Wisely series: Chapter 2 Don't overthink, embrace simplicity
Published: 2024-02-16 13:51:25

My heart raced, and I could hardly feel my fingertips. I glanced at the funnel, watching the sand slowly trickle down. Then, I looked at the AWS community builder pin on my shirt. Was I overthinking things?

The commander pointed to the funnel, signaling the urgency of the situation. Thinking quickly, I approached the restaurant manager and requested a pen. With a sense of determination, I drew the restaurant's floor plan on the white tablecloth, using it as a makeshift whiteboard to organize information and prepare our strategy.

The restaurant manager, a beautiful Thai girl with big eyes and long black hair, hesitated, stating that the tablecloth was made from Moroccan fabric and couldn't be used for writing. However, the commander swiftly displayed his police badge and handed his credit card to the manager, assuring her, "Count on me."

"Sure, sir. Have a good day," the restaurant manager acquiesced.

Knowing that time was of the essence, I couldn't afford to waste a single second. I had a daunting task ahead of me—to identify the members of the Munich group army within this restaurant in just 30 minutes. It seemed like an almost impossible mission.

As I scanned the restaurant, I observed that almost everyone was dressed in business suits, typing away on their laptops. I brainstormed, trying to figure out how to identify the individuals associated with the planned attack on the Hong Kong stock market server.

Recalling an exam practice lesson, I remembered the advice of AWS Technical Trainer Raymond: "Always use subtraction to find the correct answer in multiple-choice questions. The correct answer is always clear and easy to understand the entire use case."

Putting myself in the shoes of the Munich group army, I realized that they would only need an EC2 (Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud) server. Less is more. Simplicity is the key to creating a solid architecture. EC2 provides secure, resizable computing capacity in the cloud, with 99.99% availability and the powerful AWS Nitro System.

The question remained: How would they connect the EC2 server to their local machine to initiate the attack? I pondered the various options:

A) Open the AWS console—requires a stable network.
B) Putty SSH direct connect—fast, simple, no extra infrastructure needed.
C) SSH connection through a Bastion host—not the simplest method, requires an additional EC2 instance on a public subnet.
D) EC2 Instance Connect (EIC) Endpoint—not the simplest method, requires a VPC endpoint.

Using the principle of simplicity, I deduced that the Munich group army would likely use their mobile device's hotspot network. They would refrain from using the restaurant's Wi-Fi to maintain a stable connection, as Putty SSH direct connect provided a fast and straightforward solution without the need for additional infrastructure.

The commander looked at me and asked, "Have you figured it out? Let's shut down the Wi-Fi and see if anyone continues working. We might have a way to identify the Munich group army."

As the Wi-Fi was disabled, everyone in the restaurant stopped typing and began searching for another network. Only one slim man, wearing sunglasses, a mask, and a fur hat, remained seated at a corner table, diligently typing away. The commander approached him while a live band suddenly appeared, performing classical music. Undeterred, the commander navigated through the crowd, bypassing the band. But to our surprise, the slim man vanished, leaving only a piece of paper on the table. The paper bore the words: "Game jam: +100."

"It's a start," the commander remarked, his eyes filled with determination.