Technology worse than 2020 books?

[Sardukhar]

Ah, Arasaka had backups. That's why Militech used a tactical nuke on the tower... Which set off the bigger nuke in the tower...

The net was rebuilt with the 'wotsit-called' algorithms, (can't remember the names,) something 'grubs

Iharu-Grubb Transformation, Chris. What lets Net users "see' the "consensual hallucination that is cyberspace". The IGT didn't build the Net, but they did change the perspective for users, for the whole Net. And they affected everything. And Rache had an in.

Arasaka is based out of Japan, the arasaka towers attack really would have accomplished very little.

True, Arasaka was based out of Japan - then the Japanese nationalized them. Heh heh heh. I'd say a politician did more with his pen than a nuke did. Anyway.
That nuke didn't bring down Arasaka or the Net.

"Anybody with brains" do have backups. All major server networks, all ISPs, everyone has backups. DoD has even more, very well protected.

But you have to keep them backed-up, or they lose their value. And when you do back them up, they become vulnerable to infection. It's a real issue for security pros. Of course, they are quite good about protecting their stuff, although cutting edge is still a war between the big private companies like Symantec, McAfee and, well, the hackers. Actual black hat hackers. Who are, actually, very good. They crack the uncrackable, decrypt the unbreakable.

Some are geniuses. These people will become the Netrunners of tomorrow. And in Cyberpunk 2020, of these geniuses, the very best was Rache Bartmoss. I man who, as in my favourite definition of genius, "redefined his field".


It is far from implausible a suitably brilliant mind, motivated and equipped, could bring down the Net and corrupt the safeguards.

Just an "average hacker" shut down a NJ naval station, responsible for resupply, for a week, locking off emails for another 3 weeks. http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Average-hacker-skills-shut-down-US-defence-systems

And that was basically a script kiddie, not a black hat. That naval weapons station was responsible for supplying the US Atlantic Fleet. Yeah.

So could Rache, a guy who helped build the Net, shut it all down and screw the backups, safeguards and redundancy measures? Yes, absolutely yes. Did he, in 2020? Yes he did.

Will he, in the real world? We may yet see.

 

[chriswebb2020.736]

Arasaka is based out of Japan, the arasaka towers attack really would have accomplished very little.

Well, yes, but I was talking about the Night City Arasaka Tower which held what was supposed to be the only complete data cache that wasn't corrupted by the DataKrash. That was why Militech sent Morgan and Co. to the tower in the first place.


Anyway. I just don't see a global internet in 2077. If nothing else I believe that the corps and governments would not want to allow themselves to be as vulnerable as they ended up being ever again. Thats my 2 cents.

 

[wisdom000]

I don't think the corps will have much of a choice... Global communications are a necessity for corporations, militaries, and government... that infrastructure has to exist, and if it exists it cane and will be shanghaied by the public, there will be an internet.

 

[Sardukhar]

I don't think the corps will have much of a choice... Global communications are a necessity for corporations, militaries, and government... that infrastructure has to exist, and if it exists it cane and will be shanghaied by the public, there will be an internet.

Ha! I mean, you're not wrong, but major corporations existed before the Internet and will if there is ever an after. Greed Powers All.

I'm sure, barring Alien Intervention or Total Global Apocalypse, the Net would be restored. But, as my example above hopefully illustrated, it could take a while. If Rache did his work well, (of course he did), it could be a looooong while. In the meantime, interim methods like radio, phone/fax and bike couriers would fill the gaps.

I don't recall the bit where the Arasaka cache was uncorrupted by Rache..but it's been years since I read Firestorm covers-to-covers.

 

[wisdom000]

Ha! I mean, you're not wrong, but major corporations existed before the Internet and will if there is ever an after. Greed Powers All.

I'm sure, barring Alien Intervention or Total Global Apocalypse, the Net would be restored. But, as my example above hopefully illustrated, it could take a while. If Rache did his work well, (of course he did), it could be a looooong while. In the meantime, interim methods like radio, phone/fax and bike couriers would fill the gaps.

I don't recall the bit where the Arasaka cache was uncorrupted by Rache..but it's been years since I read Firestorm covers-to-covers.

If you have Phone and fax lines, you have the internet.... I mean crap, until the 90's. that's all the internet was...

 

[chriswebb2020.736]

I'm sure, barring Alien Intervention or Total Global Apocalypse, the Net would be restored. But, as my example above hopefully illustrated, it could take a while. If Rache did his work well, (of course he did), it could be a looooong while. In the meantime, interim methods like radio, phone/fax and bike couriers would fill the gaps.

That works for me.

If you have Phone and fax lines, you have the internet.... I mean crap, until the 90's. that's all the internet was...

Ok, there would be internet, but would it be useable? How would you first remove the cirus and then prevent reinfection?

 

[Sardukhar]

If you have Phone and fax lines, you have the internet.... I mean crap, until the 90's. that's all the internet was...

No-o..not really. No more than a highway makes a transportation infrastructure. We've had phones much longer than internet and that's because phone lines -probably- don't require the meticulous cleaning and rebooting, recleaning, replacing and so forth that Rache's poisoning of the Net would entail. Or whoever does it.

To reference the Naval Base example I used, that base had phone lines nearly the whole time, if not the whole time, but their Net was shot and email was shot for weeks after they got the Net back.

Honestly, against a serious, brilliant attacker, the Net is still quite vulnerable. The primary method of defense, re-routing packets around problem areas, doesn't work if the attacker knows this and has compromised the infrastructure that thoroughly.

The ultra-freaky thing is that if we do go to some common ground type language/protocol as invasive as the IG algorithms, we will be that vulnerable.

 

[wisdom000]

Honestly hacking is above my head, but without the internet technological advacement itself would pretty much grind to a halt... it's rough, even for those of us who lived throuigh it, to imagine a time before the internet... before instant global communication and the ability to transfer information near instantly to everyone who wants or needs it...

I mean.... could you imagine a world where you actually have to pay for porn... cuz I lived in that world, and it sucked...

 

[Sardukhar]

I mean.... could you imagine a world where you actually have to pay for porn... cuz I lived in that world, and it sucked...

EEyyayaagahh! NOOOOO! Do not bring forth the Dark Times!

 

[wisdom000]

EEyyayaagahh! NOOOOO! Do not bring forth the Dark Times!

Exaactly...


I mean, remember when you had to ask the convenience store clerk for your smut.... or worse, having to go into the skeevy back room at the video store to rent porn...

Hell, I remember having to make due with the lingerie section the sears catalogs before I was old enough to acquire porn myself...

 

[chriswebb2020.736]

Exaactly...


I mean, remember when you had to ask the convenience store clerk for your smut.... or worse, having to go into the skeevy back room at the video store to rent porn...

Hell, I remember having to make due with the lingerie section the sears catalogs before I was old enough to acquire porn myself...

I remember. Yeah, it sucked, (the only place I could get it was run by a girl about the same age as me at the time. I never, ever looked her in the eye, not once...)

But that is how things were. Sure it would be a huge leap back, but technology does not need instant data sharing. We got on fine without it for quite some time. Now if computers went, that would be a huge blow. The net, it would be an annoyance and data would need to be physically move.

Hello floppy drives...