Making Decking Realistic in 2050: Criticisms & Input Requested Options

[Xasten]

Long time 2nd edition player & GM here. After a few years hiatus, I'm about to run my D&D group, who have never played shadowrun, through a campaign.

One of the things I always do in my games is give my players a packet before a campaign that explains the setting, house rules, etc. As a GM, I am all about internally consistent settings that make sense within themselves. As much as I love pink mohawk decking, it's not the least bit realistic compared to how computers actually work, so I've written the following in a desperate attempt to shoehorn in justifications for how decking works to make at at least somewhat realistic.

I'm still writing this, so the formatting is off, and yes, I know FastJack may not talk that way, so I haven't fully edited all the flavor from him in. Please tear this apart and tell me why this doesn't work. I want my writing to be as strong as possible when I hand this to my new players. I put this up on the SR subreddit, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to look for more input here.

Thanks!

DECKERS

Electron-Jockeys. Cyber-Commandos. Console-Cowboys. Deckers. In 2050, data is the new currency, and deckers can steal, modify, and create it in spades. A good decker will keep you alive by keeping you out of trouble and in the know.

>>>>[A good decker keeps you informed, a great decker will stay up until 3 in the morning keeping your friends alive with sage advice.]<<<<
—FastJack [02:44:07 (UTC) January 1, 2050]

Decking is wildly different, yet surprisingly similar, to the old school computer hacking of the 20th century. Plus ça change, neh? Most people had envisioned that computers would be mind-bogglingly powerful by this time, and they were right in some ways. But the Crash of ’29 was a huge set back. Moore’s Law finally gave out when silicon chips began pushing close to the theoretical limit for architecture density in the 2020’s, and the loss of physical and intellectual capital from VITAS, the Awakening, and the breakup of the good old U.S. of A. were huge setbacks that took the tech industry a long time to get around. While computers today are a hybrid of silicon and optical systems, they’re still not quite where people had hoped they’d be.

So, what is decking? Well, it’s complicated, but not really. Decking is the art of using a cyberdeck to gain unauthorized access into a system. Easy, so ka? Well then, what is a cyberdeck? A deck is a highly sophisticated piece of equipment that allows the human mind to interface directly with a hostile system and issue commands. But you ask, “What’s so special about the brain, and why do we care when computers are faster and stronger?” Even hear that bulldrek about only using 10% of your brain? Completely untrue. We use the whole damn thing all the time, but there is a small nugget that’s close to reality in there.

In the mid 2020’s someone asked how organic brains work to produce sentience. You see, while computers are stronger and faster than the brain, we still can’t make a truly sentient A.I. no matter how hard we try. So, someone thought that maybe, just maybe, brains are special in ways that silicon couldn’t be. Subsequent testing involving a hell of a lot of smart people revealed that the brain uses a limited, but powerful, form of quantum computing. The cyberdeck disengages certain portions of the brain to free up processing power, and that power is then used to essentially brute force commands into a hostile system to bend it to the decker’s will.

>>>>[Don’t ask about A.I., kids. Just don’t. All you need to know is that no one’s ever proven it’s possible, and those who try often end up ghosted.]<<<<
—FastJack [02:48:97 (UTC) January 1, 2050]

So, how is decking similar to old school hacking? The basic premise of any security system is to have a complicated password that takes too much time and effort to guess.

>>>>[Well, that and not writing the passwords on sticky notes. The biggest vulnerability is still people.]<<<<
—FastJack [02:49:85 (UTC) January 1, 2050]

Back in the day, a well-run system was essentially hack-proof. SysOps would encrypt sensitive data using 256 bit (or higher) encryption and brute forcing the passwords would take billions of years. Pretty secure. The only problem is that these encryption schemes made a critical assumption about mathematics that may not be true. When this vulnerability was discovered, it meant that most, if not all, encryption had secret backdoors that could be unlocked. For a normal computer, this still meant an unreasonable amount of brute force was needed meaning that the target system was still relatively secure. However, when the quantum computational abilities of the mind were thrown in the mix, a well-trained brain could melt most security like butter. Although, some encryption is still really nasty. Many Shadowruns are done simply to get encryption keys as even the most gifted deckers can’t defeat some forms of security.

>>>>[To expand on this for the curious, most encryption relies on the theory that P=!NP. P is all possible “problems” and NP is all possible “easy-to-solve problems.” If P is not equal to NP it means that some encryption is nearly unbeatable as some problems cannot be solved “easily”. Easy, in our case, meaning that you can solve it intelligently with only a few clock cycles of a computer (relatively speaking). If P IS equal to NP it means that all problems that “look” hard actually have an “easy” solution that you just need to find.

To this day P=!NP is still up in the air. Personally, I think that it’s true, but mathematicians have discovered enough vulnerabilities (called side channel hacks) in supposedly unbeatable encryption that it really has made everyone stop and question their assumptions. While P may still not equal NP, these days it’s a hell of a lot closer to equaling NP than it used to be, and that means job opportunities for you.<<<<
—FastJack [02:56:22 (UTC) January 1, 2050]

However, quantum computing isn’t the “be all end all” solution to security. Quantum computing only allows a lot of “possibilities” to be tried simultaneously when defeating encryption. At its heart, it’s still just a bunch of blind guessing. There’s something else that makes decking possible. Something no machine can match: intuition.

Decks repurpose significant portions of the brain while jacked in, and an experienced decker can literally feel their way around the matrix using this sensory input. They can taste paydata and smell hostile IC. They can see the Matrix and hear the tumblers of the electronic locks fall into place. A good decker can literally feel encryption giving away under pressure. This is a poorly understood phenomenon, but an important one none the less. This is one reason why nearly all decks use “reality filters.” A reality filter colors how a decker perceives the matrix and the context in which they process the sensory input. By making the cyberspace environment more familiar to the decker, their brain is more at ease and can more easily focus its intuition. It’s the difference between reading a newspaper in your study versus reading it upside down while skydiving. It’s also why the matrix always has an animated tinge to it and is rarely photorealistic: it keeps the decker from forgetting where he is.

>>>>[A good friend of mine uses hell for the basis of his filter. For him, even opening simple files feels like the flesh is burning off his hands. He’s Catholic.]<<<<
—FastJack [03:00:05 (UTC) January 1, 2050]

Again, it’s not well understood how and why biological minds are so good at otherwise impossible calculations, but one theory is that biological systems are simply of a radically different architecture much like a CPU versus a GPU. Some functions are just more efficient with the right setup.

CYBERDECKS

Much like old school computers back in the early 20th century, the original cyberterminals took up entire buildings. By 2045 incremental breakthroughs regarding optical computers reduced the cyberterminal to the size of a small desk. While it couldn’t be easily transported, it was now something that people could obtain (legitimately, or otherwise) for themselves. However, the most secure systems were kept off the matrix, so most hacks couldn’t be done remotely keeping things somewhat balanced. This all changed in 2049 when the 7th generation cyberdeck was produced. Now the size of a keyboard, the 7th generation deck could be easily transported on site and even offline systems suddenly became vulnerable to shadowrunning deckers.

>>>>[The 7th generation decks are due to hit in quarter 1 of 2050, but if you’re savvy enough you might be able to rustle up one a bit earlier than that…]<<<<
—FastJack [03:01:15 (UTC) January 1, 2050]

Cyberdecks have all the functionality of a standard computer, but most shadowrunners disable unnecessary functions. Aside from the obvious issue of your wireless connection giving your position away, extra functions take away clock cycles, and deckers are notorious for squeezing every bit of performance possible out of their deck. Decks tend to look like slightly oversized keyboards with a few large buttons on the front. The buttons might seem antiquated, but you’ll be happy to have them when you need them. The buttons are mostly analog on/off switches for certain functions within the deck. So, if hostile IC is eating your deck’s circuits alive, you can hit the power button and save the chips without turning your deck off completely. Neat, huh?

The original cyberterminals required massive spools of optical cables, and early deckers needed dozens of datajacks scattered around their skull. It was unsightly to say the least. Improvements have reduced this to a single bundle of optical cables connecting to a jack near the temple of the decker’s skull. Wireless decking is possible, in theory, but “operations” involving hostile systems are so data intensive that wireless connections simply cannot function on a practical level. Obvious transmission issues aside (triangulated positions, lag, data loss, etc.), wireless transmission simply doesn’t have the bandwidth capable for intense decking operations. Hostile IC can sometimes dump a petabyte of data into a decker’s brain, and any “traffic jams” in the bandwidth pipe between the user, the deck, and the system is disastrous for the decker. Fiber optics are the only way to reliably run the Matrix.

>>>>[However, if you’re truly concerned about essence loss and don’t want a data jack, you can use a simsense trode network to deck. However, it will be much slower, and you’ll be booted frequently. On the plus side, you’re immune to Black IC. I have a mage friend that decks using one.]<<<<
—FastJack [03:22:46 (UTC) January 1, 2050]

While hacking and IC programs are data intensive, standard file storage is, for the average user, functionally unlimited. The average deck carries many petabytes of storage for standard programs, so save all the pictures and cat videos you like. However, because higher level decking and IC operations are so computationally and memory intensive, a new metric of storage and processing power had to be coined. Because these advanced operations use quantum and optical computing, the term “megapulse” was created. Megapulses measure both data and computational power.

INTRUSION COUNTERMEASURES (IC)

IC (pronounced “Ice”) is a type of program specially created to prevent hostile deckers from getting where they shouldn’t. IC is different from your normal software; IC is run using optical processors whose architecture mimics biological neural networks. Most programs take a pitifully small amount of processing power to run. Playing videos and building spreadsheets is a pretty simple task in 2050. IC is a different animal. It eats clock cycles like a ravenous beast, and it’ll eat you too if you’re not careful. Thankfully, dedicated IC is expensive and it slows down the host system when active, so it generally stays in passive mode unless its security protocols are triggered.

There’s a lot of different IC out there, but there are three main types: The kind that boots you off the ‘trix, the kind that fries your deck (permanently, sometimes), and the black stuff. Stay away from Black IC; it can induce biofeedback inside a decker’s brain. Strokes and aneurysms are the least of your worries if Black IC gets inside your skull.

>>>>[A lot of people wonder why there aren’t any complete protections against Black IC. Well, it’s like this: decking puts your brain smack in the middle of a conflict with a hostile system. You’re pouring data in and out of the most sensitive parts of your brain. Parts that weren’t design to interface directly with a machine, much less a machine that’s trying to kill you. It’s only natural that something’s bound to get broken if you let a bull through the open door of your china shop.]<<<<
—FastJack [03:32:00 (UTC) January 1, 2050]

There’s also a few varieties that can do interesting things like find your physical location. “How?” you might ask, when you’re hidden behind 23 proxies and a pirate connection? It all comes back to your brain and deck and that revolving door of data. When tracer IC gets inside your deck, or your skull, it literally hijacks your location functions. If you’re dumb enough to not disable your deck’s GPS function, you deserve what hits you. Even so, tracer IC can sometimes cause your deck to ping specific connections and before you know it, your location is “triangulated” (in a sense) and heat is bearing down on your meat bod faster than you can jackout and slink off.

PAYDATA, ENCRYPTION KEYS, & OFFLINE HACKING

As mentioned, a lot of encryption can be defeated in real time by a decker inside a system. However, this is often because a system has to balance security with ease of accessibility for authorized users. It’s the vulnerabilities in these tradeoffs that deckers generally exploit. Sometimes you will come across a file or system whose encryption is so heavy or novel that you just can’t crack it. This is where encryption keys come into play. Some corps don’t even guard sensitive data. They guard the keys to the box its locked in. If you’re ever in a tight spot, don’t toss the file, consider finding the keys to it.

As if standard encryption wasn’t bad enough, some files are stored on active processors who are constantly encoding and recoding the data in a pattern so random and unknowable it would give Heisenberg fits. Even if you manage to download the file, it has to stay in your deck’s active memory, and its constantly shifting nature means that you can’t usefully clone or transfer the file without destroying the active copy. But wait, it gets better. Sometimes these files are equipped with a scrambler so that if you botch your attempt to pick the lock the file is dumped from your active memory and you’ve got nothing.

Ain’t technology grand?