She nodded. The problem wasn't the wipes. It was the vulnerability. A retired password, an orphaned digital identity, a procurement system built on trust rather than verification. The Phantom had been a desperate young man, but the next one might be a state actor wanting to map Airbus’s supply chain for sabotage.
“And the £23,847?”
She flew to Broughton the next day.
Clara sipped her tea and called the plant’s procurement officer, a weary man named Derek. “Derek, who’s T. Ashworth?”
As for Clara, she received a quiet commendation and a new assignment: a railway ticketing system in Milan with "minor anomalies." She smiled and packed her bag. The needles were always there, hidden in the hay. She just had to look for the £14.87 invoices that didn't belong. epay airbus uk
But Clara knew the money wasn't the real story. The real story was what else the Phantom had accessed. Because ePay wasn't just a shopping cart. It was a gateway. From there, the Phantom had peeked into the inventory system, learning exactly when the Broughton plant was low on carbon-fiber prepreg—the expensive, sensitive material used for wings.
Someone—she’d call them the "Phantom" for now—hadn't hacked the system. They had inherited it. When Tom Ashworth retired, his ePay credentials were never revoked. Instead, they lay dormant for six months. Then, last November, a single login from an IP address traced to a public library in nearby Chester. The Phantom had simply typed Tom’s old password— Summer2019 —and walked in. She nodded
That evening, Clara filed her report. It was titled:
A pause. “T. Ashworth? That’s Tom. He retired last April. Why?” A retired password, an orphaned digital identity, a
But Code #UK-7729 was an anomaly. The system had flagged a single invoice: £14.87 for a box of anti-static wipes, paid via ePay, authorized by a manager named "T. Ashworth," and delivered to "Bay 12, A-wing."