 Keeping the Hacker in the Cold, Bypassing wireless blocks |
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 Dec 6 2006, 05:50 PM
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#1
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Moving Target  Group: Members Posts: 223 Joined: 6-December 06 Member No.: 10,259  |
Hey. New to the boards and all that. Used to play a little SR3, and just bought SR4.
Now, if I understand correctly (might not, I bought the book yesterday), though the whole world is wireless most secure locations are protected by some sort of wallpaper or paint that blocks out/in wireless signals, and most proper security is still hardwired. At least that seems to be popular opinion on these boards. So, basically, hackers need to go in with the team to do his work. Much like in a lot of SR3, when everything was wired. However, I had this idea to keep him outside, if that's what the hacker wants. Dunno if it will work, and I couldn't quite find the right gear for the job. Anyway, here goes: Hacker sits outside the location, operating from the regular Matrix 2.0 from wherever he wants to. The characters on location carry with them a small piece of equipment consisting of a transmitter, a cable, and a transmitter. They plant one transmitter – programed to accept the hackers signal, nothing else – outside the building, and plant the other one inside. The two transmitters are connected by the cable, and the hacker has now bypassed the wallpaper without having to take a step. The crew inside can go about and plant more of these as necessary, even wiring them into hardwired security systems, giving the hacker access to what he needs. The thing could even be thrown in through a window, a vent or something by a tiny drone during office times, allowing the hacker to roam the site (assuming he has the right codes, skills, programs and such) in broad daylight without any runners having to actually infiltrate the building. So you get: Hacker – receiver – cable – sender – inside network Would this work? Major issues? |
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Dec 6 2006, 06:19 PM
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#2
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,150 Joined: 19-December 05 From: Rhein-Ruhr Megaplex Member No.: 8,081 |
Yeah, basically, it would work.
Welcome to dumpshock ;). |
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Dec 6 2006, 06:44 PM
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#3
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 906 Joined: 16-October 06 Member No.: 9,630 |
In the campaign I now run the Johnson Al often has the team plant devices of similar design.
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Dec 6 2006, 06:49 PM
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#4
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,526 Joined: 9-April 06 From: McGuire AFB, NJ Member No.: 8,445 |
Random guard walks down the hallway and sees a cable running along the floor, which shouldnt be there... Yeah, I could see that happening too.
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Dec 6 2006, 06:57 PM
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#5
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 223 Joined: 6-December 06 Member No.: 10,259 |
Random guards are, well, random. Kinda hard to factor in.
I still like the idea of being able to snoop in a supposedly closed wireless system without ever having to actually enter the building though. Question: How could one detect this thing, short of stumbling across it? Unregistered computer/commlink on the network? Unregistered broadcasting? Could it be physically tracked down short of an active search by guards and whatnot? |
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Dec 6 2006, 07:10 PM
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#6
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Genuine Artificial Intelligence Group: Members Posts: 4,019 Joined: 12-June 03 Member No.: 4,715 |
Search for hidden node. They could find it, but it's pretty unlikely they'll find it in any short amount of time unless they have a reason to be looking for it. Once they've found it wirelessly, I believe they could triangulate and track it down physically pretty quickly.
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Dec 6 2006, 07:15 PM
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#7
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,537 Joined: 27-August 06 From: Albuquerque NM Member No.: 9,234 |
For long term, the radio signal scanner in the drones that patrol the halls would pick up a new transmitter. In the short term I'm not sure. To take a current example, if someone drops a wireless access point in a building with a managed network in it today it will be detected (and typically localized to some extent, possibly quite accurately) if it's on the same frequency as the network they are using. If a client tries to connect to the network and isn't recognized they will be located also. So if there was a system monitoring this they would be detected pretty quickly, at least until you suborned the monitoring system. Whether anyone cared until Monday is an open question. Of course, the other assumption that is implicitly made in SR4 is that you can get a connection to the network simply by connecting to it. In reality, that just isn't true, as you need to authenticate to a secure wired or wireless network before it allows you to connect. |
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Dec 6 2006, 07:26 PM
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#8
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Old Man Jones Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 4,415 Joined: 26-February 02 From: New York Member No.: 1,699 |
This is similar how a lot of buildings get retrofitted to be able to send and recieve cellphone calls when the building structure normally blocks the signals. Except, ya know, it's contractors running the cables, not shadowrunners. =) I've done it myself with two antenna of the right length, a cable, and a signal amplifier in line to, well, boost the signal. Last game I played the team solved the problem of an obvious technomancer being where he shouldn't be by shaping him into a pigeon. Nobody looks twice at pigeons. =) -karma |
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Dec 6 2006, 07:27 PM
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#9
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 775 Joined: 31-March 05 From: florida Member No.: 7,273 |
put your retransmitter on the roof and run the cable down to the appropriate floors with a LTA drone through the air duct. You have to equip the drone with a spool but it will work
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Dec 6 2006, 07:40 PM
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#10
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,430 Joined: 10-January 05 From: Fort Worth, Texas Member No.: 6,957 |
Only tangentiall on topic, but I figure it has to be said: random gaurds should always be factored in. Look at the points of your plant hat are the weakest for an unforseen rentacop walking around the corner and tighten it up. |
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Dec 6 2006, 07:44 PM
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#11
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 223 Joined: 6-December 06 Member No.: 10,259 |
Okok. Factor them in. Make the things as tiny as possible, and stick them in the ceiling.
EDIT: The transmitters and cables, not the guards... |
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Dec 6 2006, 07:58 PM
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#12
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 179 Joined: 15-November 06 Member No.: 9,866 |
While everyone is big on having good security systems be wireless, remember that means that said security system could not have any drones as that would require wireless communication, unless of course the drones drag cables around the entire place, tripping the security guards all the time, or if the drones are fix mounted or attached run only on a track which also supplies the wired connection.
You could have the security network be distinct from and not connected to the network that has any pay-data on it, but in that case, the data network could not send an alarm to the security network if it detects an intruder. If it could do that, then that would be a data connection that hacker could utilize. Thus, the idea of a secure network consisting of a wireless network inside of an area blocked off by wireless blocking materials is not unreasonable. |
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Dec 6 2006, 11:19 PM
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#13
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panda! Group: Members Posts: 10,331 Joined: 8-March 02 From: north of central europe Member No.: 2,242 |
hmm, now thats a very interesting trick. but it brings some questions to the table (ones that cant be answered as not much is known about how those TM's work). |
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Dec 7 2006, 06:23 AM
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#14
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,925 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 948 |
Use several tiny crawler drones as relays inside a building instead. They are hard to detect and sticks to the ceiling.
Each one of them function as a relay so in order to get the signal inside the building you piggyback on each drones signal. |
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Dec 7 2006, 10:09 AM
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#15
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Target Group: Members Posts: 76 Joined: 26-November 06 Member No.: 10,024 |
Why not use a laser to beam a signal to another building within line of sight? Apart from the cable going to the laser transmitter it'll be nearly undetectable. These devices already exist, although I believe they're a pain to get aimed correctly. Only seen one such device for sale in a highly specialized networking catalogue once. Rare.
Might become visible to those with the right vision enhancements if it's a foggy night :) |
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Dec 7 2006, 10:34 AM
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#16
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 732 Joined: 1-December 06 Member No.: 10,116 |
Lasers are generally quite visible to the naked eye in a fogy atmosphere. Just play laser tag some time. Of course thats your 'normal' red requency laser. You could with more work get a 'sepecial' frequency (such as say.. X-ray, UV etc) iwth appropriate reciever. Ultimately though you still have to have a reciever/transmitter at both ends. And the slightest 'nudge' will throw them off. That doesnt mean you cant have the laser attached to a wireless transmitter on either end though. Buty again wireless signals can be detected and I'm fairly certain modern 2070 corp security would at least do the periodic sweep (More often for more secure places) to check for 'aberrant' emissions that shouldnt be there. |
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Dec 7 2006, 04:50 PM
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#17
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 147 Joined: 4-December 06 From: Chicago, IL Member No.: 10,193 |
Actually they ADD the red laser for lasertag games so that you can see it. The gun is really shooting two lasers, one visible, one not. |
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Dec 7 2006, 04:54 PM
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#18
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 147 Joined: 4-December 06 From: Chicago, IL Member No.: 10,193 |
This is what I plan to do. I've been having one of my Shiawase Kanmushi drones sit on the shoulder of our Face and our rigger regularly follows the other team members with flyspys. |
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Dec 7 2006, 05:14 PM
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#19
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Shadow Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 3,737 Joined: 2-June 06 From: Secret Tunnels under the UK (South West) Member No.: 8,636 |
This is a little bit of a tangent to the question, but following from a comment in the initial post... I'm not sure how universal wireless zone security is in general. I regard too much of it as being laziness on the part of the GM (speaking as one). Its the hacker equivalent of background count which some GMs seem to leave everywhere to counter mages.
Where wireless does exist, it's far more likely just a few secure areas on the compound. But conceivably any wired network connectivity between these areas and the outside world can still serve as a portal for the skilled hacker if the security on it is beaten. There are other reasons why a hacker would go in with the rest of the team and you don't need to force the issue every time. Also, in SR4, the hacker is often a secondary role taken on by one of the other characters, so would go in anyway. And sometimes they double as a rigger so would have a presence with the rest of the team, anyway. There's no reason that the hacker character can't sit out in the van or at home when possible. That has its own risks, after all. ;) All I'm saying, is remote working is one of the abilities of the hacker. Don't view it as an enemy that has to be crushed and deny the player a valid way of playing. Going with it can be fun. |
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Dec 9 2006, 04:28 PM
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#20
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 223 Joined: 6-December 06 Member No.: 10,259 |
Absolutely. But one should still challenge them, neh?
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Dec 9 2006, 04:35 PM
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#21
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,458 Joined: 22-March 03 From: I am a figment of my own imagination. Member No.: 4,302 |
I shall now present a simple, low tech, method for breaching wireless protected environments... stick with me here: drill a hole in the wall.
Discuss. |
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Dec 9 2006, 04:43 PM
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#22
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Genuine Artificial Intelligence Group: Members Posts: 4,019 Joined: 12-June 03 Member No.: 4,715 |
You'd probably need to stick a teensy, tiny antenna through the hole to really get anything.
A pinhole won't suddenly let all the EM escape and make it like the wall wasn't there. Just so everyone's clear. But basically, yeah, Digital Heroin's idea works fine, and it's a good idea. |
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Dec 9 2006, 05:29 PM
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#23
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,150 Joined: 19-December 05 From: Rhein-Ruhr Megaplex Member No.: 8,081 |
This idea only works for dwarfs in overalls, because only dwarfs with overalls are truly invisible, especially when wielding a drill.
Racism at its best. |
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Dec 9 2006, 07:06 PM
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#24
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 906 Joined: 16-October 06 Member No.: 9,630 |
I find most maglocks can't be opened by the system. While the system tracks who opens it and when. The system can't actually unlock the maglocks you need to be physically at the lock to open it. And usually only the hacker has the right skills to open the maglock.
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Dec 11 2006, 05:30 PM
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#25
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 223 Joined: 6-December 06 Member No.: 10,259 |
How loud are anno 2070 drills? If someone tried to make a new hole in a wall anywhere near me, I'm pretty certain I'd hear it...
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