting her glasses. "It's a fully functional cybersecurity tool. It's… clean. Surprisingly clean."
Bobby and Jim decompiled the software, tracing its dependencies, modules, and overall structure. What they found made them pause.
"This is years ahead of what's on the market right now," Jim muttered, scrolling through the code. "It's modular, self-optimizing, and some of these functions… I haven't seen anything like them before."
Alice zoomed in on a portion of the AI-driven real-time anomaly detection system. "Look at this. It's not just detecting known attack patterns—it's learning from the network environment and adapting proactively."
Nathan frowned. "Explain."
Alice pointed at the behavioral heuristics model embedded into the software. "Most modern cybersecurity systems operate on signature-based detection, meaning they block threats based on predefined attack models."
"This?" she continued, pointing at the code. "It builds its own evolving dataset based on activity logs and access patterns—like an AI-powered immune system. It doesn't just react; it predicts and mitigates threats before they escalate."
Jim exhaled sharply. "That's not just cutting-edge. That's borderline government-grade cybersecurity."
After ensuring the software was not a security risk, the team deployed it into a dummy Facebook test environment—a closed-off replica of their main system used for simulations.
The software began scanning logs instantly, detecting anomalies Facebook's existing systems had missed.
Within 30 minutes, the following occurred:
Unauthorized API calls were flagged in real-time.
A potential misconfiguration in an internal database was detected.
Firewall rules were automatically adjusted to counter abnormal traffic spikes.
Bobby sat back in his chair, eyes wide. "It just patched a vulnerability before I could even finish reading the report."
Alice smirked. "And it did it without interfering with the system."
Jim rubbed his temple. "I hate to say this, but… this thing is better than what we have."
Nathan inhaled deeply, digesting their findings. "So, bottom line—what are we dealing with here?"
Jim leaned forward, hands clasped. "Sir, this is a revolutionary piece of software. It's doing what entire teams of security engineers struggle to do in real-time. It's lightweight, adaptable, and, frankly, if we don't bring this guy in for a meeting, one of our competitors will."
Nathan exhaled. "Alright. Let's set up a call with this mysterious person and see what the hell he's up.
At 8:42 AM, Matthew's inbox pinged with a new email from Nathan Caldwell, CSO of Facebook. He opened the email and then read it.
[Subject: RE: A 24-Hour Security Enhancement Trial for Facebook
We have reviewed the initial deployment of your security system within our controlled environment. The results are unexpectedly impressive. Your software has demonstrated:
Real-time detection of previously undetected anomalies
Adaptive firewall adjustments that outperformed our existing AI models
Automated security enhancements with zero system interference
Given these findings, we are interested in discussing a potential partnership. Our team would like to arrange a formal meeting with you to further assess the full capabilities of your software.
Please let us know your availability for a call.
Best regards,
Nathan Caldwell
Chief Security Officer, Facebook]
Matthew stared at the screen, re-reading the email three times.
This was it.
Facebook—one of the biggest tech giants in the world—was officially interested in his software.
He cracked his knuckles, took a deep breath, and began typing his reply.
"Let's talk."