Oops

This question may have already been asked and answered. In which case I'll go back to the more Middie preoccupation with finding this term's back door into the Crusher's database.

What did Shannon Forraker do to cause several squadrons of SS SDs to go boom? Fire on each other? Bring a pinnace's wedge up in the boat bay? Drop containment on a reactor? Set off a warhead in the magazine? Some other devilish misapplication (for which we are thankful) of her TAC witchery? Inquiring minds want to know.

Fox2! wrote:What did Shannon Forraker do to cause several squadrons of SS SDs to go boom? Fire on each other? Bring a pinnace's wedge up in the boat bay? Drop containment on a reactor? Set off a warhead in the magazine? Some other devilish misapplication (for which we are thankful) of her TAC witchery? Inquiring minds want to know.

A Guess: One of the "routine" tactical updates hacked into the self-destruct system and when she sent the correct command to that update, it bypassed all the safeguards to immediately trigger the self-destructs.

I think it was simultaneous containment failure on all the reactors. Or activation of a self-destruct system ... which probably involves blowing the reactors anyways.

Scuttle me timbers! Forgot about the scuttling charges. If it was good enough for Graf Spee it ought to be good enough for SS scum.

Originally had Deutschland, which became Lützow after the beginning of WWII.

Fox2! wrote:This question may have already been asked and answered. In which case I'll go back to the more Middie preoccupation with finding this term's back door into the Crusher's database.

What did Shannon Forraker do to cause several squadrons of SS SDs to go boom? Fire on each other? Bring a pinnace's wedge up in the boat bay? Drop containment on a reactor? Set off a warhead in the magazine? Some other devilish misapplication (for which we are thankful) of her TAC witchery? Inquiring minds want to know.

To be honest, it's never been stated by the author, all we have is our speculation.

Personally, I beleive it most likely has something to do with the missiles - seeing that she sent her self-destruct commands embeded in tac updates, it most liekely has something to do with the missiles (warheads going off, wedges forming up in the tubes, capacitors overcharging and exploding, etc)

She could have sent controls to the reactors, any self destruct devices, or found a way to remotely pull a Harkness (who had to apply both a software patch and physically mod hardware) and bring up shuttle wedges. However, those imply code moving from one subsystem to another - not impossible, but if there was any information security, someone should be looking for such, making it far less likely, though not impossible. I would think that info security on ships would be paramount, because communications hacking would be an ideal way to take down subsystems in a battle. Knowing what we use in the corporate world to provent intrusions and control data flow internally, I can't imagine 40th century spaceships being less paranoid, when a simple hack can turn off the o2.

And remember, she is a TAC specialist, and knows the control codes for the missiles and is responsible for sending updates to them. While she may know reactors, shuttles, or about the scuttling charges, it isn't her job, and getting the command codes for 24 other ships may be a little beyond her scope.

Theemile wrote:..snio..
And remember, she is a TAC specialist, and knows the control codes for the missiles and is responsible for sending updates to them. While she may know reactors, shuttles, or about the scuttling charges, it isn't her job, and getting the command codes for 24 other ships may be a little beyond her scope.

Random statesec ship wrote:TAC-update 43 available!
A new TAC-update is now available, press <Review> to review changes or <OK> to apply.

Note: To apply changes, command authority is needed.

-"Captain, we got another TAC-update. It's the 15th today."
-"Why can't they get their shit together! Just apply it on my authority and hope it's the last one."

It's quite easy to enforce lazy behavior...

Joat42 wrote:

Theemile wrote:..snio..
And remember, she is a TAC specialist, and knows the control codes for the missiles and is responsible for sending updates to them. While she may know reactors, shuttles, or about the scuttling charges, it isn't her job, and getting the command codes for 24 other ships may be a little beyond her scope.

Random statesec ship wrote:TAC-update 43 available!
A new TAC-update is now available, press <Review> to review changes or <OK> to apply.

Note: To apply changes, command authority is needed.

-"Captain, we got another TAC-update. It's the 15th today."
-"Why can't they get their shit together! Just apply it on my authority and hope it's the last one."

It's quite easy to enforce lazy behavior...

Yes, but automated system should be in place limiting (or obstructing) communiocations between subsystems. We have monitors actively blocking communications between devices (selectively limiting protocols and ports being used, or blocking comunications all together) on our internal network in addition to using VLANs to bulk separate and route different traffic groups. And that's just routine on a business network for a "low security" Manufacturing company; what they use today for a High Security facility should boggle the mind.

And trust me, I'm not saying that people don't - or can't - get through either Today's systems or an Honorverse system. I'm just saying that Shannon sending commands to the reactors (for example), is several magnitudes more difficult and more likely detected than addressing the missiles or other TAC systems - especially when simultaneously hitting 24 ships.

Joat42 wrote:

Theemile wrote:..snio..
And remember, she is a TAC specialist, and knows the control codes for the missiles and is responsible for sending updates to them. While she may know reactors, shuttles, or about the scuttling charges, it isn't her job, and getting the command codes for 24 other ships may be a little beyond her scope.

Random statesec ship wrote:TAC-update 43 available!
A new TAC-update is now available, press <Review> to review changes or <OK> to apply.

Note: To apply changes, command authority is needed.

-"Captain, we got another TAC-update. It's the 15th today."
-"Why can't they get their shit together! Just apply it on my authority and hope it's the last one."

It's quite easy to enforce lazy behavior...

Theemile wrote:Yes, but automated system should be in place limiting (or obstructing) communiocations between subsystems. We have monitors actively blocking communications between devices (selectively limiting protocols and ports being used, or blocking comunications all together) on our internal network in addition to using VLANs to bulk separate and route different traffic groups. And that's just routine on a business network for a "low security" Manufacturing company; what they use today for a High Security facility should boggle the mind.

And trust me, I'm not saying that people don't - or can't - get through either Today's systems or an Honorverse system. I'm just saying that Shannon sending commands to the reactors (for example), is several magnitudes more difficult and more likely detected than addressing the missiles or other TAC systems - especially when simultaneously hitting 24 ships.

Keep in mind, that as Tac officer, Shannon has a lot of command clearance. She has to. Tac officers must be able to coordinate fleet-wide tactical munitions. There were commands given by Honor, I think, to "tie in with CIC on the other ships and coordinate our attack." I'm sure CIC could be bypassed altogether, with the Tac officer clearance Shannon had - together with total systems knowledge. Plus, Shannon is a nerd. She knows the 'puters better than the SOB that designed them!

As far as what she actually did, I personally would not speculate that it had anything to do with the reactors. What Shannon did caused instantaneous destruction. Reactor failure takes time - even when all safeguards are removed - before reactor overload. And they wouldn't go together in a choreographed explosion. And there'd be warnings. And at least one engineer would have been in place to eject the core, saving that ship.

From what I remember of the passage, I don't think the scuttling charges are the answer either. Scuttling charges take a bit of time to destroy a ship as well, compared to the instantaneous, almost simultaneous destruction of all ships.

Theemile speculated commanded-missile explosions. That's a better fit of the evidence.

.

Theemile wrote:..snio..
And remember, she is a TAC specialist, and knows the control codes for the missiles and is responsible for sending updates to them. While she may know reactors, shuttles, or about the scuttling charges, it isn't her job, and getting the command codes for 24 other ships may be a little beyond her scope.

Joat42 wrote:

Random statesec ship wrote:TAC-update 43 available!
A new TAC-update is now available, press <Review> to review changes or <OK> to apply.

Note: To apply changes, command authority is needed.

-"Captain, we got another TAC-update. It's the 15th today."
-"Why can't they get their shit together! Just apply it on my authority and hope it's the last one."

It's quite easy to enforce lazy behavior...

Theemile wrote:Yes, but automated system should be in place limiting (or obstructing) communications between subsystems. We have monitors actively blocking communications between devices (selectively limiting protocols and ports being used, or blocking communications all together) on our internal network in addition to using VLANs to bulk separate and route different traffic groups. And that's just routine on a business network for a "low security" Manufacturing company; what they use today for a High Security facility should boggle the mind.

And trust me, I'm not saying that people don't - or can't - get through either Today's systems or an Honorverse system. I'm just saying that Shannon sending commands to the reactors (for example), is several magnitudes more difficult and more likely detected than addressing the missiles or other TAC systems - especially when simultaneously hitting 24 ships.

Since Shannon's ship and the Statesec ships where probably running the same software it shouldn't have been too difficult for a person of Shannons caliber to use that knowledge to bypass or subvert the security to get the results she wanted.

We know that the security wasn't that brilliant since we have Harkness opinion of it, and he managed to subvert it with a handcomp and some social engineering.

Theemile wrote:..snio..
And remember, she is a TAC specialist, and knows the control codes for the missiles and is responsible for sending updates to them. While she may know reactors, shuttles, or about the scuttling charges, it isn't her job, and getting the command codes for 24 other ships may be a little beyond her scope.

Joat42 wrote:

Random statesec ship wrote:TAC-update 43 available!
A new TAC-update is now available, press <Review> to review changes or <OK> to apply.

Note: To apply changes, command authority is needed.

-"Captain, we got another TAC-update. It's the 15th today."
-"Why can't they get their shit together! Just apply it on my authority and hope it's the last one."

It's quite easy to enforce lazy behavior...

Theemile wrote:Yes, but automated system should be in place limiting (or obstructing) communications between subsystems. We have monitors actively blocking communications between devices (selectively limiting protocols and ports being used, or blocking communications all together) on our internal network in addition to using VLANs to bulk separate and route different traffic groups. And that's just routine on a business network for a "low security" Manufacturing company; what they use today for a High Security facility should boggle the mind.

And trust me, I'm not saying that people don't - or can't - get through either Today's systems or an Honorverse system. I'm just saying that Shannon sending commands to the reactors (for example), is several magnitudes more difficult and more likely detected than addressing the missiles or other TAC systems - especially when simultaneously hitting 24 ships.

Joat42 wrote:Since Shannon's ship and the Statesec ships where probably running the same software it shouldn't have been too difficult for a person of Shannons caliber to use that knowledge to bypass or subvert the security to get the results she wanted.

We know that the security wasn't that brilliant since we have Harkness opinion of it, and he managed to subvert it with a handcomp and some social engineering.

Being adroit enough to bypass security shouldn't even be a consideration for Foraker. I mean like, come on. Like Really? Look where her talents have taken her. Bolthole!

The question is, exactly how did Miss Foraker exploit her bypassed security?