Most "computers" in Trav would be some type of appliance. Like the ones available to passengers on a ship. Dumb terminal with locked down programs. Wouldn't even be tied into the ship's real computer system.
Interesting article on the problems with passwords
- Thread starter aramis
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Most "computers" in Trav would be some type of appliance. Like the ones available to passengers on a ship. Dumb terminal with locked down programs. Wouldn't even be tied into the ship's real computer system.
Real Life and Traveller:
Portable systems (laptops, tablets, etc) should be set up so the whole thing is encrypted and cannot be used at all without pass-phrase. One reason for my current preference for a cheap and lightweight laptop rather than a tablet is that I can encrypt my whole hard drive so that without the pass-phrase, anyone who steals it has only an unreadable brick.
A trusting person might then allow the laptop to remember passwords for email or various sites, since no one can get to that info without the master password to access the hard drive - but I still prefer to secure anything important w different pass-phrases.
If you aren't willing to secure something, you shouldn't keep anything important on it. i don't want to bother with a password on my phone, so I dont keep anything on my phone except phone numbers and calendar. If I were a spy or high exec I suppose that might be classified info, but for me it isn't. But stealing my phone won't let anyone into my email or bank or anything like that.
I think that the same principles ought to apply in-game as well, depending on the character of the person involved. Some are going to be careful, some are going to be forced into carefulness by the organization they work for, some are going to stupidly circumvent the protections that their organization tries to put in place. With one Sternmetal exec, stealing his phone or laptop might get you into everything he has; with a different guy, it might get you an unusable brick.
I agree that a properly setup ship's computer system ought to have totally separate systems for crew and passengers.
For communications in-game, I figure with the increase in wireless gadgetry all trying to get network access, eventually the configuration is going to have to change to avoid bandwidth crowding problems. All of the phones, datapads, etc will have very short range bluetooth-type encrypted connections to some nearby device that in turn connects to a higher-level device that in turn connects to the local (ship/station/national/planetary) internet.
For example, say ship crew all have personal phones and/or datapads that connect to the ship's comm system. When they dock at a port, one of the first things the ship's commo guy does (probably as part of renting a bay or whatever) is arrange a connection for the ship's comm to talk to the port comm. As long as crew are near the ship, that is their connection into the local network. If they leave the ship in a vehicle, their personal stuff connects to the vehicle's comm, which has range to connect back to the ship, which connects to the port, which connects to the local network. If not using a vehicle, they can carry some variety of communicator device as are listed all the various equipment lists, and that is their connections back to the ship, etc. There may also be some equivalent of open wifi scattered around as a public service - which should of course be treated the way we would treat a public wifi nowdays.
That reminds me of encrypted communications. I think this will always be an escalating contest between computing power (and TL) of the encryption system versus the system trying to decrypt. I expect that most of the time the ship's crew (and most other people) can walk around using their personal comms w the assumption that their conversations will be private due to encrypted signal, unless they are the target of someone with a better system who is expressly targeting them and trying to intercept and decrypt.
Law Level (or Control Rating for GT) may also come into it. I expect that places w high LL or CR may outlaw encryption that the government can't easily break. In some places law enforcers may be required to follow some sort of warrant approval process before listening in, in other places it may just be routine.
Portable systems (laptops, tablets, etc) should be set up so the whole thing is encrypted and cannot be used at all without pass-phrase. One reason for my current preference for a cheap and lightweight laptop rather than a tablet is that I can encrypt my whole hard drive so that without the pass-phrase, anyone who steals it has only an unreadable brick.
A trusting person might then allow the laptop to remember passwords for email or various sites, since no one can get to that info without the master password to access the hard drive - but I still prefer to secure anything important w different pass-phrases.
If you aren't willing to secure something, you shouldn't keep anything important on it. i don't want to bother with a password on my phone, so I dont keep anything on my phone except phone numbers and calendar. If I were a spy or high exec I suppose that might be classified info, but for me it isn't. But stealing my phone won't let anyone into my email or bank or anything like that.
I think that the same principles ought to apply in-game as well, depending on the character of the person involved. Some are going to be careful, some are going to be forced into carefulness by the organization they work for, some are going to stupidly circumvent the protections that their organization tries to put in place. With one Sternmetal exec, stealing his phone or laptop might get you into everything he has; with a different guy, it might get you an unusable brick.
I agree that a properly setup ship's computer system ought to have totally separate systems for crew and passengers.
For communications in-game, I figure with the increase in wireless gadgetry all trying to get network access, eventually the configuration is going to have to change to avoid bandwidth crowding problems. All of the phones, datapads, etc will have very short range bluetooth-type encrypted connections to some nearby device that in turn connects to a higher-level device that in turn connects to the local (ship/station/national/planetary) internet.
For example, say ship crew all have personal phones and/or datapads that connect to the ship's comm system. When they dock at a port, one of the first things the ship's commo guy does (probably as part of renting a bay or whatever) is arrange a connection for the ship's comm to talk to the port comm. As long as crew are near the ship, that is their connection into the local network. If they leave the ship in a vehicle, their personal stuff connects to the vehicle's comm, which has range to connect back to the ship, which connects to the port, which connects to the local network. If not using a vehicle, they can carry some variety of communicator device as are listed all the various equipment lists, and that is their connections back to the ship, etc. There may also be some equivalent of open wifi scattered around as a public service - which should of course be treated the way we would treat a public wifi nowdays.
That reminds me of encrypted communications. I think this will always be an escalating contest between computing power (and TL) of the encryption system versus the system trying to decrypt. I expect that most of the time the ship's crew (and most other people) can walk around using their personal comms w the assumption that their conversations will be private due to encrypted signal, unless they are the target of someone with a better system who is expressly targeting them and trying to intercept and decrypt.
Law Level (or Control Rating for GT) may also come into it. I expect that places w high LL or CR may outlaw encryption that the government can't easily break. In some places law enforcers may be required to follow some sort of warrant approval process before listening in, in other places it may just be routine.
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