ex nihilo wrote:

Hi folks! I've been rereading the mesh chapter and I had some questions about just what's possible with a high Infosec score and mesh implants. I know it's possible to temporarily take control of another person's AR input -- the book suggests using this to create illusions, but would it be possible to just grab the first graphic one finds and blow it up to maximum size in the middle of another person's field of view to blind them until they're able to shut it off?

Shutting down a system, cutting off a wireless link, or even simply shutting down AR is a rather simple affair that requires but a thought, and takes up very little time. Furthermore, since ectos and endos are personal devices, you don't have to worry that shutting it off or even cutting the wireless link may shut down security for an entire building, or disable the mesh for a city block; it only affects you, and there's little risk to doing it. This is why ecto and endo hacking has to be a bit more subtle. A giant AR image that covers someone's entire view will simply force them to shut off their AR imaging... which admittedly is a hassle. However, creating an AR illusion means that they can't be sure whether someone is messing with their AR or it's actually happening. Almost everything you'll do to somebody when you hack their endos will be something that is subtle enough that they may not realize it is a hack to begin with. The trick is to be effective enough to be a liability to your opponent, but not be so great a liability that they decide that shutting off their wireless or AR is a better option. At first, this makes it seem like brute-force hacking is worthless, but it really isn't. If I brute-force someone's endos and force them to shut down their system as soon as the red alert starts, I give them a severe disadvantage. They lose their wireless link with their teammates, their AR overlays, and potentially other things that may at least be somewhat crucial in combat (smartlink, AI assistance, live data feeds and remote control over bots being the rest that come to mind). This may make them leave their systems on, especially if they too have a hacker who may be able to find a way to stop you from interfering with their systems.

ex nihilo wrote:

Another larger issue that occurred to me is XP. Eclipse Phase states that anyone with basic mesh inserts is capable of playing XP recordings, so is it possible to trigger it remotely? Can I upload an XP into another person's inserts against their will and play it? And if so, what's to stop me from using that capability to torture somebody? It doesn't even have to be a torture XP or anything -- I could isolate a particularly painful moment in an otherwise safe XP and just set it to loop so you twist your ankle for ten minutes continuously. And that's just the tip of the iceberg -- your mesh inserts must have some method for switching off conscious control over your body as if you were dreaming, if only for safety purposes so nobody runs out of an airlock while watching their favorite clip. Could this capability also be tripped, instantly paralyzing a person? If not I could just pick up an XP that's one minute of total sensory deprivation and loop it through an opponent's inserts so they can move and act but not see, hear, smell, touch or taste.

XP is very similar to movie data today, but with a lot more senses covered (all 5 as opposed to 2, along with emotion and other things). Much like a movie file sent to your computer, it's not a hard task to turn it off before you get a chance to watch it. Sending someone horrific XP would be like sending them a trojan which sends them to a shock site today... annoying, perhaps even horrifying, but not something that can't be avoided or stopped. Also, your mesh inserts cannot paralyze you. XP transmissions don't actually give you any control over the file, so it's unlikely that you'll even react in the real world as it plays in your mind almost instantaneously (it doesn't necessarily play at real time speed). The book even mentions that a person who goes into straight VR is going to continue to flop around, so most people who do so use specialized chairs and couches in order to avoid exactly that.

ex nihilo wrote:

Obviously this seems like it would be a huge, somewhat unbalancing advantage to any hacker-type character. On the other hand, I can't think of any particular rationale for disallowing it. If mesh inserts are hackable, which they obviously are since there's a chart on page 259 labelled "Hacking Ectos/Mesh Inserts," then what's to stop a character with Infosec 90 and a specialization in brute-force hacking from blinding, paralyzing and agonizing anyone with the standard suite of implants?

The fact that hacking someone's ectos or endos won't give you nearly that much control? Hacking ectos or endos won't allow you to do such serious effects. To do those, you would have to do much more drastic hack jobs... hacking their cyberware or even cyberbrain to get the desired effect. These are the real nasty hacks, the ones that people should be afraid of. Even then, though, the risk isn't all too great. To be able to hack into your cyberbrain, they would likely have to hack into and control your mesh inserts first, in order to produce the connection. Since that's too risky (as you could easily sever the wireless link if this becomes a risk), a more sure way to hack someone's cyberbrain would be to directly jack into their access ports and access them by wire... which of course puts you in melee range. This isn't to say that hackers are harmless... they are harmful is much more different ways than pragmatic combat means. Hacker combat works differently and has a different outcome than physical combat. While I may not be able to injure or blind you via hacking, I'm sure you'll be just as inconvenienced if not more so when I throw your private information up on the mesh for all to see, or charge a few dozen orders on your credit account while I'm in your inserts. Physical combat is about physical control; hacking is all about information control, plain and simple.