The Short Sale: A Disgruntled Former Homeowner Seeks Revenge for Losing His House · A Hacker Novel

Miguel A. Calles · Serverless CISO
Chapter by Chapter
Published in
3 min readMay 15, 2023

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The Short Sale book cover

Foreword

Since 2012, I have wanted to write a novel. I had envisioned the opening scene many times. I wanted a hacker targeting his prey at a coffee shop. This victim regularly used the coffee shop’s free WiFi. The hacker had already broken into the WiFi and was looking for data to use for an attack.

In 2015, I watched the previews at the movie theater while waiting for the “Avengers: Age of Ultron” movie to start playing. I saw the preview for the “Mr. Robot” show. I pointed at the screen and said, “That’s kinda like my book idea!”

A few years later, I saw Mr. Robot on Amazon Prime Video. I was shocked at the opening scene. I could not believe it. The hacker was at a coffee shop targeting his victim! As the Mr. Robot story unfolded, the plot’s direction differed from what I wanted to do.

I have been debating for a long time whether to pursue this book idea. I decided to release the book serially on Medium and gauge interest. I could continue releasing chapters with interest from the audience. If there is no interest, at least I took action on my book idea.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 · At the Coffee Shop

We are introduced to Mike, a person who lost his house, and he’s seeking revenge. Read Chapter 1.

Chapter 2 · Hacking the Coffee Shop

We learn about what Mike was doing at the coffee shop: trying to find a vulnerability in the Wi-Fi. Read Chapter 2.

Chapter 3 · Late to Work

We learn about Mike’s workplace and meet his micromanaging supervisor. Read Chapter 3.

Chapter 4 · In the Conference Room

We learn that Mike missed an important meeting and an opportunity to get hands-on red team experience. Read Chapter 4.

Chapter 5 · Untitled

Coming soon…

Before you go

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About the author

Miguel A. Calles is a domain expert on serverless security, author, writer, engineer & volunteer CISO at Secjuice. He has worked on multiple serverless projects as a developer and security engineer, contributed to open-source serverless projects, and worked on large military systems in various engineering roles. For fun, Miguel bowls with his family.

Copyright © 2023 by Miguel A. Calles

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by Miguel A. Calles, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically, the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.

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Miguel A. Calles · Serverless CISO
Miguel A. Calles · Serverless CISO

Written by Miguel A. Calles · Serverless CISO

Author of Mastering AWS Serverless · AWS Community Builder · Specializing in CMMC, SOC 2, serverless & engineering.

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