When nerds go bad (and encrypt communications)., inspired by a real life incident Options

[Kanada Ten]

are you thinking lasers or just a "flashlight"?

Lasers, like the old optical datajacks.

[Fortune]

I'm pretty sure jago668 is referring to lasers, and I also believe there are rules for that type of thing somewhere in SR4.

[Kanada Ten]

The basic eye laser system features a 'look-to-talk' system, allowing the user to communicate and transmit information via infrared laser to another character with an eye laser system or external laser talk gear.

Looks like they gimped it, but I think autosoft'd drones with smartlink could line up a mobile daisy chain.

[jago668]

I'm pretty sure jago668 is referring to lasers, and I also believe there are rules for that type of thing somewhere in SR4.

Actually I was refering to ferrets and rats with post it notes stuck to them that run between members of your team. I think Kanada Ten was refering to lasers.

[hobgoblin]

hmm, devil rats?

[Kanada Ten]

Actually I was refering to ferrets and rats with post it notes stuck to them that run between members of your team. I think Kanada Ten was refering to lasers.

I did have a ferret named Karma once. She died though, staff infection.

[Crusher Bob]

We always just shot each other with silenced light pistols and holdouts. They can't be intercepted, and most of the light pistols have enough bullets in them that you can fire off a complete code group without having to reload. Besides, it's not like you could actually hurt anyone with a LP, so there was no danger. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Fortune]

Actually I was refering to ferrets and rats with post it notes stuck to them that run between members of your team. I think Kanada Ten was refering to lasers.

Damn! Need sleep! I blame it on the Quote buttons being in the wrong place. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Kyoto Kid]

...Ne loš ideja izgleda kao možda Violet potreba to raskopati Hrvatski

×?ו ×?ולי פשוט נדבק לבן המקו×? שלה ידיש...

...though I like the encryption that uses LPs & holdouts (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[nathanross]

I did have a ferret named Karma once. She died though, staff infection.

Is it just me or is that just ironic? Im sorry for your loss, but I just cant help but find that hillarious. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

[Ravor]

I don't know, personally I'd allow a person to run an unknown language through a database via an Agent and relatively quickly be able to download the correct 'soft.

Now things might get interesting if everyone on the team was using custom programmed 'softs to use a bunch of different languages grabled in code, but that would probably take way more effort then it's worth considering that for quick communications even Sixth World encryption is good enough as long as the team is relatively careful in what they say.

[Kyoto Kid]

...encryption through polylingual means was where I was heading next, but it is late and I am feeling my intellectual capacity fading to the level of the Short One.

...the several pints of beer haven't helped either

...moj hoverkraft je bremenit eels

[Blade]

It wouldn't be too hard to decrypt: use some expert agent to guess the language in use (or the language family) then use the corresponding translating software (or linguasoft). But even then, using another language is nothing else than mapping words to other words, a classic encryption trick. You can also choose to use the nth word following the one you're saying in some dictionary or something like that.
Or you can simply agree on some mapping:
http://www.shadowforums.com/cyber-espace/spip.php?article219

But actually, it'll be the same as with a custom made encryption program: you'll be safe until the opponent can find the pattern which'll depend on how much you speak and what other information the opposition can gather (if you shout "tortoise' each time you see a drone, it won't be too long to figure it out). I house-ruled the encryption rules and give modifiers according to this... I think it's the best way to handle it without getting too much into the details.

[Lionhearted]

...moj hoverkraft je bremenit eels

dutch?

Ne loš ideja izgleda kao možda Violet potreba to raskopati Hrvatski

croatian?


The altogther best way to confuse people would be to use a pidgin of made up languages mixed with some real, Lingos is always more fun aswell ^^
(How about Kligon/Khuzdul (tolkien dwarvish)/Esperanto?)

[Velocity219e]

dutch?




croatian?


The altogther best way to confuse people would be to use a pidgin of made up languages mixed with some real, Lingos is always more fun aswell ^^
(How about Kligon/Khuzdul (tolkien dwarvish)/Esperanto?)

Okay when I made my first post I was half asleep, this time I'm half awake (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) now.... would it be possible to hack up a linguasoft (I mean they are programmed right?) and burn off say one teams worth of chips in a one off, and have different wordgroups in different languages, in simple terms I guess (and I'm saying random languages here, I guess they'd have to be in some way compatible really) 25% of the words in Mandarin chinese, 25% in egyptian, 25% in spanish and 25% in hell Klingon whatever.

There is a reason I have to GM all the bloody time (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

since all the chips in use are identical and they aren't being interpreted by you at all but by the linguasoft then presumably fed to you I don't see that it'd make a massive amount of difference that you were swtiching between them on a per word basis, my reasoning for this is as has been said it probably wouldn't be SO difficult to set an SK/Agent/sprite to work on sampling searching and decoding languages at a time, but if you swamp them with jobs it goes from being easy to possibly not even worth the effort. Especially if you spend 90% of your chatter time talking either total nonsense ala "banana hasp time rampage dog cyberarm hamfisted left" just to throw translators into a frenzy of trying to decode your 'Encryption cypher'

oh and just touching briefly on Signalling lasers, we used to use them at work for a client who had two offices on different sides of the street wireless was considered too open to abuse for a law firm sharing client and legal data so we nailed two enclosures to the outside walls that looked just like CCTV cameras pointing at each other, choose a random frequency line em up and plug em into a network and you have a pretty much iron clad wireless network between two offices, not very fast like, but enough to share internet / email / transfer client data to the servers over night, the only problems were it was a bitch if the power went out and the UPS didn't keep em up, sometimes you had to reset them manually and it was complicated, and pidgeons would sit on the blasted things and sometimes push them out of line of sight, but it took a shitload of pidgeons.

[It trolls!]

Bavarian.

Trust me, noone will understand you!

[MaxHunter]

For my games, I rather leave encryption on the abstract side, and using language mixes eventually becomes a sort of encryption, as someone here already pointed out.

Also, the potential for miscommunication arises when you are translating one code into another that does not mirror it exactly (as is the case with languages) IMO it will become dangerously unreliable if you got three + extra languages into the mix.

On the other hand, I love slang, and it sure is extremely hard to get for someone not in the in-group. South american spanish gang slang I know some and it makes for real colorful impossible to translate communication, there are just too many connotations and nuances to get it right if you don't belong.

Cheers,

Max

[Crisp]

Once ago, in a French cyberpunk RPG I once read, they mentioned something like this. They said that certain organized well-funded crime outfits used chips (skillsofts in SR terms) with made up languages to communicate in public without danger of being overheard.

In SR this already happens to some degree. If I recall correctly it's mentioned in one or two places that teams of Celedyr's operatives often talk in obscure languages exactly for this reason. It makes sense, after all Celedyr is said to be fascinated with languages and communication in all forms.

Besides, encryption in SR4 is rather weak.

[Feshy]

The ironic thing is that the young boy's hieroglyphics would have worked well in Shadowrun, but in the real world actual encryption would have worked much better. Didn't he have a java-capable cell phone to keep notes on? Should have spent the time hacking up his own home-grown encryption engine, like I did as a wee tyke (it needlessly used RSA even for secret keys; I never did trust DES.)

Well, I don't know how old he is. I used variable-length substitution algorithms (multiple letters into a single symbol, multiple symbols into a single letter, essentially several thousand potential symbols mapping to several thousand potential letter combinations in an ever-changing pattern) until I was able to dumpster-dive my first computer at 12 or so.

Er... that is to say... Uh... good thing they caught him before he actually hurt anyone?

Word-level substitution (e.g. using another language) can actually be pretty effective. If you are careful to avoid repeating words, and the opposition can't pick out the language (either because you made it up or they have no access to native speakers) then it is nearly impossible to break because of the lack of context. With no repeats and no recognizable words to give away the language, it's like a one time pad (except that you'll have grammar clues and such -- so make sure to speak in clipped phrases instead of full sentences.) Of course, that's pretty hard to do. How many synonyms for "patrol drone with an assault cannon headed this way" are there?

On the other hand, if you only have a dozen substitutions like the mob did way back when, it's a less effective strategy.
"Did you bring the bread?"
"Yea, I'm packin' bread."
"Is the bread loaded?"
"Yea, it's loaded."
"Good, let's go bake this guy."

[Kyoto Kid]

...Lionhearted: Both were Croatian.

For Pidgin, there is always Mock Swedish: Svürn de hürn de Börk Börk

It trolls!: (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif) (Spent almost a year there back in the 70s)

Feshy: I would see it possibly working if worded thus:

Hitman 1: "Did you bring the bread?"
Hitman 2: "Got a full loaf"
Hitman 1: "Is it tasty?"
Hitman 2: "Yeah, it's multigrain."
Hitman 1: "Good, let's shake and bake."

[Feshy]

...Lionhearted: Both were Croatian.

For Pidgin, there is always Mock Swedish: Svürn de hürn de Börk Börk

It trolls!: (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif) (Spent almost a year there back in the 70s)

Feshy: I would see it possibly working if worded thus:

Hitman 1: "Did you bring the bread?"
Hitman 2: "Got a full loaf"
Hitman 1: "Is it tasty?"
Hitman 2: "Yeah, it's multigrain."
Hitman 1: "Good, let's shake and bake."

It'd be even better with some crossover terminology.

Hitman 1: "Did you bring the bread?"
Hitman 2: "Yea. 15 grains in this bread. Baked in a teflon coated bake pan. Stops cops better than a doughnut."

Still, I'd prefer using a Mindnet spell, and broadcasting some well-encrypted lies...

[knasser]

I forsee problems with that, though. It reminds me of the dialogue from 51st State:

Gangster 1: You told me to take care of him.
Gangster 2: I meant to take care of him, not fuckin' take care of him!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[bibliophile20]

My next hacker character will have level 3 or 4 in both Klingon and Mando'a thanks to this conversation. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[Ravor]

Naw, just buy a couple of 'softs. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

[bibliophile20]

Naw, just buy a couple of 'softs. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

Nah, those will be for the rest of the team so they can understand what he's saying... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)