<p class="text">The Future. The Year, 203X. Time of technology has progressed, has has the needs of the people. People are turning to online crime. Because there's still some to do. Sometimes the gear gets broken. People send them to get repaired. Sometimes you're the one to do the [[cleaning|intro_test]] because at least YOU... ....aren't [[certified|1]]...</p><p class="text">Clean out the crust, the gunk, the malware, spyware, adware, ransomware, brainware...all kinds of wares the government doesn't want you to know [[about|Start]]</p><p class="text"> Yes, in this world, people don't take kindly to un-certified people tinkering around with computers. Lord knows, they might actually remove all the snoopware, mandated by the government to be in every computer. Some deckers manage to get the software out by themselves, sure. That's not the problem. But due to their activities, they can't rightly take their decks to certified repair & maintainers now can they? So they come to you. You know machines well, and you're smart enough not to ask questions. All they want is their things to live again, and for a chance to make backup of their collections of cat vids. </p> <h3>Welcome to Dark Alley Repairs: a Mundane cyberpunk experience</h3> <p class="text"> It's another [[peaceful evening|2]]</p><div align="left"><p class="act1">Hey, You the dude in charge here?"</p></div> <div align="center"><p class="text">The customer looks like a reputable sort. Well dressed, no signs of substance use, no jacks, chems or implants. The kind of guy that looks safe to deal with.</p></div> <div align="right"><p class="act2">"Yep, what can [[i do you for?|3]]"</p></div><div align="left"><p class="act1">"I think i've managed to get a type of virus or something on my deck."</p></div> <div align="center"><p class="text">You cast a sideways glance to the man. Not many people get viruses these days. Sure, there are still some rogue ones messing around in the intermatrix. But the G.O.V. and local Megacoprs want the decks of their citizens to stay largely virus free: they add too many variables and make spying on them less than silent.</p></div> <div align="right"><p class="act2">"What do you mean by that? The thing doesn't turn on anymore?"</p></div> <div align="left"><p class="act1">"No, it turns on ok, but what happens after that is kind of strange. Here, i'll [[show you|4]]"</p></div><div align="center"><p class="text">The customer turns his deck on. It goes through the self-diagnosis ok, loading the os... ...Minutes later a damn chorus of vuvuzelas ring out, casting the entire shop in their infernal noise. The customer, one finger in one ear twiddles the volume wheel to show it's inefficiency. He closes it soon after.</p></div> <div align="left"><p class="act1">So, you've seen...or heard, rather, what my problem is. Think you can do something about it?"</p></div> <div align="center"><p class="text">You wiggle your fingers in your ears. The ringing stops and you're able to answer.</p></div> <div align="right"><p class="act2">"Yeah...seems like another example of decades old prankware got onto your deck...Amazing that it can still run on modern architectures. Think i can get if off though."</p></div> <div align="center"><p class="text">The customer smiles, and takes out his wallet</p></div> <div align="left"><p class="act1">"How much will this cost me?"</p></div> <div align="center"><p class="text">You go through the details of the operation, sadly they're [[too dull to be written here|5]]</p></div><p class="text"> The customer leaves, leaving the deck behind. Many people seem to get get infected with prankware. This seems like it won't be anything you've not seen before, but it's always better to make null assumptions. Don't they program doc-bots with the same law...what was it... ah yes, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton%27s_law">Sutton's Law.</a></p> <p class="text">Well, the deck won't fix itself. You connect the deck to a sandboxed diagnostic dock and start to [[work your magic|6]]</p><p class="text>As the decks boot up and start to communicate with each other, you go ahead and make yourself a cup of [[coffee|6_coffee]], if you can really call it that. It's relaxing, though. Working in peace, applying your carft to something that'll make a difference in the [[world|6_world]]...no matter how small. It's refreshing to do something for someone who looks kinda [[stable|6_stable]] as well. None of those weird people with mirror lens implants and variety of plugs portruding all over their temples. A small sound eminates from the workbench. The diagnostic tool is ready to [[interact with the deck|7]]</p><p class="text">Well, if you can call it coffe. It's really just replicated, synth coffe from a machine learning what coffee is from data that's being fed to it. Literally. Beans, brews, videos of preparation methods... all add to a vast database of flavour that replicates what coffee tastes or what people think it tastes like. The machines still can't get tea right. [[Go figure.|6]]</p><p class="text">It's not bad as it could be. The companies keep each other in check, and the government still works. Sure they're all in the pockets of the companies to varying degreees, but even then...they sometimes do things that the companies aren't exactly happy about. There's still a few good men and women in the places of [[power.|6]]</p><p class="text">Lots of people who come to your shop aren't the most... reputable of people. Not to say that they're evil, or malicious per se, but let's say that they don't exactly follow the laws to the letter. Some of them are worse than others, sure. Some of them are wethered by experience and have adopted this zen like state to all of this. It's the youngbloods who feel like they got something to prove that you don't like [[dealing with|6]]</p><p class="text">The diagnostics tool spews out the bootlader, parts of the fimware and contensts of RAM as well as [[ROM|7_rom]]. Looking into the specifics, you see that the prankware has made itself part of the bootloader, whilst still being dependant on the underlying OS to provide it with the audio drivers in order to actuatlly function. After some poking around you manage to [[isolate the prankware's code|8]]. You fire up the disassembler.</p><p class="text">Well...sure there are some more advanced technologies than ROM, like Organic Learning Memory Processer (OLMP) as well as some AI based solutions. They've yet to make them small enough and powerful enough for them to fit to a standard deck case. Some people have built their own deck cases to accomodate the OLMP size...and adding some extra batteries as well...But the weight remains an [[unsolved issue.|7]]</p><p class="text">Well, the disassembler is able to disassemble parts of the prankware. But not [[everything.|8_everything]] Seems like it's far more [[sophisticated|8_sophisticated]] what people would like you to think that it really is. Could this be work of someone that's semi-pro? Why would they spend time to make something rather secure? [[Professionalism?|9]]</p><p class="text">The parts about the audio are in a blob that can't seem to be dis-assembled. As are the runtime routines. You can tell that it also does something else, but you can't be sure WHAT it does. Seems like there's more to this thing than [[meets the eye.|8]]<p class="text">There are things done that make sure that the software doesn't fail. It doesn't seem like a typical cut and paste job. And that's worrying. It's not like anything you've seen before. You write down the details of the software's behaviour and continue with [[eradicating it.|8]]</p><p class="text>The cleanup of the prankware isn't easy, but it's doable. Another coffee pot gets prepared, made, filled and drunk whilst the antivirus and rootkit removal softwares do their thing. Not much has changed in the area of removing viruses and badware from people's decks. The tools and attacks have gotten more sophisticated, but the vectors of removal and infection have stayed more or less the same. People have become better educated about security. They have to, [[by law|9_by_law]]. 'Course, government is more eager to teach people only what they think the people at large need to know. They don't tend to spend enough attention to people who go beyond the call of being a proper citizen and expand their knowledge to areas the government hopes they'd be ignorant about. [[Thank god for people like them|10]]</p><p class="text">The clean up of the prankware goes well. Even though it was quite professionally written, it wasn't meant to be too destructive. More like a challenge. Still, a challenge too easy, but still time-consuming. At least billing the customer would yield some favourable results. The beeps and whirs of the fans turn low and disappear. Machines powering down. Time to go to bed and call the customer [[tomorrow.|11]]</p><p class="text">If you wanna keep people surveillance'd and you wanna do it so no extra or forgein variables enter the mix, the best thing to do is to teach people how to keep themselves safe online....within reasons. And the number of infections on computers HAS gone down. And the surveillance daemons are getting smaller, more efficent and less notecable. It's like a dream of chinese ruling class from the 2000s. True some paranoids get super bulletproof systems, but even those are vulnerable to the government surveillance. Their files might be safe, but anytime you log on to the 'net, well...there's always a weak [[point|9]]</p><div align="center><p class="text">The customer is happy to hear about the problem being fixed.</p></div> <p class="act1">So, Were you able to figure out what caused the problems?</p> <div align="right"><p class="act2">Yeppers. Some sort of show of talent prankware. Seems pretty old as well. Decent security thought, but i was able to remove it and make sure it hadn't cloned itself to the bootloader or the other parts of the storage space</p></div> <div align="center"><p class="text">The customer smiles. You arrange the payment via the KredStiks. A few beeps later the funds are on your account. The customer leaves, and you start to wait for the [[next assigment|12]]</div></p><p class="text">Everyday Cyberpunk. An excercise in mundane. Written by Leo "LimbClock" Loikkanen Produced by ProdCorp LLC Inspected by SafeTek East (Cert no. 345-3B) Approved for entertainment use by The Council Of Propaganda Free Entertainment Rights Notice 2215</p>