QUOTE (Tiny Deev @ Mar 10 2010, 06:04 PM)
The mini-runners are going to have to break into the school, plug in a device on the principal's office so the decker can connect to it and change some grades. (It won't be on the Matrix, I think) I want them to find out something dark, and try to survive/fix it. You know.
That I disagree with. Right now teachers' systems are connected to the Internet, so they can post grades, and schools rarely have the resources (in cash or knowledge) to properly secure a system.
In regards to security for a school facility...
Let's assume this is a "public" school, not on a corporate campus.
Primary concern is dealers/gangers/pedophiles coming into the school, and kids leaving without permission. There is no expectation of privacy.
The building is large, three levels high and a sub-basement, and pretty old. The designer used to build prisons. Windows are placed high on the walls and don't open or close. The walls are unusually thick for this sort of a building. The building can be easily segregated into two wings and a gymnasium. The two wings each have two sets of stairs, a set of bathrooms on each level, etc. The wings can be locked off from each other with large doors. There is one main door past the office, two back doors, and a freight door. All are locked and controlled by the main office. The main doorway has a weapon/cyber detector built into the frame.
The building is on a reasonably large lot, with a large parking lot and several asphalt playing courts which are underutilized. The entire lot is surrounded by an eight or ten-foot tall fence, possibly topped with razor wire. The facility has a single officer, and several employees serving as security (mostly just keeping an eye out). Every entryway, several hallways, the parking lot and much of the grounds are covered by camera surveillance.
Now to take that real school and update it...
Each classroom is pretty large, holding 60-200 students. Kids spend most of their time sitting at desks, either reading terminals or watching via trode net. One TA is responsible for one or two classrooms. One teacher is responsible for 4-10 TAs. 1-2 techs are responsible for the school. There is an exercise period every day (there are still PE teachers). Lunch period isn't too different from now, except no one may bring in their own food. Bringing in food may not properly fulfill the stated nutritional needs, and invites the possibility of lawsuits.
Every student is given either a badge or bracelet. This is required to gain access to the building, and has a tracking beacon built into it. It may use biometrics. It may have a built in camera.
Every hallway is camera monitored. Chem sniffers are at every doorway. Locker checks are regularly scheduled. There is an intercom at the gate to access the lot, which includes a license plate/vehicle chip checking device. Every room door has a low-rating maglock controlled at the main office. The exterior doors have rating 4-5 locks.
Matrix access is highly limited. It can only access a certain corporate subnet, in order to limit undesirable content. This means a decker from the outside must break into the corporate subnet FIRST, then filter through. However, the school system is poorly maintained and poorly guarded. The software is out of date. The actual tutorsoft is locked down as hard as Fort Knox - that's a valuable piece of hardware/software that is likely run off a remote server. Breaking into the tutorsoft is extremely difficult. While the tutorsoft has the technology to verify the posted online grades, it has not been configured to do so, so actually changing grades is pretty easy.
Magic support falls under the local security contractor. The office had a low-level ward. It doesn't any more.
The principal is a business administrator. His primary concern is moving money. The vice-principal is the catch-all, managing teacher issues, disciplinary concerns, security, so on and so forth. Teachers are facilitators, making sure everything is ready for the tutorsoft, helping to present non-virtual artifacts or lessons, leading "real life" workgroup experiments, etc. The TAs do the closest thing to actual teaching, helping individual kids use their tools, explaining difficult concepts, spending extra time with troubled students, giving first advice on holding students back or moving them forward, etc. Teachers and TAs are under just as much security scrutiny as the kids, so they don't have much chance either to leverage their access for profit, or to teach anything outside of the curriculum. Teaching "more" is a serious offence that will be dealt with.
Techs have relatively free reign, since they belong to the tutorsoft's company, not to the teacher, officially have little or no contact with the kids, and they know all the ins-and-outs of the system. If anyone is going to skim a little off the top, probably by selling camera footage from the locker rooms to dedicated subscription lists on the matrix, it's these guys.