comStar Firewall alert - PhaseThrough

to Mook or not to Mook?
For some characters, particularly those just
starting out, it may look like a better deal to invest
in a high-rated commlink, OS, and an agent
(the mook) to take care of all of your hacking
needs. Using a mook isn’t against the rules, nor
is it gamebreaking, but players and gamemaster
should both be aware and the advantages and
disadvantages of the situation.
When mooks are used en masse, or combined
with botnets, a non-hacker character could potentially
maintain a small army of agents and terrorize
the Matrix from the relative safety of an AR interface.
Mooks aren’t a perfect replacement for
hackers, however, for several reasons. For starters,
agents are really only adept at following orders—
so-called agent scripts (p. 100)—and are not very
useful at handling decisions on their own. For more
details on this, see Agent Competency, p. 111.
Still, mooks are useful as a trained dog—just
point at the target and say go. They are also inherently
replaceable—one gets trashed, load up
another. Even a high-rating mook won’t roll as
many dice as a hacker with good skills, programs,
and right implants, however. As a second-string
team or backup plan, however, mooks certainly
make sense. Don’t expect to use a mob of copied
agents to gang up on a target, though, as their
built-in access IDs will keep all but one out of node
(see Autonomous Programs, p. 110).
Note that commercially-bought legal agents
have built-in limitations that prevent them from
taking any illegal action—broadly, this means they
won’t perform any action that requires a Hacking
Test, even if they have the correct program loaded,
though gamemasters may rule this is a much
broader restriction on any blatantly illegal Matrix
activity. Hackers can remove these limitations
with an Extended Software + Logic (13 + Rating,
1 hour) Test, code agents without them, or buy
unrestricted agents from other hackers.
The main drawback to a mook is that a character
that relies on them will almost never develop
their Cracking group skills and will miss out on
most of the fun of Matrix.
It’s worth keeping in mind that player characters
aren’t the only ones that could use mooks;
non-player characters are as likely to use a mook
if they lack Matrix skills, and gamemasters can
use that to their advantage.
deniaL of Service attackS
A denial of service (DOS) attack is a method of keeping legitimate
users from accessing a specific node, or even the Matrix at
large. Cutting off traffic to a specific node could be the beginning
Unwired
of a plan for extortion, or an effort to prevent outside reinforcements
from entering a node while a hacker is busy working with
it. More simply, a DOS attack can prevent someone from calling
for help using their commlink or from getting directions while
in their vehicle. Devices that a legitimate user cannot access are
much more susceptible to spoofing because legitimate users cannot
counteract the orders given them.
The central focus of most DOS attacks is a node’s active account
list; by editing the list a hacker can sever a connection (see
Terminate Connection, p. 223, SR4). A hacker can also instruct the
node to block future access connection requests from a particular
node or access ID (or a range of nodes/access IDs), locking the
target out. To accomplish this, the hacker must have access to the
node and must make a Computer + Edit (1) Test if they have security
or admin privileges; or a Hacking + Edit (2) Test if he does
not. Accounts may also be deleted (if active, the user’s connection
must be terminated first) with a successful Software + Editing (1)
Test, assuming you have security or admin privileges; Hacking +
Edit (2) Test if you do not.
There are many other ways to accomplish a DOS attack: jamming
a wireless device, cutting the hardlines on a physical network,
or changing the routing to prevent traffic in or out of the target
node all accomplishes the same task. Causing the system to crash
can also achieve the same effect, though only for the amount of
time it takes the system to reboot.
distributed denial of Service attacks (ddoS)
Hackers can also use botnets (p. 100) to perform a form of
denial of service attack that is generally easier to accomplish than
hacking the target node directly. Even in the 2070s, nodes have
limits to the number of data transfers and access requests they can
handle at once, though this is rarely an issue. A hacker performing
a DDOS attempts to overload the node by having a botnet flood
it with traffic of all kinds.
In most cases, DDOS attacks require massively large botnets.
For standard nodes, reduce the target node’s Response by 1 for every
System x 4 bots flooding it with traffic. A node with System 5 and
Response 5, for example, hit by a DDOS attack from a botnet with
100 bots, would have its Response reduced to 0, freezing all activity
on the node. Even if the node is rebooted, it will be slammed with
traffic as soon as it starts again, until the DDOS attack ends.
A node under DDOS attack has three options. First, it can
spoof its access ID, so that the DDOS can no longer find its target.
The node must be offline (not meshed with other nodes) to switch
access ID. Second, it can try to block access from botnet access
IDs or attempt to filter out all flooding traffic. The success of these
latter options is largely up to the gamemaster’s discretion.
MaSS attackS
A mass attack refers to a team of hackers pooling their resources
to hack a particular system. Functionally, a mass attack
is Probing the Target (see Probing the Target, p. 221, SR4) with a
Teamwork Test. Hackers and technomancers can work together
on mass attacks. If the test is successful, all of the participating
hackers gain access to the node.
Agents and sprites cannot participate directly in Teamwork
Tests, but add +1 die to the prime character’s dice pool for each
agent or sprite assisting (maximum +5).
Simon Wentworth (order #1132857) 9
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hacker’s handbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .