In grydscaen: tribute we talk about Rom, the compromised hacker who was captured by the government and had his memory erased. Before this compromise he had electronics medically placed into his arm as a skin job. These cybernetic electronics enable him to get all up in the grydscaen and explore different sites. An exploit kit as you would call it enables a hacker to compromise innocent devices that visit a compromised site and can download pieces of the exploit to steal key logging, documents, sensitive information or install adware and viruses.
In the short story “Rogue” which is in grydscaen: tribute, we see Rom’s skin job which has the ability to compromise sites and steal information from various sources on the gridscan. This skin job, as it is called and the electronics that are placed in his right forearm get him into the hacker guild run by Jester who is interested in who Rom is once he sees how sophisticated the electronics are that he has in his arm.
The ones who did the skin job for Rom and Acolyte thinks it is at least a 1 million credit job were the Black Holes. This group is a sophisticated operation that resists detection and stays underground. They will only surface if communicated with by an elite hacker. The Black Holes don’t just skin anyone. You have to have a certain level of street cred to get them to come anywhere near you. Rom was an elite Level 9 hacker that was working for his father and hacking into the government. Rom’s father is Mr. Stuart, the head of the Pacific Territories Parliament in the City.
There is a hacker tool, an exploit called Black Hole. The fact that the grydscaen story mentions the Black Hole group as having given Rom the skin job is maybe more than a coincidence. Various research was done when writing grydscaen to make the hackers and their exploits believable in the stories that make up grydscaen: tribute. Grydscaen is about hackers against the government but the writer does not take sides, it is up to the reader to decide whose side you are on and who are the bad guys. The Packrats may be cyber terrorists but are they actually criminals? That is a question of nuance. They maybe stealing information from the government but it is in support of freeing captive psychics and stopping the government from rounding psychics up off the street for experiementation. So in a sense they could be seen as freedom fighters.
Many people have opinions about hackers. From Snowden to Anonymous and the various hactivists or cyber criminals and cyber warfare inbetween. It is a matter of degrees. A 14 year old kid can hack into an ATM, is he curious or something else? Or does it just say that your systems are vulnerable if a 14 year old can get in there.
Developers, hackers, programmers have been around for a while. There are hackers working for corporations that work in cyber security hardening systems to keep them secure. Are they evil, would you call them that? There are hackers working for state sponsored governments trying to infiltrate companies on any given day and more and more companys are finding themselves compromised or targets of these attacks. Who best to get to thwart these attempts but other hackers who know how these people think and act.
Hacking can be seen as negative, attacking companies and stealing personal and corporate information. Hackers can also be seen as cyber security or people trying to uncover abuse and government overreach. Who is to say what is right and what is wrong. The government may even overstep its bounds at times saying they are trying to protect the people. It is all a matter of degrees. The writer doesn’t take sides, just presents information. It is up to the reader to determine whose side you are on. Grydscaen makes a commentary about hackers. It is all about how you see the world, black hat, white hat, red hat. It is all a matter of degrees and perspective. Who actually is the bad guy. Read grydscaen: tribute and make your own decision.
