Make PDAs hackable

[Bauser]

Add a method to hack PDAs to accomplish various functions. I have some ideas both for what purposes this could serve and how it could be accomplished mechanically, but I am very open to suggestions regarding either.

1) Restore deleted messages, maybe with some corruption factored in. It would be entertaining if security could work together with an engineer or scientist to reload conversations that were deleted, enabling a sort of cyber forensics.

2) Activate a GPS tracker, making the PDA double as a GPS beacon. This would be a cunning way to track someone, and could be used by both antagonists and security (like stealthily, and unethically, tracking someone who was arrested and then released - they'd measure the benefit of extra security against the threat of being caught performing this questionable practice).

3) Change the ID signature on the PDA, allowing you to send a message as though it came from a different person/PDA. This would not affect its appearance if you display it with an ID card. However, this change would be visible to anyone who opens up the PDA screen itself (since it changes the name on the PDA's main menu).

4) Fry the PDA, rendering it completely inoperable and any information on it impossible to recover.

As for the method of hacking, my expectation is that it would be a prescribed process using certain tools, like every other engineering feat in the game. My hope is that any PDA hack would leave some sort of indication that it was tampered with to someone who opens it up and examines for themselves, and that it would be involved enough that security officers wouldn't abuse it constantly.

So, use a screwdriver to unsecure the PDA. Click on it in hand to pull the faceplate off the PDA. After this step, the tool you use will determine what function you perform. Using it in-hand again at any point in the process will replace the faceplate, at which point you can use the screwdriver to return it to a useable state. If you use wirecutters and then cable on the PDA (representing snipping a wire and then repairing it), it will reset the PDA's electronic signature. The next time you open the PDA menu, it will prompt you to enter a name and job to function as the PDA's new identifier.

OR, use a multitool once to select/access the PDA's backup archive. If you touch a non-empty power cell to the open PDA at this point (I know, it's weird, I'm just trying to go outside the standard toolset), it will reload the deleted messages (with some information corrupted, producing asterisks like when you try to read a crumpled piece of paper). If you use the multitool again, instead, it will select the PDA's GPS beacon function. Using the power cell on it in this state will toggle the GPS beacon ON or OFF (it always starts in the OFF state). Using a multitool on it a third time in a row (closing and reopening the PDA resets this selection process) will overload the PDA's circuits, causing it to spark and destroying the electronics on the PDA - frying it. After that, the PDA will never turn on again.

Any of these modifications would leave a note upon examining the open PDA, so any future modders could see that something had been done. Descriptions like "A wire has been cut and spliced" or "There are small electric burn marks" would suffice.

[Coalf]

You know what we could do? Get all these abillities to the Detomatrix.

Nobody uses it anyways since it doesn't do much damage and with the 3 uses it's pretty useless.

One more thing I'd like would be a "Logic Bomb" that spams a specific PDA with 10-20 Spam messages, maybe a ringer that makes everyones PDA on station beep once.

I like it

[Bauser]

If more hacking abilities were given to the Detomatrix cartridge, I would hope to give them some usefulness beyond the sparing functions that I described in the original post. Because tagging people, spoofing their texts, and restoring old conversations are neat tricks - they're just not quite powerful enough to make it worthwhile. Additionally, what is the benefit to sending someone a bunch of spam messages? Would it just be for the roleplay value of spooking people?

If we want to make the Detomatrix cartridge a more formidable tool, I would upgrade the abilities even further. I have an idea for a whole suite of hacking programs that would make it a powerful weapon for a black-hat antagonist.

1) Instead of just making other PDAs function as GPS beacons, give the user's PDA a GPS finder program as well, so the antagonist can tag and track someone all remotely without ever risking contact. And then just give the remote-GPS-activation ability a limited number of uses, so the antagonist can maybe select just 2 or 3 people to bug, using a single cartridge.

2) Add a program that allows the Detomatrix user to completely remotely hijack the target's PDA. Simply put, allows the antagonist to open the target's PDA and use anything on it as if it was in his own hand. He can send fake messages from this PDA and then delete them, leaving no trace. He could activate the PDA's auxiliary functions, like possibly accessing records (Is that something sec/med PDAs can do? I don't know), or forcing the PDA to eject the ID card stored in it (great for thievery if you're ready to swipe it and run).

3) Add a program that allows the Detomatrix cartridge to make remote transfers between the bank accounts of any two targeted users. Just pick 2 PDAs that have ID cards in them, and this program lets you siphon funds out of one account and into the other. You could use it to fund yourself, or maybe to frame others... If either of the IDs you pick isn't tied to a bank account, then it won't work.

4) Add a program (with a very limited number of uses) that lets you download the ID card access from a target PDA and apply it to your own for a short duration, probably just a minute. This way, you don't need to spend your telecrystals if you only need to sneak into one area like for a quick heist, to retrieve equipment, or get close to a target. To incorporate your desire for a logic bomb, another option would be to make it so that a PDA receives that storm of spam messages or falsely rings when it gets hit by this hack. This way, there is a subtle indicator for the victim that somebody has them in their sights. So the other player isn't totally in the dark - it's great for suspense.

[Kaed]

Some of that is interesting, but the thing about bank accounts is a bit implausible, because PDAs had no inherent access or connection to your account in any way.

[Bauser]

That's why it would be based on the bank account associated with the ID card inside the target PDA.

Presumably. If that works any better.

EDIT: A consequence (a desirable one, imo) of any of these hacks which target the ID card inside the PDA instead of simply the PDA itself is that there will finally be some mechanical incentive to not always keeping your PDA worn in your ID slot. If you know that some of your co-workers have been targeted with these cyber-attacks, you might choose to pop the ID card out and stow the PDA in a pocket or something - sacrificing a slot for a little extra cyber-security. It's a small consideration but I think an interesting one.

[Kaed]

That doesn't really work, because you don't access your bank account with the information on your card. There is, in fact, a special function built into ATMs that will allow you to authorize yourself by physically placing your ID card in the slot, but this is a default, object-based security measure and not something you can just emulate using the card data from a PDA. The PDA server is entirely separate from your bank account, and it would be like trying to wifi-hack something that has no wifi port access and is a secure wired system.

Bank information and accounts are also generally well protected from hacking attempts, and I reject the idea that a corporate issued PDA has the capability to easily penetrate their security measures, by sliding a cartridge into it.

Stick to functions that directly interact with PDAs and the PDA system.

[Bauser]

Well, then I suppose we could just take that function off the table.

[Bauser]

I don't have a strong opinion as to whether these functions should be given to the Detomatrix for remote hacking or if they should be accomplished by manual breaking. But another possible ability would be muting a target PDA so that any messages sent from it don't actually reach the recipient, even though they appear to send.

To clarify an ability mentioned earlier: spoofing another person's PDA identifier should, ideally, also make it so that texts sent to that person are rerouted to your PDA instead of theirs. If this seems too powerful (since it totally cuts that person off from PDA communication), a compromise would be to make it so that the texts meant for them are only sent to you if it's in reply to a message that you send. So, if you start a conversation and they hit "reply," they'll be talking to you - but if you start a conversation and they open the messenger to find the actual person's PDA, they'll instead start a new conversation with the actual person, tipping them off that there's a copycat.

Of course, in the interest of making these changes as buff as possible, I would just prefer the first option - that it reroutes all their messages to you automatically, cutting the target PDA out of the communication loop entirely.

[Pacmandevil]

if these are added they really should be things like wire-hacking rather than shoehorning it into a detomatrix.

[Bauser]

I'm of the opinion that certain functions make more sense for manual hacking and certain ones are more suitable for the Detomatrix.

Tracking someone (like with the GPS beacon) and spoofing texts (changing PDA's identifier) are complex functions with primarily antagonistic purposes. Those make more sense for remote hacking with the Detomatrix cartridges. It would immediately offer antagonists a suite of cyber tools that very subtly aid them no matter what they're doing - for instance, they could keep real-time tracking on 3 or 4 security officers at all times just with the push of a few buttons. If they are very skilled/dedicated in monitoring this data, it would allow them to constantly stay one step ahead. Combine this with the text-mimicking ability, and they could completely dismantle efforts made against them by sowing disinformation, or they could control people's movements to set up their crimes if they're persuasive by their messages. And neither of those would be a rare or difficult accomplishment, with these tools.

Restoring deleted messages or bricking a PDA, though? Those could probably be done just by cracking it open and going at the right wires. Plus, someone with a Detomatrix cartridge doesn't usually need to fry someone's PDA... since they can just explode it.