KI Identification

[Gondar]

I guess I'll finally announce. Hi all. I'm Gondar, some remember me others don't that's all fine. I actually have training in a number of weird fields (materials engineering, some failure analysis and NDT methods, some basic structural engineering, nanotechnology and the sort). Just not much free time and never known who to talk to about any volunteer work for checking ages. But that's not the thing here.

I was talking with Dr. Quinlan in the cavern about that vandalism at his clinic and the obvious connection to the other thefts and such going on. I don't think anything's come up in the KI logs yet, which would imply someone who knows something about how the KIs work. To get into the clinic you have to use the nexus which requires a KI... I guess it IS possible to shut it off once the book is there before you link, but... that raises two questions.

One: Do the KIs still ping to the lattice when off? Or is an off-KI effectively not there as far as it's concerned? (and for that matter, *can* you shut it off without pulling it apart?)

And two: Is the old code for the DRC and ability to 'ghost' still there? Where they could disable it showing up in proximity and in the neighborhood/etc imager logs? I vaguely recall them pulling that trick.

Just wondering, as I have no clue who even knows how that system works in-depth.. I'd guess Calum but I've never figured how things work down there, I just visit, you know?

[Traveler263]

Hey, Gondar. Glad to see another familiar face down here.

Yeah, I took a cursory look at the logs last night after a remote download. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary in terms of a delete or 'hidden' entry. So whoever did this probably did it without an active KI... Or, atleast, a KI on the main network. Alt-networked KI's don't tend to register on the public lists, in my experience. They do save to certain back-end logs, though.

My next step will be checking the backend systems for the networks I have access to to see if those registered anything. Actually, given that two of the work crew at the Overflow Station are presently Awol... Their KIs are unaccounted for. I could try pinging them and see if I can force a remote boot for tracking. Guess it depends on if they've left them "off" or did the extreme and tore them apart to *really* turn them off.

When turned "off" the KI's don't actively signal ping the system on their own, but can be turned on remotely like the DRC did for Wheely's KI back in the day. In this way we can tell them to prep for file updates, before we push them through the Lattice and the KI is turned on the next time.

Ghosting? Not in the public code for the KI network- just like it always was. We've had a few experiments with trying to work it active again on some private networks, to limited success, but mostly failures. I think our baseline KIs just aren't the right model to use that feature. I've always suspected the DRC had a limited supply of higher security models, to be honest.

Though, I've had a lot of time today to mull it over, and I'm wondering now if someone didn't just go to the hood, turn their KI off, and hide until it was all quiet again. The system logs don't record when people leave a hood, after all- just arrivals.

I'll have to check if any names stand out.

[Carl Palmner]

Hey, Gondar! Good to chat with you. Sorry I didn't stop and give you a better greeting the other day. I was so focused on this incident in the clinic that I think I had a bit of tunnel vision. We should definitely hang out sometime!

[Traveler263]

to cross post:

I finished dredging up the data log from the hood imager yesterday evening.

It comes back to Tati Masser and Fasyk Casing- the two workers from the Overflow Station who have gone awol.

Tati's Work-crew networked KI was recorded on the Clinic's Hood Visitor Log imager's back end- noting it's 'not on the main network' status and hiding it from public view thanks to some archaic code the DRC left in there.

I know Kelsei passed their IDs along to Tenny the other night, and it's a good thing she did. These two are almost certainly involved in whatever's been going on. The fact they were the folks who 'Sami' was avoiding and fearful of- and that folks working at the Station observed her trying to do such....

I'm willing to wager these two are involved in something shady. If anyone sees 'Sami Lesgrandee' running around, please pass along a message that I'd like to speak to her ASAP. Be it on the Surface or in Cavern. Where-ever she feels most safe.

I've tried pinging their KIs, as an aside. I was unable to turn them on and get a location, but somebody certainly noticed and guessed it was me- probably my last forum post. In response, it seems that someone targeted a hack at every networked KI I publicly have made known I own. I've been having issues with their projectors ever since- staying on when I've tried closing it and having to forcibly reboot the KI entirely. I only noticed it happening during recent Wall trials when I was testing Marker Missions.

I don't know what else to say. The arguments I've had tonight with the rest of the crew regarding the situation has my stomach churning.

Needless to say, I've sent a line to the Nexus system to block access to the awol KI Devices on all networks. I doubt it'll slow them down if they have normal KIs or any other networked KIs I'm unaware of, but we'll see.

[Gondar]

Well then. It showed them on the back end, but it did not show them in the visitor list. What was the timing? After people left before Carl returned? Or was it before and they hid during the whole meet and greet? Because linking in people would have noticed they were there.

On the other hand.. that's very worrying... it seems they do have a full knowledge of the KI system to know how to shut off remote pings and moreso to actually get at your KI in turn.

Did Laxman leave any major logbooks or printouts of what he did back when? Something they could have gotten at to have a really good knowledge of what's going on? Because I'm getting the impression this is deep-level knowledge we're talking, that or they found some DRC grade special KIs (RIs, as the 4 looks like a lower-case r). Or they found the equivalent of a permissions escalation exploit. All worrying, particularly if they were working on the water systems when down there and not the lattice.

(No one installed some sort of extra bypass or tap onto the system I assume? I don't even know what's possible with it instead of surface computers... can you pull off a man-in-the-middle by using the remote update system to force a KI to connect to a different proxy server and then mess with it by that?)

[Traveler263]

Again, imagers dont record when people leave. Just when they arrive. It was before Carl arrived, by enough time that he might have just missed the miscreant in the act if they were speedy enough about it.

I can't answer more to that right now beyond they're probably fumbling around with this as much as I am. It's a half-cooked hack- as much as anything I might be able to pull off on short notice, atleast.

[Gondar]

Oh, I know it doesn't record departures, but the chatlogs show roughly when everyone left, or at least assuming. But we know it was long after. So they knew the open house timing, and gave it enough time. Having the door open was probably serendipity then.

Even if it's a pretty basic hack, it's still something, and enough to give you major issues. That does imply some deeper knowledge.

...and I'll assume any equipment they were set to work on before they fled on 'quarantine' was inspected? I mean, if this Sami was trying to undo sabotage from Tati and Fasyk, and she was chased off when confronted... well, any pumping and water systems would be a really *good* spot to throw something into the water. Sabotage the lake lighting efforts and all. Maybe I'm just being paranoid... already thought I saw someone in the GoME pub when I got in for my usual late-night coffee and vanished before I couid get close. A few reports of theft and vandalism, and now I'm seeing shadows.

[Kelsei A. Taylor]

I'll take a look into that this week in Calum's stead, given he's taking the week off.