Good running shoes.
Sound weird? Not really. Everything worth controlling is either under someone else domain or militarily protected.
English?
Its off the grid wherever possible with quantum 1:1. It isn't connected to municipal datalinks or power-lines. Datalinks, obviously. But power-lines? Well, if you can influence the charge passing through a circuit precisely but minutely, you can write code into a processor or storage device.
That's called a hardware trojan. As a result, most of these systems are independent, with their own generators: Making them both resilient and secure.
Then you have to remember: These are systems that are designed to come under software attack and viciously scrutenize their own actions every hour of every day for their entire operational lifespan.
So what can you do?
Well, if its corporate, they trade documents and every machine that's been through that office probably has a memory of the last 30,000 documents on it before it was thrown out. Terminals, photocopiers, whatever.
But say you want something meaningful. A university for their computing power. A factory to produce something or stall production. Shipyards, to plant faults in a ships construction. Fabricators. Banks, defense infrastructures, energy infrastructures...
If you're going to do any of this, you need to turn up in person - looking like someone who would work with it. Maintanance, maybe.
That's dumpster-diving. That's social engineering.
A smart hacker will keep their head down and go unnoticed. A greedy hacker will get someone else to do the dirty work for them: studying the system and producing something they could give to a fucking meth addict with no skills and still successfully do it. Or maybe smarter, impersonating a senior member of staff over the phone and make the maintanance man do it after planting your little gem you want added to their network somewhere you can find it.
But some things NEED the midas touch of expertise in the face of unpredictability. There is always a chance things go sour.
You're in the wolf's den. You're the rabbit, they're the hounds.
They're going to get you.
You need to run.
Now, you might think I'm exaggerating. Well, think away: The Freespacers were made an endangered species because of a small number of hackers. Yamatai felt threatened (and rightfully so) but their response was massively overblown, wiping out a whole city: an ant-hill, just to strike an ant.
Don't believe me? Look up "the great lighthouse".
Osaka's comprehensive hacker toolkit said:
- Some remote machines: really heavy metal (ideally someone elses, like a university) for that extra (deniable) punch
- Sharp knife with a blunt tip so it doesn't stick in someone's ribs while the other guy mows you down
- A good pair of sunglasses (a lack of eye-contact can lend you an air of indifference or superiority)
- The skill to improvise when you don't have anything on this list: This is all for convenience
- Decent deck (an armored laptop on steroids with no screen, volumetrics and neural links)
- Good neural bracket or collar, one that's hardy, high bandwidth and works when wet
- Custom eyes. Thermal is good, especially if you're throwing around smoke-grenades.
- Lightweight portable bullpup hi-mag capacity SMG carbine hybrid full of stun-rounds
- Reliable revolver, filled with custom rounds (flashbang, ECM, smoke, sonic, flare)
- Good toolkit of wire cutters, crimpers, adaptors, soldering gear and ductape
- None of this gear should be stock. Stock isn't good enough for you, kiddo!
- A keychain of card-keys: just the stubs, each a custom door cracker.
- The gorm to lie to someone's face and believe your own words
- Cybernetically tuned adrenaline gland. You need stable hands.
- A custom farraday coated armored backpack. Fuck scanners
- Discreet knee and elbow-pads, ankle and knuckle protection
- knowledge of lock-picking. Not all doors are smart doors.
- Dependence: If someone needs you, they'll help you
- An armored skull. Your brain is your greatest asset.
- Few 1:1 quantum modems. The ultra-portable kind.
- Friend sat grilling the books, keeping you informed.
- A custom heart, so you can keep your BP down
- Pillbook of cognitive enhancers and painkillers.
- Few bank-cards with accounts you can deny.
- Surgically reduced amygdala. Fuck fear.
- A good medikit with lots of morphine.
- Good legal skills or a great lawyer
- A farrady skinnysuit. Fuck tazers
- Superglue. Cover your blisters.
- A wicked encryption scheme.
- A good psionic scrambler
- Experience freerunning
- Friends in high places
- Situational Awareness
- Friends in low places
- Plausible deniability
- Good running shoes
- Epic cell reception
- Great acting skills
- an exit strategy
- A reliable dealer
- A distraction
- Social Skills
- Sharp eyes
- Bail money
- Intuition
- A prayer
- A dream
- An alibi
- A plan
- Guts
- Luck
I doubt you'll have much from the list. And that you'll never have the full list. But aspire. These are the things you should be aiming for.
Remember: If you're a hacker worth shit, you're a threat to the system.
That makes you a second-class citizen in the eyes of the law.
Trust noone.
