comStar Firewall alert - PhaseThrough

Matrix overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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> Yeah, that’s on the backburner right now after the “discipline” of
a Renraku G-man. She ripped thru an Evo node without a warrant,
fried two Evo sec. hackers, and crashed the node—which happened
to be running an intensive-care medical facility. The CCMA came
down hard on GOD. The G-men have been watching their step ever
since, but rumors are they’re only acting polite. Corp rivalries are
even worse now that they can’t let all those aggressive, ego-ridden
tempers out to play.
> Pistons
> GOD has been trying really hard to recruit technomancers. Problem
is, the corps that have ‘em don’t want to loan them out. The few
that have joined up with GOD (outside the special-forces Artificial
Resource Management, or ARM, division) have faced prejudice, razing,
and harassment from the other G-men, to the point of violence.
Two technos from Horizon walked off the job recently and apparently
Horizon is making some noise about it. Expect to see more shakeups
at GOD, or at least a big internal smack-down as the technos from
ARM attempt to teach the other G-men some manners.
> Netcat
> GOD also has a Transmissions Fraud Division, investigating scams
transmitted over public wireless systems. Generally they only get
involved when the victims are from multiple corporations (or multiple
MSPs complain to GOD). If scam artists target non-corporate
citizens, then the regular security firms—like Lone Star or even national
police—investigate. Because of this, most scams are targeted
to non-corp citizens.
> Mr. Bonds
> Yeah, but some of those wage-slaves are just so damn trusting
that it’s hard to resist … all that disposable income, and they’ll believe
anything.
> Snopes
> GOD has a special ops force that doesn’t appear on “paper”
anywhere, so to speak. I’ve heard them referred to as the RH—I’m
guessing it stands for Right Hand (keeping with GOD’s tradition in
naming their divisions). Tasked with hunting down terrorist groups
who might target the Matrix, these guys make the regular G-men
look like script-kiddies. Ruthless, lethal, and not at all inclined to
rely on the legal system to deal with suspected terrorist groups. Too
many organizations wanted to “keep watching” Winternight instead
of taking action. The RH was created to make sure another Crash
never happens, and they’ve got carte blanche to deal with problems
the way they see fit.
> Fianchetto
> The RH has worked with Horizon’s Dawkin’s Group in a few cases.
Apparently the two groups have a tenuous working relationship.
> Dr. Spin
other Law enforcement agencies
If you do something big enough to interrupt commerce, expect
the G-men to come knocking. For everything else, there’s your
local law enforcement—corporate, government, or contracted.
Corporations investigate Matrix crimes that affect their bottom
line, like software piracy, ID theft, or hackers that use or target
corporate assets. Some governments have their own law enforcement—like
the PCC, with their nationalized law enforcement and
their very intolerant views on hackers. Most other jurisdictions
rely on contracted law enforcement, such as Lone Star.
Lone Star’s Matrix Crimes Division, MCD, is tasked with
patrolling public Matrix spaces and providing rapid response, investigation,
and incarceration of Matrix criminals for areas they’re
contracted to protect. The overworked Lone Star detectives have
to deal with everything from Matrix gangs running BTLs to reining
in organized crime. In between, they get stuck trying to police
hackers, ID thieves, warez dealers, and all the other riff-raff that
make a living off the Matrix. Lone Star also will provide Matrix
security to customers, including IC and on-call combat hackers.
Like any service-corp, Lone Star balances their actions based
on profitability and customer satisfaction. That means that if hacker
has been making the news, they’ll devote much more resources
to catch him than on busting the kid who is selling pirated sims
at school. If it’ll make them look good, they’ll make it a priority.
After all, satisfied customers tend to renew contracts, and if you
impress customers, you can charge them higher prices.
> The moral is: if you keep a low profile, they’ve got too many other
cases and too few detectives to hunt you down. If you make noise,
botch a run and kill a few bystanders, or start dumping malicious
code that fries kids’ brains, you’ll get moved to the top of the pile.
They’ve got the resources to hunt you down—it really is almost impossible
to disappear in today’s surveillance society, so do yourself
a favor and don’t give ‘em a reason to move you to the top of the
“to-do” list.
> Glitch
panopticon:
are tHeY watcHing?
A few centuries ago, some brainy guy had the bright idea
to build prisons that would police themselves. How? By making
it possible for the security guards to watch all the prisoners,
all the time. His idea was that if the prisoners thought they were
being watched, they’d behave, regardless of if there was anyone
watching or not. Good thing they didn’t have micro-drones and
mini-cameras available, eh?
Well, looks like his idea has finally come to life. And not just
in prisons—actually, that was pretty much a bust, since criminal
types tend not to care if they’re being watched in jail—after all,
they’re already in jail, so what else can happen? It’s the honest citizens,
the wageslaves and corporate sheep, who happily plod along
believing that some good shepherd is watching over them. Most
don’t think twice about the requirement to broadcast their SIN
and ID in public places. The ubiquitous drones whirring by are
ignored, just part of the landscape. It’s assumed that cameras are
watching everywhere, omnipresent. No one thinks about the data
trail they leave every time they access a public ARO, buy a soy-kaf,
ride a bus, or enter a public or private area. Before the worldwide
wireless Matrix initiative, it was possible not to leave a data trail.
Heck, it wasn’t even that difficult; using credsticks, anonymous
bank accounts with the Malaysian Independent Bank or some
other private institution, a commcode number registered through
a black-market service … all that and a nice suit, and you could
pretty much go anywhere without raising flags.
Unwired
Simon Wentworth (order #1132857) 9