Arken Lussk
Thrills, Chills, and Kills
WannaFly
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create malicious logic for both amusement and monetary gain.
- Image Source: Googled "Sad Boy"
- Canon Link: N/A
- Restricted Missions: N/A
- Primary Source:
Ransomware - Computer Worm
- Navcomputer Virus
- Shadowfeed
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
- Manufacturer: Arken Lussk
- Model: WannaFly v1
- Affiliation: The Sad Boys (Arken Lussk and V1CT0R)
- Modularity: Algorithms can be altered to reflect current information security defenses.
- Production: Mass Produced
- Material: Computer code, Forb Basic
- Propagation - WannaFly is spread through communications through a sector when in realspace. Responding to distress beacons, communicating with sector port authorities, and other unsecured realspace communications are susceptible to transmitting a copy of WannaFly.
- Double Threat - WannaFly is unique malware capable of overriding a pilot's access to their navicomputer. This can affect any vessel infected with WannaCry, be it a super star destroyer or just a simple tramp freighter. WannaFly works not only by taking control from the pilot and altering the navicomputer's administrative rights, it also forces the starship to send out a distress beacon. Something along the lines of: "This is [insertvesselname], I'm having engine problems and need a hand. Any assistance in reaching the nearest starport will be handsomely rewarded." Very enticing pirate bait.
- Search History - Transmitting through the Shadowfeed, once a vessel is infected by WannaFly, all of a ship's navigational history is sent to the Sad Boys. What do they do with this information? The galaxy may never know.
- Pay Up - As ransomware, the virus offers the pilot or navicomputer operator a chance to regain control of their ship so long as they pay a nominal fee through the Shadowfeed. Prices can range from several hundred credits to several thousand.
- [+] Zero Day: It's a zero day threat. Most anti-virus programs and other security suites have yet to see what the Sad Boys have in store for them. Run of the mill software suites and protective measures will probably fail to detect and quarantine WannaFly. However, this will most definitely change with time.
- [+] Double Trouble: Besides shutting down the navicomputer and restricting administrative access, WannaFly also begins to continuously emit a realistic distress beacon alerting all vessels within the sector of their predicament.
- [+] Fat Stacks: Most pilots want to get out of a sector after broadcasting such an asinine distress beacon. Many of them will opt to pay for their navicomputer back, leading to financial gain for the Sad Boys.
- [-] Backup: Pilots who fly with astromech droids or navicomputers that aren't linked to a vessel's primary support systems can ease their way out of WannaFly's reaches. Astromechs provide navicomputer capability all on their own, whilst a secondary navicomputer without connection will be capable of getting a spacer out of harm's way before
- [-] Decryption: Starships with powerful enough decryption engines and about half an hour on hand will most likely be able to crack the encryption algorithms that have beset the navicomputer. Once doing this, resetting the administrative password and rebooting the navicomputer itself will see it free of infection.
- [-] Propagation: Sometimes, unsecured comms aren't used by many spacers. Long distance and secure realspace communications are entirely free of WannaFly, which allows spacers a chance to call for help on their own.
DESCRIPTION
When a young boy and his mechanical sidekick get bored, this is the result of many, many late nights spent in front of a computer with instant noodles and copious amounts of caffeine. WannaFly is the brainchild of Arken Lussk and V1CT0R, his respectable and oh-so snarky security droid. Their motivation behind this pet project of theirs stems from nothing more than pure amusement and the chance to earn a few credits from dim-witted space jockeys.
WannaFly at its core is a navicomputer virus. It spreads through unsecure communication lines (or plaintext signals) in realspace. This can occur when opening a channel to respond to a distress beacon, hailing a port authority official, or even when just broadcasting your voice into the seemingly emptiness of space.
This malicious logic works then works its way into a vessel's primary systems, journeying far and wide until it reaches the navicomputer. Here, it can remain dormant for up to a week. Typical triggers of WannaCry often occur when flying into uncharted territory or sparsely populated sectors of space, where pirates lurk. Upon activation, WannaFly completely shuts down all routines of a navicomputer thus rendering a vessel immobile and incapable of both sublight and hyperspace travel.
The second stage of WannaFly is activating the distress beacon of said vessel and broadcasting a message along these lines: "This is [insertvesselname], I'm having engine problems and need a hand. Any assistance in reaching the nearest starport will be handsomely rewarded." To some, this is simply an annoyance, but most grizzled spacers now that this is perfect bait for a pirate lurking behind the stars.
For pilots wanting an easy way out, there exists an opportunity to pay a monetary fine to regain functionality of their navcomputer. When accessing the computer itself, a screen bearing the sigil of the Sad Boys appears and offers the pilot a chance to send payment via the Shadowfeed to the Sad Boys. This fine can range from several hundred credits to several thousand but it varies randomly. Once this secure and largely untraceable payment is made, functionality is restored and WannaFly deletes all instances of itself from the vessel.
However, before that happens, WannaFly also sends flight and navigational data to the Sad Boys through the Shadowfeed as well. Typical spacers won't notice this but if they have a security expert on board, sifting through the flight logs is enough to detect their modification. There is much speculation as to what the Sad Boys do with this data, and why they want it.
It is not impossible to thwart WannaFly. Simply only using secure communications is the easiest possible way to do so and entirely negates the possibility of infection. Secondly, pilots and spacers with astromech droids on hand can use them and their astrogation buffers to safely get out of their predicament and into safe shores. If WannaFly detects spatial travel when the primary computer is locked down, it deletes itself an all instances of itself as to ensure detection is minimal. And lastly, strong enough decryption engines and about half an hour of time can crack the encryption on the infected navcomputer. Once this is completed, simply restoring administrative rights and rebooting the system will clear the malware from the system.
(OOC Note: WannaFly is not meant to be a serious or absurdly devastating navcomputer virus. It's more so meant to be an ample background for the old "stuck in space" trope or even to add a little flavor to the galaxy's current state of affairs. If roleplayers use WannaFly in several threads or even do a thread analyzing it, I will make a submission modification removing the Zero Day strength - provided they notify me, of course.)
