comStar Firewall alert - PhaseThrough

hacker’s handbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
100
Hacker Bookkeeping
One issue with botnets and mass probes is
that player characters can quickly accumulate
a lot of compromised nodes and a lot of bots—
more than a gamemaster can be expected to
fully detail at the table. The key to avoiding unnecessary
bookkeeping and holding up the game
is for the gamemaster to plan ahead and let the
player worry about the bulk of the bookkeeping.
Make up a list of five (or ten or fifteen) nodes that
would be of particular interest to the hacker, are
specifically relevant to the campaign, or are particularly
amusing false leads; the majority of the
rest of the nodes compromised by mass probing
will be home terminals, student commlinks, and
other nodes only useful as a place to store a bot
or rip an access ID from.
logged the probe, security patches updating software in the time
between the probe and the intrusion attempt, and other security
measures to protect against mass probing.
Mass probing never reveals hidden nodes.
BotnetS
A botnet is like a specialized VPN that allows a hacker to
maintain and manage large numbers of agents (or worms) without
overloading her subscription list. The agents are loaded with a copy
of the unrated botnet program along with the rest of their payload
and loaded into separate nodes to run independently. From that
point on, the agent (or bot) counts as only a single subscriber on
your subscription list, and its active programs do not count toward
your persona’s active program limits. However, the only way to
communicate with the agent is through the botnet.
The botnet program contains a list of all the agents online and
connected through the botnet, with simple status symbols communicating
their effective Matrix attributes, current Matrix Condition
Monitor, payload, location, and what action they are undertaking.
With a Simple Action, the hacker can issue a command (see Issuing
Commands, p. 220, SR4) to any number of bots in the botnet.
Botnets can be intercepted, hacked, or spoofed in the same
manner as virtual private networks (see p. 94). A compromised
botnet can quickly lead to another hacker “stealing” your bots by
locking you out of your own botnet, or even turning them against
you. For this reason, bots typically feature an Encrypt program
that protects their communications or can be programmed to
report in or shut down if subjected to an unsuccessful Spoof or
Hacking attempt (player’s discretion). You may also check to see
if your botnet is compromised with an Opposed Test, putting
your Hacking + Analyze versus the intruding hacker’s Hacking +
Stealth; success allows you to cut off the compromised bots and
deny the intruding hacker the use of the rest of the botnet.
Botnet programs contain access IDs for their handlers,
theoretically allowing others to trace you (see Track, p. 219, SR4)
back to your originating node; most hackers use proxy servers (p.
104) or disposable commlinks to negate this potential threat. Bots
lack some of the independence and adaptability of other agents
and have a more limited ability to communicate—usually only
to signify if a job is done, if they take damage, or if someone has
attempted to hack them and failed.
If a hacker is using mass probing to place bots, accounts
lost to security upgrades and system audits will usually remove
the bots as well. A botnet can also assist a hacker in performing
a mass probe; add a 1 die positive modifier to the hacker’s Mass
Probing Test for every bot in the botnet carrying an Exploit
program, up to a maximum bonus equal to the character’s
Hacking skill.
agent ScriptS
Like IC, agents—including mooks, bots, and drone pilots—
can have scripts (see Scripting, p. 69), a list of actions that they
take when certain conditions apply. Scripts can make a hacker’s
(and a gamemaster’s) life much easier, as hackers can spend less
time micromanaging their agents or bots. Players and gamemasters
should be aware that no script—no matter how ridiculously
long, complex, or detailed—can handle every
situation in which an agent might find
itself. Some events, like encountering
an AI, might be without precedent,
and the agent will do nothing—or
mistake the event
for a different
trigger on the
script. When
in doubt about
whether an agent should
follow a script or not (or
in a situation where the
script suggests two contrary
courses of action), have the
agent make a Pilot + Response
Test against a threshold
determined buy the gamemaster;
if successful
the player chooses
the agent’s
action, if not
the gamemaster
does (see Issuing
Commands, p.
214, SR4). The
Adaptability
autosoft (p.
113) may aid
in this test.
Mook Cost Multiplier Availability Modifier
Unrestricted Agent 1.2 +2
Unwired
Simon Wentworth (order #1132857) 9