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Hacking in Midian

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Justice Razor

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:43 pm Post subject:

Joined: 25 Feb 2008
Posts: 23

Oceania Goodliffe wrote:

Before all us Admins get a bad rap here ... I was one of the Admins you spoke to ...

You asked me who controls the dishes ... I in turn asked which set ... to which you replied the ones on top of the apartments ... I was under the impression you were looking to hack into them to get intel and told you I didn't know who had control of them ...

If you had said the ones one the MCMC or the MPD you would have gotten a different answer.

I also admit I was a bit distracted with an "emergency" at the TZ, one of the staff needing medical attention, when we spoke.

As far as making up information, I would be very careful about that. There are many who have been in the city for over a year. As a faction leader of a faction that relies on a computer to keep her members informed, we have been asked to be hacked and have given permission for it. Usually it is best to start with the faction leader of the computer you wish to hack and if you are looking for specific information then they can give it to you or direct you in the right direction.

As an example, MCMC records you would go to Nikmi but he was not always head of the hospital and may not know everyone's records ... if you were looking for mine, you would find none ... I was never treated at the MCMC ... police records? well I was arrested once ... for being a slave ... but that was in old Midian (before we became a full sim) ... so you would get nothing there either ... guess you would either have to do old fashion leg work and talk to people or find an organization who has a database on residents of the city

I'm sorry, I just didn't understand how the game worked as far as computer networks goes. I was hacking the hospital for general case information, I didn't care about finding info on a particular individual. I was looking up information on a disease.

Now I know that I should have hacked the marines or the police to get an outside line. I was going to begin by trying to see what data the dishes were transmitting and then I was going to see if it was useful or if there was anything to break into. That's not how the roleplay panned out, though. It turned out that I could make up whatever I wanted (that's what the admin told me at least). I just said that I got an outside connection. I wouldn't have minded a more involved roleplay for that at all. Should I just assume that I don't have an outside connection from now on? That might make things awkward, since it's now part of my plot. I even wrote it into my background when I took the time to write one up fully (see backgrounds board for that).

Anyway, sorry for the misunderstandings.

So far, I've only met one other hacker, who said the network is called 'the citadel' and she sold me level 3 access codes. I just went with it. Maybe we should get some kind of description of the network together so that when hackers meet we're at least speaking the same language?

I know a bit about security and encryption. I could make up a general description of security and security counter measures so that people playing hackers will at least know the difference between a port scan and a frequency hop.

Now that I think of it, I could probably write LSL scripts that could simulate scrambled data, and other scripts that would unscramble it. Kind of like a lock pick script that opens a locked door when you are holding it and give the right command? I love props. It would be like a hud controlled computer for hackers. It would add realism and keep everybody on the same page (if done right). I wonder if the pirate radio station would have a hidden bulletin board system that hackers could stumble into?

theshadow

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:11 pm Post subject:

Joined: 03 Jul 2007
Posts: 171
Location: US, PA

I'm going to make some comments as a RL IT person (Network Administrator/Network Engineer):

Midian is a mix of technologies.
This alone is going to make certain things a nightmare. Alot of systems also are not linked together. The Snake Pitt, Windlight Inc, and the TZ (among others) might have internet access, but who says they are connected to each other within Midian or that any network currently exists between facilities?

For instance my apartment (which I treat as an extension of Midian as I need it for more than just a place to pretend to sleep) has a PC I consider separate and unconnected to any other PC's, so no email or web browsing for it. IC Shadey is not a Networking person, so she opted to avoid security issues and isolate herself. Most of her business info and alot of data is stored in her cell phone which acts much like current PDA phones/smartphones. Most of Midian has RPed heavy cell phone use as long as I've been here (just shy of a year now), they however are probably very hard to 'hack' for anything useful. The only real route would be through the hybrid SMS/Email styles message system.

Btw disconnected from the grid PC's are still hackable, you just need physical access... Which is a far more interesting 'plot' then remote exploits any day...

Oceania Goodliffe

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:43 pm Post subject:

Joined: 07 Mar 2007
Posts: 731
Location: The Twilight Zone

Justice Razor wrote:

Anyway, sorry for the misunderstandings.

So far, I've only met one other hacker, who said the network is called 'the citadel' and she sold me level 3 access codes. I just went with it. Maybe we should get some kind of description of the network together so that when hackers meet we're at least speaking the same language?

no reason to be sorry hun

but as Shadey says not all computers are linked either ... so you may want to find out where the level 3 access codes are for
_________________
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/oceaniagoodliffe/
Sometimes you don't need good to fight evil, you need a different kind of evil.

Justice Razor

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:10 am Post subject:

Joined: 25 Feb 2008
Posts: 23

theshadow wrote:

I know they're disconnected. I like that. It makes it more like the real internet (I spent 10 years as a network tech myself). From my understanding, having a hetrogenous network generally makes more security holes.

There IS a network that covers Midian. That's the cell phone network, the land line phones (like the VIP phones, for example) and the computer monitors that are everywhere. Also, those security cameras have to be sending information somewhere.

I'm assuming that the monitors display PSAs from the Marines or from the police department. In fact, I'm not sure if the police or if the marines should run the telephone company. Somebody has to, unless there's an independant telephone company in Midian.

Cell phones can be monitored, descrambled, cloned, DOSed etc. I spent 2 years doing tech support at AT&T Wireless/Cingular. Trust me, they're hackable.

Hard lines can be hacked to gain access to any system plugged into it, set up to monitor/tamper with data, DOS, etc.

The monitors could be used to get information to huge groups of people overtly or could be hacked to hide messages for people who know what to look for. For example, at exactly 9:07PM I tell you to record the screen. It blips to static for a second. When you descramble the static using the key I gave you then you will be able to read the message I sent.

As far as methods, it would be hard to make a remote hack roleplay interesting. For roleplaying it's probably much better to social engineer or gain physical access to the computer. One method that's perfectly suited for midian is rubber room cryptanalysis. That's when you tie somebody up in a sound proof rubber room and hit them with a baseball bat until they give you the code or key you need to get the data. Think Abu Gharib.

theshadow

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:16 pm Post subject:

Joined: 03 Jul 2007
Posts: 171
Location: US, PA

I meant to reply last night, but I didn't get to it... So...

Justice Razor wrote:

I see most of the land lines being old tech from before the island was nuked with actually no centralized agency in charge (other than possibly light maintenance from city hall). People or businesses that actually have a reason to use them 'pay' for their upkeep... And there aren't that many that have reason with the level of cellular technology... I'm going to assume the same about the 'cable' network for the TV's, though most likely those tap satellite feeds (every darn building has multiple antennas and dishes, so it's not much of a stretch to say even that is building contained).

Anyways the point I mean to make is that I'm going to bet even though there is allot of old wire running around, most of it is unused and unmaintained in favor of wireless. Africa by the way is a good example here, cell service is common... Land lines are not. Mostly because cellular is easier to maintain.

Justice Razor wrote:

Cell phones can be monitored, descrambled, cloned, DOSed etc. I spent 2 years doing tech support at AT&T Wireless/Cingular. Trust me, they're hackable.

Well here we have to decide what type of infrastructure is used to see what attacks are possible... I've assumed it was a cellular data network using VOIP for voice and simple data protocols like SMS, SFTP, and SHTTP, and IMAP. If so you can try things like 'man in the middle' and DOS attacks, though it would probably be harder to monitor them and I'm going to go out on a limb and say no company actually owns those cellular towers in Midian... So they are most likely setup by people for their own use and interconnected in a mesh giving us our own cellular network that doesn't go beyond the general area of Midian itself. Now setting up your own cellular relay tower or taking over an existing one gives you a very easy 'man in the middle' capability and if their weren't so many towers around you'd even be able to shut off service to a single person or multiple people (btw I hope the UAC invests in hackers, as it would so help their plans to shut down parts of the cellular network ICly...)

There are plenty of ways to do this, I'm not about to say their aren't... But it's not hacking as most people think about that sorta thing... A classic script kiddie style attack will probably have a very limited effect on a cell phone as long as it isn't a complete substitute for a PC.

Justice Razor wrote:

Hard lines can be hacked to gain access to any system plugged into it, set up to monitor/tamper with data, DOS, etc.

I'm assuming most surviving lines in Midian are old voice tech rather than data. Though some people like KAOS should probably lay down their own lines, or light up existing cable if it's serviceable. I doubt anyone is connecting a PC to the voice network though... If the tech trend continues that way lies frustration as it's almost impossible to use for data.

Btw the logically most expensive resource in Midian: Fiber Optic Cable. It's only possible to make currently with sand from certain places in the world, none of which is Midian (or it would have had far more value). So it all has to be imported. If Midian was once invested with fiber optic lines, they've probably been snagged by residents for other purposes as lines within buildings have failed or broken from disrepair... The UAC and to a lesser extent the MPD probably have the largest amounts in the city and the highest amounts of data in their own networks.

Justice Razor wrote:

The monitors could be used to get information to huge groups of people overtly or could be hacked to hide messages for people who know what to look for. For example, at exactly 9:07PM I tell you to record the screen. It blips to static for a second. When you descramble the static using the key I gave you then you will be able to read the message I sent.

If they use sat feeds, then you'd have to pick and chose to hack certain ones to send your feed. Could also have pirate TV ala KAOS which is over the air waves... Really I'd love Pirate TV (The MMA/Lost also would love to talk to any such pirate TV broadcasters) and support that idea, in fact I'm going to say for the same reason the UAC hunts down pirate radio they would also want to keep people from using non-sat feeds for TV.

Justice Razor wrote:

As far as methods, it would be hard to make a remote hack roleplay interesting. For roleplaying it's probably much better to social engineer or gain physical access to the computer. One method that's perfectly suited for midian is rubber room cryptanalysis. That's when you tie somebody up in a sound proof rubber room and hit them with a baseball bat until they give you the code or key you need to get the data. Think Abu Gharib.

Remote hacking outside script kiddie style exploits is usually using Social Hacking/Engineering. Script Kiddie Exploits aren't much fun and probably hard to do for anything outside of the cell network. On the up side that is the usual method in real life to, so it makes allot of sense... With a 3 to 1 agent to soldier ratio I can think of many ways my people could get that kinda information...

SerinaLoring

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 8:25 pm Post subject:

Joined: 07 Feb 2008
Posts: 16

theshadow wrote:

Btw the logically most expensive resource in Midian: Fiber Optic Cable. It's only possible to make currently with sand from certain places in the world, none of which is Midian (or it would have had far more value). So it all has to be imported. If Midian was once invested with fiber optic lines, they've probably been snagged by residents for other purposes as lines within buildings have failed or broken from disrepair... The UAC and to a lesser extent the MPD probably have the largest amounts in the city and the highest amounts of data in their own networks.

I disagree; the US today has a great surplus of 'dark' fiber, that was strung and never used. Fiber as a cabling material is cheap, it's more expensive by far to physically lay the cable than to buy the materials. Copper or other cabling would be far more valuable to scavengers for metalic content and its ability to conduct electricity. If you DO find and scavenge some fiber optic cable, about the only use you'll have for it is as a data line, so it's fair to say, IF you find a live fiber cable, and IF you can hack into it, then it might have something worthwhile.

The big IF is your ability to hack into a secure line. Quantum encryption is being demonstrated today in limited contexts (and it is NOT limited to fiber optic cable)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_cryptography

It's safe to say that it would be commonplace in 40 years. QE uses techniques that guarantee that IF you succeed in tapping the contents of the line, it WILL be detected. It's not a matter of leet haxor skills, it's a matter of physics. This means it is possible to encrypt traffic in a way that is provably unbreakable.

So it would be more realistic to base your approach on social engineering, or gaining access to a legitimate terminal, than to expect to tap into any secure communications channel.

theshadow

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:16 pm Post subject:

Joined: 03 Jul 2007
Posts: 171
Location: US, PA

SerinaLoring wrote:

Yes Quantum Cryptography is wonderful, if it ever proves feasible in a cost effective way... Not to mention that anything that can be encoded and read by something , can also be read by other things that it can fool into believing it is that something. Encryption while nice, is not a be all and end all of security...

You'll also notice I did suggest Social Engineering being the key tool in hacking anything...

Justice Razor

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:53 pm Post subject:

Joined: 25 Feb 2008
Posts: 23

This is good. We're seeing where our attitudes towards tech in Midian are. Maybe we can work out the differences.

Cell phone systems have to use land lines to communicate. Also, there are land line telephones in Midian, so residential land lines have to exist as well.

In the US, cell phones today use a number of different protocols, but generally they can't do voice and data at the same time. They two different streams of information: SMS, or text messaging, and voice. Internet on your cell phone uses the voice stream, so you can't talk on your phone and use mapquest at the same time, for example, but you can receive a text message in the middle of a call. SMS is more powerful that most people realize. With the right SMS commands somebody can get the code to clone your phone or flash the sim while it's on and deny service (if they're using 3G... CDMA is slightly different, but the same effect can be created). It's also easy to do this using bluetooth. In fact, with bluetooth you can clone, get somebody's contact list, the list of recently dialed numbers, etc.

Setting up your own tower could be done but it would be very difficult. Doing it would give you almost unlimited access to cell phones in the area. Here's an article about some Israeli hackers who did it a few years ago: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/04/israeli_boffins_crack_gsm_code/

Here's a site about cell phone security: http://www.gsm-security.net/gsm-security-news.shtml

Note, IRL, cell phone companies ALWAYS deny that this is possible. When they do, they're lying.

Somebody has to run the cell phone service. This is because in massive networks things break constantly, accounts need to be created and deleted, lines need to be rerouted, things need to be rebooted sometimes. You're a network administrator, shadow. You know what I'm talking about. How long would your network last if the techs and admins went on strike? Even if it's set up solid to run well on it's own you know a stupid user would break something in the first hour (Murphys law).

I don't think that fiber would be that expensive just because it's an import. Midian is a radioactive island. Nothing there is really made there. I don't know of any manufacturing plant in Midian, so everything except maybe the sushi would have to be imported (and I really hope that sushi is imported).

This brings up a question: Who does the importing of all the things we buy and have in Midian? I'm assuming the Marines do it? What about the police? How do civilians get weapons then? There must be some corrupt official who smuggles things in for people.

Pirate TV, btw, is a GREAT idea! I wish I had a better internet connection, it would be great to make KAOS macninima.

From the looks of the monitors, I assumed that they were hard wired into a network, because it looks like there are cables coming out and no antennas. If they were all hooked up to display from a satellite then that shouldn't be hard to hack at all. Just point the satellite dish at the antenna that is broadcasting the programming you want broadcast. I doubt that they're doing anything so fancy, though. The only reason to use satellite would be to get more channels, and these screens don't look like they're set up for channel surfing. They look like they're set up to show a single channel. It would be easier to do that with land lines, closed-circuit style.

Serina brings up some good points. Where will technology be 50 years from now? So far we've been talking about how things are, not how they will be.

What about quantum cryptography or quantum computing? I think that quantum cryptography is only perfect so long as you aren't using quantum computers, so I don't know what will happen when quantum computing gets invented. Think about it: Quantum computing is only secure because of the observer effect. Once we understand the observer effect, it could conceivably be broken.

Also, you could remote hack into a computer to get the data, even if it's data that came from a quantum connection. The computer just has to have another connection.

Where do I think technology should be?

Ideally, Midian would have a kind of different dimension that you can enter through a computer, like in Willim Gibson or Neal Stephenson novels. We could use the grid or the metaverse, or whatever you want to call it. That would make it much easier to roleplay a hacker. It could be done by putting platforms high above midian, where you could tp to, or by making an entirely different sim? I know just about every prim is already spoken for in Midian. This is my ideal-world cyberpunk sim. I doubt it's feasible. I just think it would be much better roleplaying if you were hacking into things in a metaverse, IMHO.

Charles Noble

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 10:03 pm Post subject:

Joined: 18 Feb 2007
Posts: 795

the simpliest cryptex for secure data transmission is spoken languages. With out the "rosetta stone" or with out someone teaching you the language its next to impossible for anyone to decypher it.

Funny enough this is going on right now with usa agencies desperate to recruit people who speak arabic.

Another example would be the historically true movie "Windtalkers" where the us military used navajo speakers to send orders and reports back and forth with out worry that the transmissions may be intercepted.

Now if the language is even more remote and obscure, some info is impossible to decypher. Such as cult languages and what not.

computers at the end of the cyrptising info can then be decrypted by other computers. Languages requires an altogether different set of skills to crack.

Hackers and security systems are constantly building better mice and mousetraps. Languages however is the simpliest way for security, especially really obscure or totally made up ones ;) I think computer encryption is a terrible way to send infomation securely.
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Last edited by Charles Noble on Thu Feb 28, 2008 10:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

SerinaLoring

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 10:14 pm Post subject:

Joined: 07 Feb 2008
Posts: 16

theshadow wrote:

Not to mention that anything that can be encoded and read by something , can also be read by other things that it can fool into believing it is that something. .

Well... no, that's the whole point of QE. I won't get into a flame war, but the article is pretty good. I think it's entirely reasonable to assume that links are perfectly secure, unless you posit some new development in quantum physics that somehow you can take advantage of and they can't defend against.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is, it's not reasonable to talk to the Legion OOC and say , "I've hacked into your data line, tell me what information you've been transmitting." They'd be well within their rights to tell you to kiss off, the UAC can afford WAY more investment in secure computing hardware than some little pissant backwater hacker. You won't get in by attacking the hardware.

And I was agreeing with you about the social engineering Smile

For example, if you were to demonstrate through RP that you had access to a terminal inside the Legion bunker, were able to install a keystroke logger, and knew that someone had used that compromised terminal to type in their username and password... well, that should open some possibilities. If you have some simple equipment, you could also view the contents of a nearby computer display, by detecting the unintentional electromagnetic signals from the monitor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck_phreaking, also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEMPEST

There are lots of ways to hack the system, but attacking it where it's strongest is apt to be the least successful.

Justice Razor wrote:

What about quantum cryptography or quantum computing? I think that quantum cryptography is only perfect so long as you aren't using quantum computers, so I don't know what will happen when quantum computing gets invented. Think about it: Quantum computing is only secure because of the observer effect. Once we understand the observer effect, it could conceivably be broken.

Be careful not to confuse quantum encryption with quantum computing; they're very different beasts. One possible use of quantum *computing* is to attack public-key encryption, a type of encryption currently considered secure (but less so every year). Quantum *encryption* is a technique that renders public-key encryption unnecessary.

theshadow

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 10:49 pm Post subject:

Joined: 03 Jul 2007
Posts: 171
Location: US, PA

Justice Razor wrote:

Cell phone systems have to use land lines to communicate. Also, there are land line telephones in Midian, so residential land lines have to exist as well.

Setting up your own tower could be done but it would be very difficult. Doing it would give you almost unlimited access to cell phones in the area.

Somebody has to run the cell phone service. This is because in massive networks things break constantly, accounts need to be created and deleted, lines need to be rerouted, things need to be rebooted sometimes. You're a network administrator, shadow. You know what I'm talking about. How long would your network last if the techs and admins went on strike? Even if it's set up solid to run well on it's own you know a stupid user would break something in the first hour (Murphys law).

I'm going to say (again) that rather than being a unified network run by one group, it's supported by residents with maybe some minor assistance of the town hall. It's a completely ad-hoc network relying on the good will and desire for interconnectivity of the residents. As long as their exists a set of standards to the transmission and reception it makes sense... Otherwise we need a 'communications company', when we didn't for months. Their are many examples btw of ad-hoc networks across the globe for cellular service. Some with communities running and servicing their own towers even. I see Midian as having multiple towers scattered around with the phone picking the best signal from the mesh.

Oh also wireless in a situation where it doesn't have to connect to a landline (like in Africa), usually doesn't. With only 3 VIP phones in all of Midian I don't see why anyone would bother with maintaining landline interoperability... This is worse for transmissions beyond Midian. WHy? Because their are no landlines leaving or coming to Midian, all external communication is via satellite.

Also rather than CDMA or another voice transmissions tech, I see them running pure data connections like I said using VOIP to send voice. The industry has been moving this way in bits and pieces, including select phones in the US that utilize mixed network modes where they switch to local wi-fi when available. This makes it much easier to envision data only cellular in an ad-hoc style... and in RL Midian could be serviced by a single tower, yet we have dozens of antennas on those roofs... So it makes far more sense that it's not a single antenna setup...

Justice Razor wrote:

I don't think that fiber would be that expensive just because it's an import. Midian is a radioactive island. Nothing there is really made there. I don't know of any manufacturing plant in Midian, so everything except maybe the sushi would have to be imported (and I really hope that sushi is imported).

Actually dark fiber ideas aside (and Midian being a remote island to begin with probably has none, neither do most small cities anywhere in the US), It does make the fastest data connections available of any real length. But yes most material things are imported or scavenged... It should be important to high speed data. Such as what the UAC and MPD would want... And probably the Biomechs as well, though they have no special access to the outside...

Justice Razor wrote:

This brings up a question: Who does the importing of all the things we buy and have in Midian? I'm assuming the Marines do it? What about the police? How do civilians get weapons then? There must be some corrupt official who smuggles things in for people.

This I can answer... BlackStar established a supply ship that comes near Midian and drops off supplies... For a hefty fee... It's what supplies most merchant's who must bring in their stock to Midian. Sari-mart, the Sushi-bar, all the conventional bars unless they found another means. This is the link that the MMA/Lost use as well. The UAC, the Park Rangers, and now the Haulers are the only other peopel to ICly have a connection beyond Midian for goods.

Justice Razor wrote:

From the looks of the monitors, I assumed that they were hard wired into a network, because it looks like there are cables coming out and no antennas. If they were all hooked up to display from a satellite then that shouldn't be hard to hack at all. Just point the satellite dish at the antenna that is broadcasting the programming you want broadcast. I doubt that they're doing anything so fancy, though. The only reason to use satellite would be to get more channels, and these screens don't look like they're set up for channel surfing. They look like they're set up to show a single channel. It would be easier to do that with land lines, closed-circuit style.

Well their is no native 'allowed' new medium in Midian besides the Dark Times... all other outside news comes from the mainland... via satellite. So why bother with cables besides ones down from the roofs with the dishes for it...? No interconnection required between one monitor on one building and a monitor on another.

Justice Razor wrote:

Ideally, Midian would have a kind of different dimension that you can enter through a computer, like in Willim Gibson or Neal Stephenson novels. We could use the grid or the metaverse, or whatever you want to call it. That would make it much easier to roleplay a hacker. It could be done by putting platforms high above midian, where you could tp to, or by making an entirely different sim? I know just about every prim is already spoken for in Midian. This is my ideal-world cyberpunk sim. I doubt it's feasible. I just think it would be much better roleplaying if you were hacking into things in a metaverse, IMHO.

Sadly nothing in the last 20 years has suggested a 3D interactive world exclusive to hacking (or even where hacking was a possible activity). Most of those books were based on connecting our minds directly to such networks and then needing familiar constructs to use to interact with the environment once in. We haven't gotten anywhere near doing this directly, what we have seen instead is reading certain impulses 'read' through sensors to enact our will on a device.

My view of the feature...? Well that's an expansion of what we see in trends today... And then given a view of limited resources and a lack of centralized services... The MMA (Midian Merchant's Association btw) is the first large organization in Midian... One that promotes interoperability... Before this everyones done there own thing, so yes I see a very disjointed infrastructure maintained by those who chose to do so...

theshadow

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 11:29 pm Post subject:

Joined: 03 Jul 2007
Posts: 171
Location: US, PA

SerinaLoring wrote:

theshadow wrote:

Not to mention that anything that can be encoded and read by something , can also be read by other things that it can fool into believing it is that something. .

Actually if the data is passing outside their network (and ignoring this only works on a link that uses optical/photon transmissions) your very article says that what I said is true... I did a supremely basic description of a main in the middle attack... and the articles reads:

"Attacks

Quantum cryptography is vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack to the same extent as any classical protocol, since no principle of quantum mechanics can distinguish friend from foe. As in the classical case, Alice and Bob cannot establish a secure connection without some means of verifying each other's identities (such as an initial shared secret).

Because a dedicated fiber optic line is required between the two points linked by quantum cryptography, a denial of service attack can be mounted by simply cutting the line or, perhaps more surreptitiously, by attempting to tap it. If the equipment used in quantum cryptography can be tampered with, it could be made to generate keys that were not secure using a random number generator attack.

Adi Shamir has proposed an attack which applies at least to polarization schemes. Rather than attempt to read Alice and Bob's single photons, Mallory sends a large pulse of light back to Alice in between transmitted photons. Alice's equipment inevitably reflects some of Mallory's light. Even if the transmitting equipment is dead black it has some small reflectivity. When Mallory's light comes back to Mallory it is polarized and Mallory knows the state of Alice's polarizer."

So.... Yes, their are ways to defeat a connection protected by QE. There always are some attacks that no one has ever figured out how to avoid...

Justice Razor

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:52 pm Post subject:

Joined: 25 Feb 2008
Posts: 23

Here's how telecommunications works: You have telephones, which connect (wireless or wired) to a central office, or a CO. The small COs connect to a larger CO, which connects to a larger CO, etc... ultimately it all connects to a main computer system that runs it all. I'm simplifying here, because there are things other than COs. There are Master Central Offices (MCOs), data servers, security servers, etc. The spectrum is broken up into maintenance frequencies, voice frequencies, data frequencies, etc. Eventually everything goes to VOIP at one point or another. CDMA and 3G can both use VOIP because they are working at a different layer than VOIP. 3G and CDMA can use VOIP just as easily as CAT5 or T3 lines can use TCP/IP. Things change as technology changes, but one thing through out the history of the telephone (and the history of communication, it can be argued) has remained constant:

You must have a CO (or something that does what the CO does).

The CO is what routs calls and data in and out of your phone. Your phone number is there, as is your IP, account information, billing and services information. The MAC address of your hardware is usually tied to this, when using high speed internet, for example.

Think about the old fashioned telephone operators. You know, the old black and white movie depictions of women who sit in front of a switchboard and speak into a bulky microphone perched in their cleavage? They would ask you where you are calling, you'd give them an address and they'd patch you through. At the time, that was the CO. Now we've automated their job and it has become the system of switches and routers that we have today.

Let's try to imagine a world without COs for a moment, which is what it seems shadow is trying to do:

First of all, everybody with a telephone would have to go to the network and create an account for their phone. Without this account they would not have a phone number and the system would not be able to route calls to and from them. To do this everybody in Midian with a telephone would have to at least have the skills of a telephone lineman, or an amateur radio operator (not the license, just the skills).

Anybody possessing these skills could easily go to the ad-hoc network and set up any account they want to route calls to their own phone. Cloning would be simple, as would denial of service. Phreaking could be done by anybody with the skills to get on the network.

If you are imagining a system where COs do exist, though, then you need to think about who owns the CO. Police? Marines? BlackStar?

As far as satellite communications go, satellites are expensive and are not actually used as much as people think they are. If your cell phone has GPS, for example, they are getting their location information from the cell phone tower, not from a satellite. Satellite signals use high end spectrum, like microwave. If you were to use microwave signals in a cell phone you would most likely set your head on fire. Also, it's not used much because it's expensive and is overkill. You simply don't need that much bandwidth for a single TV screen or even an entire single city block. The way things are now, many COs share a common satellite dish array. In the future having satellite dishes everywhere might be more economic. We can go with that, but still, somebody somewhere is running that system.

If you are going with the idea that the Marines have the only outside line but people have satellite dishes on top of every building then you have to explain why nobody can simply point the dish at a different satellite to get full connectivity to the outside world.

Also, one cell phone tower can not run an entire urban area like Midian. Cell phone towers are line of sight. That's why in larger cities you commonly see small triangular antenna arrays at street intersections.

Charles, you bring up good points about voice encryption. For most of the history of voice communications using obscure languages was the best way to encrypt voice, but that has changed. In Midian I envision people coming up with their own languages to do this, since voice translators are probably obtainable by almost everybody in the future. Think Esperanto.

Here's how encryption works for cell phones now:

Frequency hops are where the channel being used for communications changes constantly. Every few seconds (or more) the conversation that is happening on channel 3 changes to some seemingly random channel. Both transmitter and receiver are set up to change to the same channel at the same time, according to an encryption algorithm. That's why you can't eavesdrop on cell phone communications without cloning the phone. When the phone is cloned it is synchronized with the tower at the same time the target phone is, so the two phones hop with the tower simultaneously.

There are many different ways to break up the cell phone spectrum to increase quality, synchronize frequency hops and to synchronize hand offs between towers (when your phone moves from one tower's range to another tower's range). That's what things like 3G, CDMA and other protocols do. It also accounts for most of the extra hardware and systems I left out of my description earlier.

Since perfect encryption seems like a hot topic, here's food for thought:

The single use pad, or one time pad is perfect encryption that can be done with a pen and a piece of paper. In the Cryptonomicon Neal Stephenson devised a way to use a deck of playing cards as a single use pad. In Johnny Mneumonic (based on William Gibson's short story) the plot was centered around trying to recover part of a single use pad key. If the single use pad is used correctly, the only way to break it is by getting somebody to give you the key (rubber room cryptanalysis).

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-time_pad

The totally immersive internet is the cyberpunk ideal. I don't know of any cyberpunk literature that didn't have an immersive internet, like second life plugged into your brain. I know it's not really practical the way the sims are set up now, but it is still the cyberpunk ideal.

SerinaLoring

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 4:59 pm Post subject:

Joined: 07 Feb 2008
Posts: 16

theshadow wrote:

Quantum cryptography is vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack to the same extent as any classical protocol, since no principle of quantum mechanics can distinguish friend from foe. As in the classical case, Alice and Bob cannot establish a secure connection without some means of verifying each other's identities (such as an initial shared secret).

Agreed. But quantum encryption isn't used to encrypt ALL traffic. It's meant as a way to send an encryption key which will be used for subsequent messages. The key could easily be several megabytes (gigabytes? terabytes?) of purely random data (a one-time pad, as Justice pointed out). Which would make those messages perfectly secure, until the pad ran out and a new one was sent via QE. You could intercept that traffic all day long, and it would be just so much random noise.

Now, the intent of QE is to guarantee that a communication between two end points cannot be observed by a third party without detection. I think it's fair to assume that in 40 years time, that goal will have been reliably reached, the kinks will have been worked out, the equipment easily available. (Don't forget, 40 years ago, computers were made from tubes and relays, weighed several tons, and took up an entire floor of a building. Silicon chips were a 'promising technology').

I agree that a plausible attack would be to corrupt one of the end points and impersonate the person who should be at that end, or otherwise intercept data before it's encrypted or after it's decrypted, but that's not an attack on the encryption itself.

theshadow wrote:

Because a dedicated fiber optic line is required between the two points linked by quantum cryptography, a denial of service attack can be mounted by simply cutting the line or, perhaps more surreptitiously, by attempting to tap it. If the equipment used in quantum cryptography can be tampered with, it could be made to generate keys that were not secure using a random number generator attack.

Agreed. As with ANY encryption scheme, if you can get hold of the keys used, the scheme breaks. QE is just the latest technique to *exchange* keys in a secure fashion.

theshadow wrote:

So.... Yes, their are ways to defeat a connection protected by QE. There always are some attacks that no one has ever figured out how to avoid...

I would say, there are ways AROUND a connection protected by QE. Smile

Justice Razor

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:00 pm Post subject:

Joined: 25 Feb 2008
Posts: 23

The TV monitors I'm talking about are the ones connected to the street lamps. They have "metropol" branded on them. Obviously, they're part of the power grid, so I'm assuming that they would be government-run, so they probably play propaganda. Because of the metropol brand, I'm assuming that the MCPD runs them.

I'm assuming that the small screens that sit on the side walks are just ads. They play commercials 24/7.

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