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| Hacking in Midian |
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| Cindi_Korobase |
 Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:25 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 29 Feb 2008
Posts: 8
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You don’t need to be able to decrypt the data to get useful information from it. Just knowing the source and destination can tell you a lot. Also changes in the traffic patterns can also provide useful information. This is called Traffic Analysis. Increased traffic between faction leaders may indicate a joint operation, truce, or war is about to take place. A communication from a member of one faction to an enemy faction may indicate a spy. This is probably beyond the individual hacker, although they may get lucky and pick up something interesting. The vast majority of traffic would be routine and not very useful.
A better hack would be hacking door locks. The faction leader could give you access and you could RP hacking the door and stealing their stuff, planting bombs, all kind of possibilities. |
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| theshadow |
| Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:26 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 03 Jul 2007
Posts: 171
Location: US, PA
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Not to get to much into it, but part of my job fairly recently including setting up a full VOIP network at the school I work at.
I can saw that the hardware itself acts as your CO and is on site. We don't run a server of any sort and in fact plugging in a new phone compatible with the system (or simply turning on a wireless one) gives that phone a number from the available number pool. No work on our part is needed and we can directly address someone by using a Unique ID that the phone sends out, in our case that ID is MAC + Description, of which we only see description when querying available phones.
The same sort of thing has existed on the other end for ages when dealing with wireless like 802.11X types. The device takes an IP address from the pool available direct from the hardware itself if it runs DHCP, like a router.
Since the industry has been moving in this direction and it is perfectly suited for Midian, let me explain how this goes the way I've always viewed it:
Phone has unique ID from original manufacturer (we can call this a MAC address if we chose)
When turned on phone queries all available local services it's compatible with and asks for an ID for that system (IPv6 style where IP is unique+MAC or other hardware unique ID)
Routing is done via hardware at the system level, with the phones handling routing by querying a list of phones available across accessible towers and if not found using tower to tower hopping to route externally until phone specific ID is found. (This btw pretty well describes ad-hoc network routing like what wireless devices do)
The other phone not on or not within reach of any tower the ones your near can reach? Then that phone won't be accessible.
Also no one is needed to run some higher level of such a system so has a very low level of maintenance to 'just work', it's ripe for exploitation however. Which to a wireless phreaker is probably a good thing. It's also good for us as Midianites because we run said network, so if enough parts of the system break... Well we have a new plot going... 'OMG the wireless network is gone! No one can call for help or do anything with their phones!' I see big outbreaks of attacks when people can't ICly call for 'backup' and kidnappings among other disappearances... In fact it's why the MMA use small short range radios for communications outside of 1 to 1 phone calls.
The 'just works' wireless network for all devices is a move that I see as the future working fairly intimately with certain technologies we have 'right now' and what people want me to setup for them. I may only have a vague idea of how cellular networks work in protocol or network design (though I understand the features offered by the different technologies), but I understand the ones around computers and the computer ones want to eat the old 'voice' companies for lunch by making just what I described happen.
But anyways... The UAC has no authority to run the cell network and frankly I'd be the first to offer a pirate cell system if they tried. The MPD has no desire or knowledge top setup or maintain anything outside their own system. Really the only one we could say 'runs' the cell network if you insist one central group that must run it, is city hall. But good luck getting Jade to field each 'phreaking' attempt against such a network... For RP reasons what I describe is best in practice as you could then talk either directly to a single or small group of people for any such attempts. Want a single tower 'hacked/phreaked' and it's owned by 'X' then talk to the head of 'X'. Want to block cell traffic for person 'Z'? Talk to person 'Z' about it. It's utterly simple. If you need to take down the whole thing get admin support and plotting ahead of time and we can all have fun with it. |
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| Charles Noble |
| Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:40 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 18 Feb 2007
Posts: 792
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I'd think the ideal covert communications would simply be working in a bar, people come to you, they pass you a note folded up in the dollar bills, you read the note, you pocket it, you give them "change" if you got a note for them. Possiblly the note uses a crypted message. People observing only note that someones walked into a bar and ordered a drink. paid for it and left with change.
bugs don't pick up anything, security cameras probablly don't either.
then again a customer in a bar with incrediblly loud music may lean over the bar to simply "whisper" a message.
again observations is customer whispered to the bar tender.
a bar is an open place, and nothing shady bout someone going for a drink.
technological communications in an age where security systems are routinely compromised and monitered would be a bit silly. Only an idiot would relay important and sensitive info over them.
Another simple method would be phoning the kaos request line and requesting a song to be played for a certian person... or an add in the newspaper lonely hearts colum.
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The above statements are opinions of the person behind the name "Charles Noble" these opinions may change over time, they may not agree with your opinon, that is the nature of opinions. Endevour to debate the "issue" not the "Person" |
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| theshadow |
| Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 6:16 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 03 Jul 2007
Posts: 171
Location: US, PA
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| Justice Razor wrote: |
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. |
There being very little cooperation, I still think it's safer to assume they play propaganda beamed in... They could be run by city hall, but frankly I've assumed they long since stopped working... They've never been used ICly to my knowledge, even when zombie plagues and killer virii have run rampant and you'd think a warning message or even flashing red light would be appropriate...
Heck they could even be setup initially via whatever means and continue airing the same message indefinitely... |
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| Justice Razor |
| Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 6:28 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 25 Feb 2008
Posts: 23
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Charles: Yes, there are a million ways to get a message to somebody securely. There are also a million ways to break that. For example, the average customer might think nothing of that kind of thing but if a trained spy happens to be trailing somebody looking for something suspicious they would probably be inclined to look into that kind of thing.
Cindi: That would be the easiest way for a neophyte hacker to get information. Think about it: You can't clone somebody's phone for whatever reason, but you can physically get it and can see who was called and how long the calls were. I'd say that tells you something.
Theshadow: Wow, I've been out of the game too long (been a college student for the last 2 years).
The ad-hoc system looks like it would work great. Each phone is it's own CO, or router. This means I don't have to go to admins every time I want to clone somebody's phone.
I'm guessing the TV screens would work on a similar principle. It would just need to be hooked up into something that can connect to this wireless network to get it's data from whoever is puting the content on the screen.
I just spoke with Anna Newall, she told me that the TV monitors are run by city hall, as is the power grid. To hack them you would need to contact Jade herself. I'm thinking about IMing her just to find out what kind of programming would be on the monitors.
Ok, now that we're all clear on what we are roleplaying, the question is how? What are best practices for roleplaying a hack? |
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| Charles Noble |
| Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 6:51 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 18 Feb 2007
Posts: 792
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Ask the red queen. Seeing as she apparently has her finger in all the pies.
But yeah realistically it depends on the info you want.
Some factions are dependent on mainland communications such as the UAC.
Others use simple couriers and messengers. Unless you follow every bar patron 24/7 who probablly are looking for people trailing them and observing them. Or everygirl that walks out of my bar after a rough sex session.. not really suspicious behaviour if whilst i'm drumming them they are whispering all kindsa stuff and vice versa muahaha..
some might be geniune victims .
Or scour every radio request made by "mr snuggles" for "mrs boo boo kitty" its going to be more than one person can handle.
the Hacking really is dependant on the info.
but the way to do it is find out oocly who runs what. And ask them if they you can hack it, and what you are looking for
as far as i know the public info screens are probablly not worth hacking as its simply propaganda or public info, er..if you want that info just look at the screen. If you want to feed it info ask Jade if you can...
and really only time that the public display could realistically be hacked to get a terrorist or subversive message across would be via group notices.. which only admin can control and wouldnt send a bunch of notices for shits and giggles... that is to say, better have a spectacular notice relevent to a city wide plot , thats been deemed official.
so public domain stuff ask jade oocly and oocly what you hope to achieve
private databases and stuff ask the people who run the buildings
they'll tell you
A. theres no network here
B. Yes we have a network what info you trying to get
C. No apparent evident network here.
want to hack peoples cell phones then you have to get consent from them. But again phone taps are ok ,
but then theres public vid phones too. not neccessiarlly safe but usefull for contacting people discreetly to say
"Hello billy?"
"no not billy"
"is this ... ((number here))"
"No its not ((the number))"
"sorry wrong number"
"you're welcome"
billy being the code word for a location
lots of other names for lots of other locations.
no not billy confims the target has heard billy. Sorry wrong number confirms the confirmation has been heard.. could be a geniune wrong number, fact is it only means something to the caller and the recipiant who renovouz the number is a time code for rendovouz...
thats a lot of shit to scour that could be innocent mistaken numbers.
but genrally get the persons permission to prheak their phone.
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The above statements are opinions of the person behind the name "Charles Noble" these opinions may change over time, they may not agree with your opinon, that is the nature of opinions. Endevour to debate the "issue" not the "Person" |
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| J8 Skall |
| Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 7:08 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 20 Mar 2007
Posts: 788
Location: God knows.....Follow the trail of blood
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As for screens that flash up warnings, propganda, advertisments or whatever, it's been suggested. I can't recall why Jade wasn't keen, but there was some reason. I just assume they play out of date irrelevant information continually on some weird loop.
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Jay Skall
(All arguements [or discussion points] stated above are the player's opinion only, they are not truth from on high, the subversive whisperings of satan or the grunted rumblings of a troll... Incase you were struggling with the concept...) |
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| SerinaLoring |
| Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:17 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 07 Feb 2008
Posts: 16
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| J8 Skall wrote: |
| As for screens that flash up warnings, propganda, advertisments or whatever, it's been suggested. I can't recall why Jade wasn't keen, but there was some reason. I just assume they play out of date irrelevant information continually on some weird loop. |
I suspect the reason was to minimize lag or simply ease of administration. From a scripting point of view, the current screens are probably just flashing up random images stored in the object. Changing those objects may be a hassle because a) they may be nomodify and the owner may not be Jade (could be Baal), and b) if Jade *can* modify them, she may not want to run around replacing images to suit somebody's random storyline. Yes, it's possible to script something to make that part easier, but that's where the lag thing comes in; the fewer, and the simpler scripts the better.
Just a guess. |
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| J8 Skall |
| Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:32 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 20 Mar 2007
Posts: 788
Location: God knows.....Follow the trail of blood
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Might be, they dont flash up anythign at the moment, I suggested replacing the multitude of posters and things with large electonic characterful screens on walls and roofs, which would have faction, IC city, and some OOC info that would cycle though, as you said, on a texture switcher script.
Course that does meen adding scripts and limited prims. Prolly the reason
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Jay Skall
(All arguements [or discussion points] stated above are the player's opinion only, they are not truth from on high, the subversive whisperings of satan or the grunted rumblings of a troll... Incase you were struggling with the concept...) |
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| Justice Razor |
| Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 25 Feb 2008
Posts: 23
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Anybody who has land perms can change the texture in the screens to show a quicktime video file. It's not hard to do and it only increases lag for people who hit play.
The trick would be what to show, and where to host it? I think it would be hilarious to shoot a UAC recruitment video, and an FDA video warning of the dangers of contaminated sushi. Where to host? We can use just about any free web hosting service that's out there.
Putting a texture switcher wouldn't create any more lag than a burning trash can, at least, and they're everywhere. The scrolling marquee at the theater creates more lag than a simple texture switcher. |
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| J8 Skall |
| Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 3:02 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 20 Mar 2007
Posts: 788
Location: God knows.....Follow the trail of blood
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Well that's the only reason I could think why Jade wasn't keen, though could just be fir the 'feel' of the sim, I don't know.
Either way if she ever wants to do it she can, I'm going to put a couple in the RP area I'm doing to give a cyberpunk feel - Mayve I'll find they don't work, I dunno, but theres a huge amount of potential with what can be put in them, and what they would add to toe feel of the city.
For instance could have;
> Faction recuitment.
> Forum adverts (half OOC, half IC).
> Adverts for Midian businesses.
> Adverts for mainland businesses, UAC, Globe Tech, Blue Sun, whatever.
> Official announcments from the Mayor, UAC, MPD or whatever.
> News articles from the mainland.
> Maybe establishing a cult of personality, making a supermodel/actress famous then one day suddently she ends up in Midian and helpless to it's citizens... Or do likewise with a war hero, thug, rock star...
> KAOS could occasionally hack it, as could others to get across information, videos (as a blackmail tool).
> OOC announcements for the casual visitor, but made to look IC in 'style'.
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Jay Skall
(All arguements [or discussion points] stated above are the player's opinion only, they are not truth from on high, the subversive whisperings of satan or the grunted rumblings of a troll... Incase you were struggling with the concept...) |
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| Justice Razor |
| Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 6:47 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 25 Feb 2008
Posts: 23
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quick time video would totally lag the sim to crap, yes of course people could turn it off, then what would be the point?
Plus the fact that you would hear the annoucement when no where near one of these posts due to the way video works in sl.
the posts all have the same texture on the screen, true via land perms all that would be needed was to put a vid link to them.
but lag is contagious.
People bump each other which causes a physics reaction, which causes lag.
people are the biggest cause of lag, a lot of people all gathered round these posts watching videos is going to cause a bunch of lagged people who are then going to bump into everyone and spread the lag around.. |
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| SerinaLoring |
| Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:10 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 07 Feb 2008
Posts: 16
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another problem with quicktime videos is nobody is sync'd, the stream starts from the beginning for each person that is watching, whenever they happen to come into view of a screen, so you won't see the same part of the video at the same time as the person next to you. Which may be important, may not be.
It would be really irritating, however, to constantly be wandering within sight of one of these, and see it starting from the beginning again. You'd see the same 15 seconds every time you passed one, unless you stopped and let it play through. |
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| Justice Razor |
| Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 8:39 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 25 Feb 2008
Posts: 23
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| SerinaLoring wrote: |
| another problem with quicktime videos is nobody is sync'd |
Depending on how you set up the hosting, you can either have it synched or not synched. |
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| Charles Noble |
| Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 12:11 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 18 Feb 2007
Posts: 792
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i think theres a legitmate reason jade has not decided to stream quicktime videos, i don't think it has anything to do with content of the videos
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The above statements are opinions of the person behind the name "Charles Noble" these opinions may change over time, they may not agree with your opinon, that is the nature of opinions. Endevour to debate the "issue" not the "Person" |
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