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Raij
What is the process a hacker would need to go through to permanently steal a drone? I see in the FAQ where a hacker can spoof commands to the drone as if coming from the owner, but what if he wants to keep the drone after he's done? I wouldn't think he would spoof it forever.

QUOTE
Note that agents and drones will only take orders from
their controlling persona, unless another persona spoofs an order
(see Spoof Command, p. 224). If the controlling character
chooses, he can instruct the agent or drone to receive orders
from other specified personas.


Could the hacker spoof a command to the drone to change the controlling persona from the original persona to the hacker? Then from there on out issue commands as if it were his?

Adarael
Hack the drone's subscription list, have him subscribe to it and have it subscribe to him, erase all other subscribers.

I'm at work and don't have my books, but that's basically the process. You have to hack into the node it's on, rather than just spoof solitary commands.
Orient
That seems easier than my answer, which is to try to install a new Pilot program. Not that this solution is particularly rules-supported..
Riley37
It should not be necessary, but if you only have User access from your spoofed account, it might help to spoof a command "come to my location", physically disconnect the drone from other input, and go from there; if it has some equivalent of a SIM chip that records its owner (who has root/admin access), then you could remove and replace that chip.

Hmm, come to think of it, I should have my PC program his drones so that if they detect spoofed commands, they *pretend* to accept the new user, but also secretly send the PC an alert. Double agent drones!
Eurotroll
Off the bat I'd say get Admin level access ASAP, unsubscribe all other users, restrict access, and clear the "registry" that lists owner (whether corp or private citizen), acquisition date and so on. Then take the drone offline when you have the luxury of some downtime and file off the registration number equivalent. wink.gif
Adarael
QUOTE (Orient)
That seems easier than my answer, which is to try to install a new Pilot program. Not that this solution is particularly rules-supported..

No, but it IS more awesome.

(You seem be be as bored at school as I am at work...)
Orient
QUOTE (Adarael)
QUOTE (Orient @ Oct 11 2007, 02:23 PM)
That seems easier than my answer, which is to try to install a new Pilot program.  Not that this solution is particularly rules-supported..

No, but it IS more awesome.

(You seem be be as bored at school as I am at work...)

Alternately, a nice 8x10 glossy of your own face, along with some double sided tape, used in a melee attack against the drone rigger ... that could also work.

Drone targets wrong guy - drone kills rigger - drone is yours. And you get off Scott free.

Scott free, I says!

(Just avoiding studying for tomorrow's GRE, here..)
Tarantula
Basically, hack in succesfully. Browse for access list. Decrypt it (if encrypted). Disarm it (if databombed). Edit to remove previous owner and add you as owner. Reboot to load new access list.
Fortune
Is there any difference if you are trying to steal a car ... or bike ... or tank ... or jet fighter?
Adarael
Usually you can also steal those by bashing in a window/canopy/what have you and hotwiring them. And those also tend to have people in them, though not always. Drones tend not to.

And the drones I tend to steal are notorious for being in the sky.
Arashi
Mainbook, P216 : "Note that standard electronic devices only have admin accounts, as there is no need for other accounts for their software."

Even though we don't have rules for an actual host-node, i.e. what kind of hardware you need to run a "server" of sorts... this is how I run devices in my game. Personal commlinks, drones, devices, etc. - don't have more than 1 level of access, and that is at admin (per above).

As for stealing drones, IMHO it depends on how the owner of the drone is controlling it. If the original drone owner is a rigger and "jumped into" the drone/vehicle, it *cannot* be spoofed, and the intruding hacker must defeat the rigger in cybercombat. Only if the controller is in "captain's chair mode" or is just the dogbrain Pilot - can the spoof program work. Temporary commands like "land near my teammates for immediate dissasembly and transport..." hehe can work, but if caught by the ownen, it won't.

I like that idea about the subscription lists at that point - Hacking + Edit kind of tests I would suppose, with perhaps the hits becoming a threshold for the Computer + Analyze test if the old owner wanted to hack back in and find out what happened and try to stop it.

DireRadiant
QUOTE (Arashi)
If the original drone owner is a rigger and "jumped into" the drone/vehicle, it *cannot* be spoofed, and the intruding hacker must defeat the rigger in cybercombat.

I think it could be spoofed, it's just far more likely to be detected immediately and reacted to.

There's no difference in the wireless connection between a "jumped in" wireless stream and any other type of communication.

I do think a "jumped in" drone will be far less likely to be stolen, but only in the same way a car with a driver is less likely to be stolen. (Cars with drivers still get stolen you'll note)
Adarael
I dispute that. If you're jumped into the drone, you're rigging it directly with your brain. You have become the drone. Spoofing a command to a drone would be overriden by the rigger's control automatically and possibly without him even thinking about it. Just my gut instinct on it, though.

Otherwise, I wonder about the possibility of spoofing a decker's datastream to log him off without actually defeating him in cybercombat.
Cheops
Simple:

Spoof Command to fly away from current controller. Keep spoofing until somewhere you can recover it.

Once there Spoof it to shut down and turn off all wireless access.

Done.
DireRadiant
QUOTE (Adarael)
I dispute that. If you're jumped into the drone, you're rigging it directly with your brain. You have become the drone. Spoofing a command to a drone would be overriden by the rigger's control automatically and possibly without him even thinking about it. Just my gut instinct on it, though.

Otherwise, I wonder about the possibility of spoofing a decker's datastream to log him off without actually defeating him in cybercombat.

Consider the effects of a jammer on a Drone with a jumped in Rigger. Compare to the effects of a jammer on a Drone without a jumped in Rigger. The connection is wireless.

I do agree the Jumped in rigger is far more likely to notice the spoof, but that doesn't make the spoof attempt impossible.
Arashi
The reason I don't allow spoofing a "jumped-in" drone is because of the level of connection.

According to RAW p218, you can use Edit to change a couple words in a text on the fly, etc., but that "More extensive changes require longer periods and/or an Extended Test."

By that reasoning, trying to use a simple spoof to "go here" when the drone is engaged in a Full Hot-Sim level connection with a rigger - well, you try and just spoof that level of connection with a program and you get very little result. I would not even consider allowing it unless the hacking intruder was also a rigger with the hardware - then he could mentally send the appropriate depth of a rigger level connection, but there is going to be a full-on VR battle to take the driver's seat.

Also, on RAW p224, Spoof Command action is used to "transmit forged instructions to an agent or drone controlled by another user. In order to spoof orders, you must first complete a successful Matrix Perception Test on the persona you are impersonating in order to gain its access ID."

How many times have we allowed someone who simply beat a drone with Exploit to change subscriber lists, spoof, etc on a drone (i.e. take it outright) - all without seeing the original Matrix persona?

Have we made taking a drone too easy then??

The drone hardware/software is NOT going to want to let you make any changes w/o getting an authorized Access ID. Sure you get an access ID (faked) from exploit, but what does that mean? If the drone is rigged - you are in the car door but OOPS, sorry the drivers seat is occupied (rigging control only having space for one full-sim level connection) and you have to fight to put your own butt in that seat.

This begs the question that if you hack an access ID with Exploit, why would you need to Spoof? Well, if you AND the original vehicle owner are both still accessed, both of you can still issue commands. That's a problem, now the drone is in a tennis match being batted around back and forth. Physical jamming could take care of the original owner, but that isn't hacking. Wired communications are changeable on the fly, per RAW p224, but Wireless are not - so you would have to hold action and Spoof the incoming commands of the original owner of the drone as they came in...

BUT you need to see him (matrix persona) first, so do you need to access the drone, then exploit hack down the line to the controlling persona's commlink to see him (matrix perception check), then be able to spoof him?

Seems like it's somewhere in that area. YMMV on the usefulness of that kind of play though.
Cheops
Spoofing a drone works exactly like Spoofing any other remote device. If someone is jumped in then it isn't a remote device and therefore isn't spoofed like that. GM has to decide how to handle that situation. It should be handled similarily to how you'd handle two people in physical space fighting for control.

I just make it an opposed test Reaction + Vehicle skill of jumped in use v. roll for method that the intruder is using. Whoever rolls higher has taken control of the vehicle for that Initiative Pass.
Tarantula
You could perceive the controlling riggers persona by observing it via its connection to the drone. His persona is present in the drone while he is controlling it via VR.
DireRadiant
Arashi, you make it sound like all the VR Jumped in computing power is occuring at the the Drone, when in fact it's all happening at the Rigger. It's the hot sim module that's creating the "jumped in" effect at the rigger brain, not the riggers brain out wandering in the Drone VR space. Given that the effect VR is locally generated at the Rigger, I dont' necassarily believe the connection itself changes into one that can't be spoofed.
Raij
Guys, thanks a lot for the various comments and suggestions. Let's see what I'm lookin at here..

(assuming dog-brain or at best monitored, but not currently rigged)
1.) Exploit test to hack the drone; as mentioned are all drones considered devices and as such require admin access? if so this test is at +6 every time you want to hack any drone?
2.) Matrix Perception test to identify the controlling persona to prepare for Spoof
3.) Spoof subscription list to add new owner and remove existing owner (which would obviously alert owner if monitored)?
5.) Command as your own





Adarael
In a nutshell, yes.
Orient
Just to check ... you're talking about using the drone to find the controlling persona, and hacking the controlling persona in order to modify the subscription list, right? Because I'm pretty sure subscription list modification has to be done at the upper level of the subscription hierarchy.

And, as already mentioned, you could just Spoof fake commands to the drone directly - less effort, but has to be done command-by-command.

Yes?

(Apologies - don't have my books on me, here..)
Arashi
Orient - you can't spoof w/o first viewing the controlling persona to see it's Access ID with a Matrix Perception Check.


Raij - I think that devices only have 1 level of access which is Admin, so it does NOT require an additional +6... That is only for full server hardware nodes that can maintain processing power for such seperations.


DireRadiant - Re: the VR computing at the drone or rigger issue. I'm going off of legacy canon material which said something like vid/audio transmission was 1 Megapulse of memory per minute, and full sim was like 1 per second. IMHO - A rigged connection, to give the rigger the bonus it does, has to carry higher bandwidth so that the drone can juke left when the rigger lurches - it's much deeper than just the virtual remote controls of the Captain's Chair mode. It's like trying to hack someone's hot sim connection and feed them data when you are in AR using a keyboard. You can't type fast enough to simulate the emotive track. Remember in the previous Rigger books - Remote Control gear was different than Rigger gear - the rigger gear was in *addition* to the RC gear on a vehicle/drone.

To me this makes an actual skilled Rigger a bit more valid than just buying autopilots and cross-subscribing them for an 'Agent Smith - Drone' army.
Fortune
QUOTE (Arashi @ Oct 13 2007, 02:54 PM)
Raij - I think that devices only have 1 level of access which is Admin, so it does NOT require an additional +6...  That is only for full server hardware nodes that can maintain processing power for such seperations.

I see it the other way. As it only has one level of access, and that level is specifically named as Admin-level access, it always requires the additional +6.
DireRadiant
QUOTE (Arashi)
DireRadiant - Re: the VR computing at the drone or rigger issue. I'm going off of legacy canon material which said something like vid/audio transmission was 1 Megapulse of memory per minute, and full sim was like 1 per second. IMHO - A rigged connection, to give the rigger the bonus it does, has to carry higher bandwidth so that the drone can juke left when the rigger lurches - it's much deeper than just the virtual remote controls of the Captain's Chair mode. It's like trying to hack someone's hot sim connection and feed them data when you are in AR using a keyboard. You can't type fast enough to simulate the emotive track. Remember in the previous Rigger books - Remote Control gear was different than Rigger gear - the rigger gear was in *addition* to the RC gear on a vehicle/drone.

Then we are no longer talking about SR 4 Riggers.
Tarantula
Dire, talking about SR4 riggers then... heres a quote from SR4 for you. SR4, 239, Section Jumping Into Drones, "A drone controlled in this manner acts on the rigger’s Initiative—the rigger and the drone are treated as a single unit. Any tests are made using the rigger’s own skill and attributes."

The rigger and drone are a single unit. The rigger is for all intents and purposes, the drone. Unless you know how to spoof the riggers brain to do what you want, you can't spoof the drone.
DireRadiant
Acts and treated... This doesn't convince me that the Drone and Rigger aren't two things separated physically and using wireless to communicate. It's not a Bug Spirit Merge. And as long as there is this channel, a spoof attempt should work. Note, I mean attempt. A jumped in Rigger is almost certainly going to immediately detect a spoof, but that doesn't mean the drone can tell the difference between the jumped in riggers signal, and the incoming spoofed signal.

The bit about using the riggers attributes for test doesn't preclude the attacking Hacker/Rigger from spoofing.
Tarantula
Let me put it differently then. If the hacker spoofs a command that the drone will follow on its next action (which is the riggers), then on the riggers action, he is sending it what he wants it to do (whether thats not moving, looking around, or shooting/flying around) then that would automatically supercede the spoofed command, making it ineffective all the time.
DireRadiant
QUOTE (Tarantula)
Let me put it differently then. If the hacker spoofs a command that the drone will follow on its next action (which is the riggers), then on the riggers action, he is sending it what he wants it to do (whether thats not moving, looking around, or shooting/flying around) then that would automatically supercede the spoofed command, making it ineffective all the time.

Yes. That's what I think will happen. Or something close. The rigger might need to re issue, or rather re attempt the action. I think at most a rigger might lose an IP.

A jumped in Rigger is going to make a Spoof relatively ineffective, but in and of itself a jumped in rigger doesn't make a Spoof suddenly impossible to do.

The Hacker can't suddenly be not able to run their Spoof program just because a rigger is jumped into the drone.
Tarantula
Not reissue. Spoofing rigger issues spoof. Controlling rigger does his action, overriding spoof. Repeat ad infinitum.
DireRadiant
Jumped in Drones act on the Riggers Initiative. Drones on their own have 3 IP. There's room for Spoofed Commands to occur before a Rigger acts if the Rigger is using cold sim.
Tarantula
Drones aren't on their own if a rigger is jumped in. Thus a drone with a cold sim rigger jumped in only gets 2IPs.
Riley37
A jumped-in rigger FEELS like the drone is their body, and gets that level of control, because they're sending and receiving at the same bandwidth as a metahuman nervous system, but at a gross physical level, the drone is a gadget that's following the directions it gets by radio... that is, the directions which it recognizes as coming from its owner.

Hot-sim hackers can get more IPs than an unboosted cold-sim original owner. The original owner is sending and recieving a continuous stream of sensory and command data; the hacker sends just the same intensity of signal, but *with faster response*, and if the drone can't tell the difference between the signals from the original owner and the hacker, then it's likely to get a "change my password" type command from the hacker and act on it before the original owner can react. Pwned.

Alternatively, hit the drone with a jammer that drowns out the original owner's signals, and send your own commands with a transmitter stronger than the jammer. Eg orginal owner is using a Signal 3 commlink, you use a jammer that reaches the drone with Signal 4 (after attenuation over range), and you send a command to the drone with a Signal 5 commlink, duplicating (spoofing) the access ID and persona of the original user. What happens next? It can hear you, you sound like its owner, it can't hear anyone saying otherwise. Unless it's sophisticated enough to double-check the authenticity of your spoofed commands (I'd give the drone a re-test of [Pilot plus Firewall vs Hacking plus Spoof] because there was a suspicious moment of lost connection), it now obeys the one it "hears". Pwned.

A countermeasure not supported in RAW, but perhaps by common sense: generate a large set of authentication codes, keep one copy in your commlink and another in the drone (like a one-time pad), and program your drone to turn off its transceiver and return to base if it ever goes a minute without getting the next code in the sequence, *even if you're giving it instructions*. (This assumes that one can write commands with different priorities, or program one routine that can halt another routine.) So, hacker spoofs your signal; drone hears hacker's command to change access codes, and thinks that command is coming from you, and complies; hacker now has exclusive access/control; one minute later, since the hacker's commlink doesn't have and isn't sending the pre-generated sequence of authentication codes, the drone suddenly shuts off its antenna and flies "home". Rude, unexplained surprise for hacker who suddenly loses connection with the drone, possibly experiencing dumpshock. (Heck, add a Data Bomb parting shot - if the hacker is a technomancer then maybe they'll get a headache.)
Riley37
Yet another countermeasure, for drones such as Doberman and Steel Lynx: mount a spool of datacable (with small motor to pay out or rewind) on the drone, connect that to your control device eg commlink, and either disable the RF transciever on the drone, or redirect wireless signals to a duplicate "Q-ship" dogbrain that will record and backtrack any wireless hacking, but does not actually control the drone. Unwieldy, and worth it only if you expect a drone hacking attempt.

Very crude method: use a wireless control device that broadcasts at Signal 6, and program (or hardwire) the drone to ignore transmissions from any lesser Signal. Unfortunately, that means your own signal is gonna be "loud" and easy to pick up by Scan, but if you're running perimeter security for a large facility, that's not so bad, and any hacker with a stock Fairlight Caliban or lesser commlink won't even be able to get the drone's attention.

Mixing magic and technology: hey, if you're a hermetic mage, you already have high Logic, you might as well take a rank or two in tech skills, or just buy the EW autosoft for your drone or Agent; and if you put a tame spirit into a drone, how would that affect hacking or counterhacking?
Tarantula
Riley37, there is an issue with your assumption. You must have already subscribed the drone to jump into it. I think this extends to sending jumped in commands. Thusly, until you take control of the drone and subscribe it, you can't jump into it or send jumped in commands.
Riley37
Cogent point, Tarantula.
Step 1: spot the drone, scan/sniff for its transmissions
Step 2: Scan to figure out which of the many wireless transmissions in the drone's area is the stream of signals from the drone owner, in synchrony with the stream of signals from the drone to its owner (and likely on the same frequency, although high Firewall probably includes frequency hopping).

Can you then analyse that stream to figure out what the owner's virtual persona "looks like", what part of that signal is the ongoing authentication "handshake" with the drone?
If so, and you're trying to duplicate and override that signal, then perhaps the hacker's hot-sim VR image uses the metaphor that the owner is whispering commands into the drone's ear, and the hacker is whispering into the other ear; or trying to wiggle a key into a keyhole, while pushing out the key coming in from the other side of the door; or some such. If the owner is an unboosted normal at 1 IP, and the hacker is running hot-sim with 3 IP, then I still think there's good odds of confusing the drone about which signals are coming from its owner and which from the hacker.

If not... then there shouldn't be much the hacker can do, unless the drone's software configuration and subscriber list allow a second persona to subscribe alongside the subscription by the jumped-in owner (maybe so that the owner's teammates can access the camera feed from the drone for coordinating tactics?). In that case, you gotta hack in at "user" level, and the jumped-in owner has "admin" level access, and it's gonna be an uphill fight. If the drone's software settings (like the Preferences menu in 1990s OS) say "while the owner is jumped in, accept no other subscriptions", then it might be impossible.

I see security for single-owner, single-user devices as capable of much higher levels that devices designed to be shared by co-workers or teammates. A university computer with thousands of user IDs is more likely to have an exploitable access point, than my home computer which is set up to be used only by me. That's not explicit in BBB, but it's perhaps applicable. I also assume that there are 2070s equivalent of options such as "accept any cookie", "accept cookies only from known and trusted sources", "accept no cookies", etc., and those user choices should affect hacking. Rentacops may have left the drone's access password as the factory-installed setting of "PASSWORD"; Renraku Red Samurai will have a password which mixes letters and numbers at the very least.
Tarantula
To be jumped in the rigger must be VR. Which means at minimum cold sim 2 passes. And up to 4 passes hot sim w/ simsense booster.

I see it as, if you want to hack the rigged drone, either hack the riggers comm and jack him out, jam him out, or kill him.
Riley37
QUOTE (Tarantula)
if you want to hack the rigged drone, either hack the riggers comm and jack him out, jam him out, or kill him.

Those are good methods. I'm still interested in magic and sprite methods.

From a storytelling perspective, I don't want drone hacking to be so easy that no sane person uses drones, because then they vanish from the setting. I want drone hacking to be rare but sometimes possible, and to depend largely on who has the most thorough or creative countermeasures.

From a simulation perspective, I'd have it depend a lot on the design of the drone. If the drone is designed only to be controlled by cable or direct laser beam (optical sensor on drone picks up a tightbeam low-intensity modulated laser beam), then it's pretty darn secure. If the drone is designed with the intention that it's run by a jumped-in rigger who's part of a security team, and there's a circuit designed so that the security team manager can remotely override their riggers, and a hacker finds the frequency & code for that circuit and triggers it, then the drone obediently dumps out its jumped-in rigger. In the middle, say, an off-the-shelf Fly-Spy... well, if i were one of Tarantula's players, I would cheerfully accept his ruling that it's impossible to dislodge a jumped-in rigger, and if I were running a campaign, I'd rule it from steeply uphill to impossible, depending.
Tarantula
1) Direct-laser beam in shadowrun requires both parties to be unmoving, and doesn't have the bandwidth for VR. This is evident with eye laser systems for communication.

2) By a cable would be unhackable. Unless you either splice into the cable, plug the riggers cable into your comm, or plug your own cable into the drone.

3) More likely, the security team manager would be watching monitors while the rigger is jacked in next to him. If he wants to dump the rigger, he'll pull the riggers trodes/datajack off. Having a drone-side built in "dump the rigger out" command is just a liability waiting to happen.
eidolon
QUOTE (Tarantula)
2) By a cable would be unhackable. Unless you either splice into the cable, plug the riggers cable into your comm, or plug your own cable into the drone.


I'd have a really strong guy that was specialized in running and using wire cutters. He'd do nothing but run around cutting the wires to drones and carrying them away, laughing his ass off the whole time. Of course, all of his cyber and gear would be for soaking damage.

biggrin.gif
Tarantula
Cutting the cable dumps the rigger, the drone still has its pilot rating to go by. Not to mention most riggers leave standing orders return to me if don't receive X before signal lost.
eidolon
I'm torn between wondering if you just missed the fact that that was a joke, or if you are just being pedantic for fun.
Buster
QUOTE (eidolon)
I'm torn between wondering if you just missed the fact that that was a joke, or if you are just being pedantic for fun.

Shhh, don't say anything, I think Tarantula has been possessed by the ghost of Doctor Funkenstein today. Just keep smiling and nodding while I go for the holy water. biggrin.gif
Fortune
QUOTE (Buster)
... possessed by the ghost of Doctor Funkenstein today. Just keep smiling and nodding while I go for the holy water.

I believe that this is the second cheap shot at the (hopefully) temporarily absent Doc Funk you have made today. In my opinion it doesn't make you more of a man to insult people that are not at present able to defend themselves. The fact that your attempted witticism was unintentionally in very bad taste (for reasons I am not disposed to discuss further) merely serves to compound this lapse in decorum.
Tarantula
QUOTE (Fortune)
QUOTE (Buster @ Oct 17 2007, 09:25 AM)
... possessed by the ghost of Doctor Funkenstein today.  Just keep smiling and nodding while I go for the holy water.

I believe that this is the second cheap shot at the (hopefully) temporarily absent Doc Funk you have made today. In my opinion it doesn't make you more of a man to insult people that are not at present able to defend themselves. The fact that your attempted witticism was unintentionally in very bad taste (for reasons I am not disposed to discuss further) merely serves to compound this lapse in decorum.

Just ignore it, it'll go away.
Alphastream
I haven't seen anyone mention the FAQ:

QUOTE
Is Spoof only usable against agents or drones, or can you use it to fake commands to other devices? Can I change a node's system settings (accounts, subscription lists, etc.) by inserting false traffic to that node (i.e., using Spoof)?

Spoof can be used to issue falsified commands to any node. Spoofed commands will seem to come from the authorized user you are spoofing, and so will be treated as having the same access privileges (personal, security, or admin) as that impersonated user. It is up to the gamemaster to decide what commands are legitimate for which access privileges. For example, spoofing a command to an oven to start cooking the turkey is something anyone accessing the oven is likely allowed to do. If you are spoofing commands to a drone, pretending to be the controlling rigger, you could certainly instruct the drone to log that rigger off or slave that drone to your commlink instead (since the controlling rigger would have privileges to do that). To add, alter, or delete an account, you would almost certainly to spoof a command from someone with admin privileges.

If the gamemaster wishes, he can make spoofing commands from a user with security or admin privileges more difficult, just as hacking and obtaining those privileges is. In this case apply a dice pool modifier to the hacker for the Opposed Test equal to -3 for security privileges or -6 for admin privileges.


This suggests (not entirely clear), that a drone would not normally give the -6 for admin privileges. It also suggests that you would make the matrix perception test, then just a spoof command to log off the original rigger or slave it to your commlink. That's pretty powerful. Now, the original rigger could connect again, but you could just use a second Spoof to prevent that rigger's access. Then the rigger would have to hack...
Tarantula
Theres a difference between a rigger controlling a drone via the command device action, and a rigger jumping into and becoming the drone.
cndblank
Given that a Drone is an an expensive piece of equipment and the company is going to be libel for any activity of the drone off company property, I could think of a lot of very common corporate practices to prevent theft/hijacking.

You could use a second processor hardwired in that could over ride the main one via the wireless connection.

First hardwired in to the drone is if drone is ordered to leave corporate property or even their predetermined patrol area unless a stage 3 alert is in place (determined via GPS), kill the wireless connection and Lock all weapons down.

Hover in Place and flush any orders given via wireless..

Reboot system/dog brain. Broadcast alert of Status (broadcast only). Return to base (drone Rack), shutdown until proper ID is given via direct feed (no wireless).

Or it could kill the wireless connection and engage non lethal weapons only. The fly to it's alert station and engage all targets the enter it's predetermined patrol area. Engage violent (as in armed) non-uniformed targets first.

Also who wouldn't Lojack their drones?

So survelliance drones are likely not too hard since they depend on not being seen.

Run of the mill security drones... harder with safeguards built in.

Combat Drones... nearly impossible. I could see any major combat drone being set up to only allow the weapons to unlocked if the rigger is jumped in. Use the Hot VR connection as the final security measure. If the simsense feed back doesn't match up with previous riggers approved for the drone then the weapons stay locked.

Still if the Corp was using drones for a black Op then the drones would need to be nearly off the shelf and wiped clean. Any security measures built in would have to do so without leaving a data trail right back to the Corp. So you couldn't have the drone phone home if hijacked. Even the style of the security measures could be a lead. Of course if the drone was expendable and rigged to explode at the end of the Op...

I won't go in to the level of paranoia that a military drone would have as far as internal security.

I do know that

1) The Military is not going to let their drones be used against them. The consequences of having drones that your own troops didn't trust not to target them makes doing without look far better.

2) The Military is also not going to let their high grade security encryption hardware and software fly off to be taken a part and sold to the highest bidder. The stuff is likely ready to blow if you look at it funny. Having their own drones turned against them would only be the first of their problems it that happened.

I could easily see them disabling all wireless connections during combat operations. Instead they would use direct laser communications (which require line of sight but not fixed positions) between the forward attack drones and several com drones with the final drone having a laser link to a ground comm unit that would be located far away from the military riggers via a fiber optic link. All of the riggers would also be directly jacked in. All the drones would have a series of protocols to follow to reestablish a laser link. They might even have mission objectives to fall back on if communications is lost. If all else fails then the drone would return to a remote pick up site and land.


Just remember that Mil Grade stuff is suppose to be so scary, expensive, and dangerous that the corporations don't use it except in the highest of security areas or the blackest of ops.

cool.gif
Cheops
QUOTE (Tarantula)
Theres a difference between a rigger controlling a drone via the command device action, and a rigger jumping into and becoming the drone.

Not really. It's still just wireless communication but of a slightly different nature. And wireless communication is liable to spoofing.
Riley37
Jumped-in control involves wireless communication of a much higher bandwidth, in my interpretation, and gives the user a much faster response cycle. Running a drone by command chair is kinda like playing an FPS game; you move your point of aim on a screem whether it's the display of a commlink or an AR "window". Interference might seem like "that's odd, my controls are being sluggish".
A jumped-in rigger might feel hacking attempts as more like losing control over their own body, and if experienced, might recognize the sensations in a fraction of a second and be immediately able to respond appropriately. A jumped-in rigger using hot-sim will respond with the speed and intensity of an agitated ferret... and perhaps with skill, too.

Per cndblank on antitheft countermeasures: yup, those apply to drones that are on perimeter duty. what about individually owned drones, eg those used by shadowrunners, private detectives, etc.?
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