Runner's Companion.pdf - Free

Simon Wentworth (order #1132857) 9Exploiting THE SYSTEMScared now? Ready to reconsider your career choice? Well,don’t jump the gun. Things sound bad, and in an ideal world theywould be bad. But, this is the real world, and it’s a whole otherstory.So, what’s it really like, and what can you do? The systemis not all-powerful. It has weaknesses, weaknesses that can be exploitedwith tricks that will help you.Excess InformationThe saving grace of a total information society is that there’ssimply too much data out there—or at least too much data to besifted in useful time. Yes, a high-end agent will eventually trackdown what it’s looking for, but, by then, the intel is of no use toanyone. The run is over, or the package delivered, and you—thefreelance talent for hire—have slipped back into the shadows.Agents are useful tools to sift through the dross, but theyneed search parameters, and if you’ve been careful to reduce yourdata footprint, there’ll be little to follow up on. They don’t havethe intelligence or intuitive ability to spot details like a metahumancan, no matter how thorough their programming.For instance, imagine you are filmed by civvies. Now, searchagents need to find that one visual ID in the oceans of pointlessvideos uploaded to blogs, chatrooms, and social networks. It’s likethe proverbial needle in a haystack. The images, if they’re evensaved, might be posted on Connections!, or LiveCast, or someother bloated social network. The effort of sifting through themasses of images, blogs, and flamefests is monumental and potentiallyfutile—there’s no guarantee what they’re looking for isobviously identified and correctly labeled.And, even worse, getting the visual data from corporate,government, or police cameras involves enough red-tape to wraparound the globe a few times, or a massive hacking attempt onpotentially hundreds of nodes. And that’s before you get to thethousands upon thousands of public nodes: commlinks, cybereyes,or other recording devices. (And, even if they manage all that,they still have diddly-squat if they don’t have anything to matchit against. Or, as a Lone Star data analyst I met put it, “Great!Another unidentified 20–30 year old Caucasian Human Male. Thatreally narrows it down.”)> You were layin’ it on thick there for a minute. Sure, most megas canroll out the heavy-duty software. The sort of crap that can supposedlyidentify a Most Wanted by the way he sneezes. But, let’s be realhere, why would they bother in most cases? Analytical software isonly as good as its reference database, and if you’re any good therewon’t be a reference for you.That, my friends, is why they still need people like me.> SticksData BalkanizationThe second major factor working to your advantage is databalkanization. What this means is that even if the data is out there,there’s no guarantee a corp can get to it—thanks to those wonderfulthings, the Business Recognition Accords. Yes, those delightfulextraterritorial rights accorded to corporations of certain size(and the inherent privacy rights accorded to all corporate entities,regardless of size). People tend to forget that jurisdictions andRunner’s Companionextraterritoriality extends to the Matrix—and this applies as muchto records as live trideo feeds from a security cam. When it comesto corporations, the motto is not “Share and Share Alike.” Evenlaw enforcement corps in hot pursuit won’t be able to (legally)access another corps cameras and servers.Do you really think that “Kiddy Land,” a small shop indowntown Seattle owned by Aztechnology, is likely to give KnightErrant, a subsidiary of Ares, access to all their video feeds and othersensor data just because their shop cameras might have caughtan image of some criminals sometime in the last 24 hours? No?Damn right. Of course, they’ll collaborate if there’s something init for them, but the days when everybody turned over their trideofeeds to law enforcement at the wave of a badge are long gone.> Of course, if you slip up badly, they’ll be able to patch togethera sequence of events and track you across multiple public domainfeeds. There’re still plenty of those, and most metroplex surveillancesystems are set to accept corporate security clearances by default.> Riser> Which is why it’s a good idea to stick to back streets and low income‘hoods, regardless of whether you’re driving or on foot.> 2XLData CompletenessA third factor is data completeness. Camera coverage in theSixth World is by no means total. You might be caught by severalcameras while walking downtown, but most of the time, only asmall part of you— like the back of your head, part of your clothes,or your hat—is caught on camera, while the rest is obscured byother people and items. You might pass behind a street light, acrowd, or a car. You walk into a shop, but you walk out through adifferent entrance. To get all of this together is a complicated andtime-consuming process, especially if you know these facts andexploit them.All this applies equally to identity verification and datasearches against you. If you have a SIN, even a fake one, then yourdetails are “in the system.” Thing is, there’s no single database.There are dozens if not hundreds: banks, licensing bureaus, LoneStar files, internal revenue, DMV records. Few of them crossreferenced.If you have a SIN, though, it includes references toa number of these systems to allow quick verification. However,putting all these sources together without a SIN to go on is adaunting challenge.A rare few countries have centralized data cross-referencingbetween different institutional databases, but these are not typicallyopen to either the public or corporate scrutiny.> Well, at least no more than they’re accessible to a qualifiedhacker.> PistonsData VeracityThe final factor to consider is data veracity. The Matrix isnot just the greatest vehicle ever designed for information; it’sthe perfect vessel for misinformation. From fake SINs and credithistories to ID erasers and creative editing of biometric records,the Matrix is a gold mine for the creative forger. What this means23survival tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .