Properity communication protocols, WTF? My deck isn't netware compatable!! Options

[hyzmarca]

Its canon, but I find it stange that every computer in SR complies to the same universal standards. This is especially strange considering how insular and paranoid Megacorps are. One would think that every megacorp would be using proprietary standards on their more sensitive systems.

The biggest advantage of properitary networks is obvious. In order to beak into a properitary system a deckar would not only need compatable equipment but he would also have to be familiar with the system. Compare the commands of DOS with those of UNIX. The two are similar but a UNIX hacker who had never seen DOS before would not be able to accomplish anything without some trial and error. Trial and error is something most deckers can't afford.

A unique ASSIST encoding scheme would lock out even the greatest of Otaku unless they are able to get ahold of a corporate ASSIST decoder.

[Walknuki]

Well for several reasons:

1: A proprietary system would be difficult to implement and support. You need to train all your employees how to use it and all your techs world wide how to repair and support it. Tens of thousands of man hours lost and millions in nuyen to train techs and employees. Not pleasant.

2: All software would have to be written in house. Accounting software, experiment matrixes, spreadsheets, solitaire, everything. This costs much more in man hours and money then purchasing a corporate license for MS Office 2064.

3: A proprietary system would be harder (if not impossible with the level of difference you're talking about) to connect to the necessary world wide networks that corps need to connect too. Banks, libraries, stock exchanges, the works.

4: A proprietary system wouldn't keep deckers out for long. Equipment and software your company uses would be leaked onto the matrix in a matter of days making it all moot.

[hobgoblin]

look at the internet of today, everything is running on top of the same basic protocol set: tcp/ip. its the same with the matrix, every device talks "matrix", but not every host runs the same "mpcp".

and there are rules in the matrix sourcebook i think for hosts running old and/or strange protocols and systems.

if you want real security then you take the host offline and hand it over to a dragon. the sr version of fully unplugging a computer, power and all, encase it in concrete, acidresistant steel, sink it to the bottom of the deepest part of the sea and park a high payed carrier group on top.

[Eyeless Blond]

Right up until the adept, who's been Shapechanged into a trout by the mage, swims up to the safe and breaks it open with Smashing Blow, then plugs in the wireless dataline tap for your decker to use to swipe everything. :D

[DocMortand]

And then bites it because of a combination of depth charges and awakened pirahna with lasers on their fricken heads.

[Req]

[craigpierce]

[hyzmarca]

It doesn't have to be that sever. Just look at Apples music store. You need a proprietary software program to download songs. This program oversees various copy protections in the music files. At one point hackers found a way to download songs with a third-party application that didn't install copy protection, but the flaw they exploited was soon patched. To my knowledge there is current no well known and reliable way to circumvent Apple's protections.

For the matrix it could be simple of encoding the host's ASSIST signals in a unique fromat instead of Windows Media Assist or whatever is standart. The user would need a special decoder, either hardware or software, to to interact with the host.

This isn't a step for the average Green and Yellow hosts, but it is something one might consider doing for those megacorp UV hosts that only WMD and Things Man Should Not Know researchers are granted access to. A few decks containing special decoder chips that are kept locked up tight in the facility are the only way to access the Host. The host itself can still interact with other hosts running standard ASSIST protocols, since that communication doesn't involve sensory data.

[Herald of Verjig...]

Any protocol can be emulated. The situation you describe sounds like Apple switching one of the information checks to the server instead of on the connection software. If someone wanted to, they could observe the communications sent by Apple's proprietary software and write their own utility that matches the communications perfectly. However, if all the identity checks are being done between distant servers, there is no benefit to writing your own client for those distant servers.

If the information on any specialized system was important to a devoted individual, the security benefit wouldn't last a week. If it was a completety divergant OS, it would take a B&E job instead.

[Jrayjoker]

Isn't this roughly handled by the effects of sculpted systems and masking?

[Kagetenshi]