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Message no. 1
From: mneideng@****.caltech.edu (Mark L. Neidengard)
Subject: CHECK THIS OUT EVERYONE! (fwd)
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1996 15:16:03 -0800 (PST)
Um. Umm. Ummmm. So, the first question. How in hell is this supposed to
have been picked up on some random sod's "scanner"? Like, military commo is
supposed to be sort of secure, like, and I sort of suspect that some rather
nice encryption would be standard procedure. Especially for something like
fleet defense.

So, I wanna know A) is this supposed to be authentic?, and if so B) how the
heck is this guy supposed to have got it?
--
/!\/!ark /!\!eidengard, CS Major, VLSI. http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~mneideng
"Fairy of sleep, controller of illusions" Operator/Jack-of-all-Trades, CACR
"Control the person for my own purpose." "Don't mess with the Dark
Elves!"
-Pirotess, _Record_of_Lodoss_War_ Shadowrunner and Anime Addict
Message no. 2
From: shadowtk@********.demon.co.uk (Paul J. Adam)
Subject: Re: CHECK THIS OUT EVERYONE! (fwd)
Date: Sat, 06 Apr 1996 02:26:38 GMT
> Um. Umm. Ummmm. So, the first question. How in hell is this supposed to
> have been picked up on some random sod's "scanner"? Like, military commo
is
> supposed to be sort of secure, like, and I sort of suspect that some rather
> nice encryption would be standard procedure. Especially for something like
> fleet defense.

Extremely. So, how did someone (from a SOL account, too?) get hold of this?

The one certainty is that the CalFree shipment never arrived and the one
via Denver did. Headgames :)

> So, I wanna know A) is this supposed to be authentic?, and if so B) how the
> heck is this guy supposed to have got it?

A) - actually, it's spot on, but prove that in court.

B) - the guy was *given* it. SOL = (l)user is a very useful equation which
is widely open to abuse :) Also, encryption during hot contacts tends
to disappear - the one absolute of British Army signals is "Thou shalt
encrypt grid references", *except* during hot contacts. The enemy knows
where you are, since you're shooting at him... Hence, you can forget BATCO
and send everything in clear for speed and clarity.

The shipment via Denver was slightly late, because it was checked. The
Lear shootdown was a useful chance to ensure that the Denver shipment
wasn't examined too closely (what would it be replaced with?) There wasn't
time for a total check... but enough was done to be useful.



At the moment, I'm figuring ShadowTK posts include highly-secure "point-to-
point" stuff - based on the fact that breaking into "PRIVATE" is bad news.

If it has to be done via Plot-D, then I'll do it like that, but I had
assumed that the *****PRIVATE was good enough that only the RL author of the
message could allow it to be broken - but it let everyone participating get an
idea of what was happening even if their characters were still ignorant.

As ever, storytelling and realism conflict. To be realistic, a lot of these
messages might be one-time-pad encrypted (even BATCO works on a OTP) and
courier-delivered, but that would mean that anyone not taking Plot-D would
have a lot of confusing messages. To be totally realistic, you'd have
silence for weeks and then the result announced. That's far less interesting.

--
Paul J. Adam
Message no. 3
From: mneideng@****.caltech.edu (Mark L. Neidengard)
Subject: Re: CHECK THIS OUT EVERYONE! (fwd)
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1996 18:45:43 -0800 (PST)
According to Paul J. Adam:
>The one certainty is that the CalFree shipment never arrived and the one
>via Denver did. Headgames :)
>
>> So, I wanna know A) is this supposed to be authentic?, and if so B) how the
>> heck is this guy supposed to have got it?
>
>A) - actually, it's spot on, but prove that in court.
>
>B) - the guy was *given* it. SOL = (l)user is a very useful equation which

Ok, that's cool by me. I just wanted to make sure that our world views weren't
somehow out of whack. =)
--
/!\/!ark /!\!eidengard, CS Major, VLSI. http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~mneideng
"Fairy of sleep, controller of illusions" Operator/Jack-of-all-Trades, CACR
"Control the person for my own purpose." "Don't mess with the Dark
Elves!"
-Pirotess, _Record_of_Lodoss_War_ Shadowrunner and Anime Addict
Message no. 4
From: mneideng@****.caltech.edu (Mark L. Neidengard)
Subject: Re: CHECK THIS OUT EVERYONE! (fwd)
Date: Sat, 6 Apr 1996 11:45:46 -0800 (PST)
Well, it just occurs to me that we need to decide what's supposed to happen to
Aztlan at the end of all this stuff. It'd probably be good to do this before
I have some of my characters swing into action so that they don't accidentally
break something. =) I was thinking of having some mid-level exec types get
the blame and have some suitably public (and final) chastisement from either
Aztlan ("Shocked! Yes, shocked, we are, to learn that our employees are
engaged in such _horrible_ things!!") or else from runners. Probably the
high-level types really responsible should get off to plot more mayhem for
another day.

Comments on the scope of stuff being brought home to Aztlan? We can expect
some opposing corporate involvement, plus whatever avaracious (and/or
community-minded) runners want to get in on the action, plus some other
possible "special-interests". Whatcha think?
--
/!\/!ark /!\!eidengard, CS Major, VLSI. http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~mneideng
"Fairy of sleep, controller of illusions" Operator/Jack-of-all-Trades, CACR
"Control the person for my own purpose." "Don't mess with the Dark
Elves!"
-Pirotess, _Record_of_Lodoss_War_ Shadowrunner and Anime Addict
Message no. 5
From: shadowtk@********.demon.co.uk (Paul J. Adam)
Subject: Re: CHECK THIS OUT EVERYONE! (fwd)
Date: Sat, 06 Apr 1996 23:46:00 GMT
> Well, it just occurs to me that we need to decide what's supposed to happen to
> Aztlan at the end of all this stuff. It'd probably be good to do this before
> I have some of my characters swing into action so that they don't accidentally
> break something. =) I was thinking of having some mid-level exec types get
> the blame and have some suitably public (and final) chastisement from either
> Aztlan ("Shocked! Yes, shocked, we are, to learn that our employees are
> engaged in such _horrible_ things!!") or else from runners. Probably the
> high-level types really responsible should get off to plot more mayhem for
> another day.

Oh, of course. Business as usual. "Appalled at the diversion of corporate
resources... horrified at the disregard for law and order... internal
procedures amended to ensure this never happens again... full, comprehensive
and wide-ranging internal review..." A few mid-level fall guys get handed
over to InterPol "of course we fully and freely co-operate with the agencies
of the Law" while the data sits in a vault in Tenochitilan, ready to be
used again when needed... The book is closed on Manchu for a while: although
the idea and the tech is now public, and someone may use it as a tool later,
it's lost a lot of its surprise value.

Conspiracies. Don'cha lovem?

Mind you, the actual establishment where the work is being done is probably
going to get thoroughly trashed, and crawled over by InterPol... which
of course *proves* that it was "rogue elements", since they were working
in such an isolated location. But the project bosses wouldn't be there.

As usual, all knowlege denied and losses absorbed. Part of the risks of
a covert operation. Doesn't mean whoever was involved can turn their back
on a shadow for some time afterwards, though.


> Comments on the scope of stuff being brought home to Aztlan? We can expect
> some opposing corporate involvement, plus whatever avaracious (and/or
> community-minded) runners want to get in on the action, plus some other
> possible "special-interests". Whatcha think?

I'm wide open to suggestions, myself. Part of it depends on how much firepower
Aztlan is willing to commit to defending Manchu. Part of it is whether we
want another all-out military hit a la Maxim, or something a little more
subtle (at least in plan). I don't think we're looking at arty and AFVs this
time around, though :)

--
Paul J. Adam
Message no. 6
From: mneideng@****.caltech.edu (Mark L. Neidengard)
Subject: Re: CHECK THIS OUT EVERYONE! (fwd)
Date: Sun, 7 Apr 1996 12:32:46 -0700 (PDT)
According to Paul J. Adam:
>
>Conspiracies. Don'cha lovem?

Keeps the Shadowruns I play in back home lively (and my characters paranoid
as hell for the most part).

>> Comments on the scope of stuff being brought home to Aztlan? We can expect
>> some opposing corporate involvement, plus whatever avaracious (and/or
>> community-minded) runners want to get in on the action, plus some other
>> possible "special-interests". Whatcha think?
>
>I'm wide open to suggestions, myself. Part of it depends on how much firepower
>Aztlan is willing to commit to defending Manchu. Part of it is whether we
>want another all-out military hit a la Maxim, or something a little more
>subtle (at least in plan). I don't think we're looking at arty and AFVs this
>time around, though :)

Well, it may not look like it, but I actually prefer the quiet, subtle
approach when possible. It's just that response scaled to threat has been
jumping off the scale as of late. =) Let's see.

- Start from the Matrix angle: lots of juicy (and dangerous) computers for
deckers to play around in, which only lets them find what Aztlan was careless
enough not to air-gap (still, that's a lot better than nothing). Heck, if
we wanted to be cool we could let the deckers involved stumble onto something
else big (but unrelated) which Aztlan _really_ doesn't want them to know.
It doesn't even have to be obvious. =)
- Civic-minded ("Shocked! Shocked that one of our competitors would stoop so
low!") corporate aid. I have a character or two with enough leverage to get
some time on their "communications" sattelites for some surveillance. Plus
other random goodies that might come in handy (such as data processing
time or other exotica).
- The personell revolution. Get some stoolies out there pounding the streets
to try to track the pushers back to their suppliers and see if some of them
can be fingered directly. An incriminating photograph here, a strategically
placed temporary girl at a frequented call-girl service there, and all sorts
of things can happen.
- The maintence sqad approach: depending on how tight security actually is at
the Manchu sight, it might be possible to insinuate someone onto the
janitorial crew. "Oh, looks like you've got _phone_ trouble! Let me go to
the _junction_box_ and fix it so you can get _back_to_work_!"
- The high-tech angle: all sorts of weird bugs can be slipped into the den of
the unsuspecting by foreign adversaries. Imagine a _small_ self-propelled
camera trailing a length of fiber-optic cable that crawls through the air
ducts, with a transmitter on the other end to link to the outside world. You
can even get audio if you're careful. And other similarly weird stuff.

Sound in the ballpark? I think I'll get started on some of the corporate stuff
with Alex; perhaps we can get some fixer or other marshalling some runners for
the street-pounding side?
--
/!\/!ark /!\!eidengard, CS Major, VLSI. http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~mneideng
"Fairy of sleep, controller of illusions" Operator/Jack-of-all-Trades, CACR
"Control the person for my own purpose." "Don't mess with the Dark
Elves!"
-Pirotess, _Record_of_Lodoss_War_ Shadowrunner and Anime Addict
Message no. 7
From: Evan Hughes <ehughes@****.carleton.ca>
Subject: Re: CHECK THIS OUT EVERYONE! (fwd)
Date: Sun, 7 Apr 96 16:02:43 EDT
Mark L. Neidengard writes:
> the unsuspecting by foreign adversaries. Imagine a _small_ self-propelled
> camera trailing a length of fiber-optic cable that crawls through the air
> ducts, with a transmitter on the other end to link to the outside world. You
> can even get audio if you're careful. And other similarly weird stuff.

You could always just use the air-duct itself as a conductor, so you
wouldn't have to worry about dragging the cable along (although depending
on the quality of the duct this might be iffy *shrug*). Or you could
lob a self propelled camera (penut size) over the perimeter and have it
wander around taking pictures every minute or two and sending them back as
quick freq. mobile databursts -- or it may just store a few hundred
pictures and then go home when it's memory was filled...



Evan Hughes | Webmaster
Honours Computer Science | Carleton Computer Science Society
http://chat.carleton.ca/~ehughes | http://omega.scs.carleton.ca/~ccss
.. code code code eat code code code code code sleep code code code code ..
Message no. 8
From: mneideng@****.caltech.edu (Mark L. Neidengard)
Subject: Re: CHECK THIS OUT EVERYONE! (fwd)
Date: Sun, 7 Apr 1996 13:12:48 -0700 (PDT)
According to Evan Hughes:
> You could always just use the air-duct itself as a conductor, so you
>wouldn't have to worry about dragging the cable along (although depending
>on the quality of the duct this might be iffy *shrug*). Or you could
>lob a self propelled camera (penut size) over the perimeter and have it
>wander around taking pictures every minute or two and sending them back as
>quick freq. mobile databursts -- or it may just store a few hundred
>pictures and then go home when it's memory was filled...

That's possible, but when I actually implemented this idea on a run I was
doing, I wanted something I could deposit and retrieve from just about
anywhere, where just about anywhere meant the top of a hotel in Hong Kong
(_many_ stories tall). The damn thing actually worked, too! Thank God for
Skills A though: I needed every point of Electronics and Build/Repair to put
the thing together. And it didn't help that it was _me_ that got nerve-gassed
when trying to break into a briefcase holding a deck our team stole from the
opposition, but hey, I managed to only take D Stun. =)
--
/!\/!ark /!\!eidengard, CS Major, VLSI. http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~mneideng
"Fairy of sleep, controller of illusions" Operator/Jack-of-all-Trades, CACR
"Control the person for my own purpose." "Don't mess with the Dark
Elves!"
-Pirotess, _Record_of_Lodoss_War_ Shadowrunner and Anime Addict
Message no. 9
From: Evan Hughes <ehughes@****.carleton.ca>
Subject: Re: CHECK THIS OUT EVERYONE! (fwd)
Date: Sun, 7 Apr 96 16:41:48 EDT
Mark L. Neidengard writes:
> That's possible, but when I actually implemented this idea on a run I was
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> doing, I wanted something I could deposit and retrieve from just about
^^^^^
*grin* I won't say a thing. =)

> anywhere, where just about anywhere meant the top of a hotel in Hong Kong

I didn't think of that. Something like that would be much better for a
fast run where you have to insert/retreive on a very _fast_ basis. You
wouldn't have to worry about the stupid little camera trying to find its
way back: you would just have to grab the base station and pull on the
cable 'till the camera popped out (although I don't envy whoever has to
carry the zillions of yards of cable =).


Evan Hughes | Webmaster
Honours Computer Science | Carleton Computer Science Society
http://chat.carleton.ca/~ehughes | http://omega.scs.carleton.ca/~ccss
.. code code code eat code code code code code sleep code code code code ..
Message no. 10
From: shadowtk@********.demon.co.uk (Paul J. Adam)
Subject: Re: CHECK THIS OUT EVERYONE! (fwd)
Date: Mon, 08 Apr 1996 00:23:33 GMT
In message <199604071932.MAA22722@****.ugcs.caltech.edu> mneideng@****.caltech.edu
(Mark L. Neidengard) writes:
> Well, it may not look like it, but I actually prefer the quiet, subtle
> approach when possible. It's just that response scaled to threat has been
> jumping off the scale as of late. =) Let's see.
>
> -Start from the Matrix angle: lots of juicy (and dangerous) computers for
> deckers to play around in, which only lets them find what Aztlan was careless
> enough not to air-gap (still, that's a lot better than nothing). Heck, if
> we wanted to be cool we could let the deckers involved stumble onto something
> else big (but unrelated) which Aztlan _really_ doesn't want them to know.
> It doesn't even have to be obvious. =)

Matrix isn't my strong suit. Volunteers for someone who is good at running
this sort of thing? Mark's absolutely right, and it's a great opening for
anyone who wants to sneak a leader for a plot of their own in.

> -Civic-minded ("Shocked! Shocked that one of our competitors would stoop so
> low!") corporate aid. I have a character or two with enough leverage to get
> some time on their "communications" sattelites for some surveillance.
Plus
> other random goodies that might come in handy (such as data processing
> time or other exotica).

Already getting this from Ryaka at least, and there would probably be others.
Discreetly fragging over a competitor... Low risk, depresses a rival's
margin at little cost.

> - The personell revolution. Get some stoolies out there pounding the streets
> to try to track the pushers back to their suppliers and see if some of them
> can be fingered directly. An incriminating photograph here, a strategically
> placed temporary girl at a frequented call-girl service there, and all sorts
> of things can happen.

Yep: all of them good ideas, but not what Lynch has resources for.

> - The maintence sqad approach: depending on how tight security actually is at
> the Manchu sight, it might be possible to insinuate someone onto the
> janitorial crew. "Oh, looks like you've got _phone_ trouble! Let me go to
> the _junction_box_ and fix it so you can get _back_to_work_!"

This is a personal favourite, actually: this, filling the vending machines
and the cleaning crew, are the perennial weak spots. Depends how closed a site
it is, but even closed sites need food deliveries.

> - The high-tech angle: all sorts of weird bugs can be slipped into the den of
> the unsuspecting by foreign adversaries. Imagine a _small_ self-propelled
> camera trailing a length of fiber-optic cable that crawls through the air
> ducts, with a transmitter on the other end to link to the outside world. You
> can even get audio if you're careful. And other similarly weird stuff.

Stylish. We did tracking signals that looked like small spiders and crawled
inside the seams of clothing, ourselves.

>Sound in the ballpark? I think I'll get started on some of the corporate stuff
>with Alex; perhaps we can get some fixer or other marshalling some runners for
>the street-pounding side?

Excellent stuff and most welcome. Lynch wouldn't think about most of this
except in terms of a raid: he's good at what he does, but he doesn't do
well at coming up with subtle ideas by himself :) (neither do I, really,
which is part of it...)

--
Paul J. Adam

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

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