SLOT Virus

[ShroudedSciuridae]

Was anything outside WoR revealed for the SLOT Virus?

There's so many similarities between it and the Blackout it's either linked or an intentional red herring. And the name, "SL.10.T.RWR32.000.82v.2" really makes it seem like this was a Star League era weapon either intended for or wielded by the Rim Worlds Republic. Computer viruses affecting WarShips is nothing new for that era either, see The Theseus Knot.

[Alan Grant]

I don't believe canon sources has elaborated on it. I don't think it's the same thing either. It took Clan technicians 6 months to come up with an antivirus program for the SLOT, and then once deployed, it would take a month to remove the worm from a specific HPG and all its tied in remote nodes or network subsystems. Ultimately the SLOT virus was eliminated from almost every effected HPG.

The point being, as disruptive as it was, a solution was found inside of a year. Which seems to be a very different situation than the Blackout, which is really an ongoing problem that years upon years of work have not been able to resolve. This "Clarion Call" seems to be a different animal.

Info on the Blackout is kinda scattered about various books, but Sarna has a decent page on it, consolidating everything into one source. It's pretty clear that the Blackout is far more complex than just a computer virus. Even newly build HPG cores were burned out, which is a very different pattern than SLOT. The problem has vexed both Clan and Inner Sphere experts for years.

The code designation does seem to hint at a Star League era origin for SLOT. Not just "SL" but also "RWR" is just too coincidental. You aren't the first person to call attention to that. It's been a standing theory for SLOT among BT fans for a while. But we just don't know anything more officially as far as I know. Even if it does have a Star League origin, you are left wondering what the original code was designed to do. It might have had a very different function or purpose, with just this version of it being turned into a worm virus by Clan scientists.

[Metallgewitter]

Tucker Harvell had a possible solution when he calibrated the new HPG core for the Wyatt HPG which was adjusting the power for the sudden data spikes that fried so many other cores. Funny enough he took the solution from Comstar Acolyte songs which were in essence work instructions enhanced with church music (or rather serene music) Though apparently this solution could not be replicated. Not sure, if even the Wyatt HPG is still running.

Other then that there was a mention in either the Final reckoning or Hotspot Terra book that mentioned a weaponized HPG which was first developed by the League and then restarted by the Word of Blake but this research was abandoned again by the Word as it seemed to have been too expensive and complex. Might have been something similar to the SLOT virus.

[ShroudedSciuridae]

If SLOT originated with the Star League, there's a decent chance copies left on the Exodus and remained behind with ComStar. Parallel development could have occurred. SLOT left Inner Sphere systems alone because it was programmed to activate only in systems it found Clan encryption codes; HPGs and Jump/WarShips.

Meanwhile the Inner Sphere copy could have been worked on by CS/WoB, it was certainly known to RotS. Before his smothering Stone confirmed he knew about it, but claimed intelligence that it was deep cover WoB who pulled the trigger.

Or, SLOT hit IS HPGs but never activated because of the lack of encryption, it was then found by WoB, refined, and became their failsafe we know as Clarion Call.

It's on my improbably long list of things I hope IlKhan's Eyes Only will address.

[Gaiiten]

Maybe SLOT was a simple computer virus?
I do not believe that the Clans have had many problems with computer virus, it does not fit to their society. Many crimes common in the Inner Sphere were much unheard among the clans. When confronted with these they were somewhat at a loss.

And if they have not have problems with computer virus, they were quite unprepared for this. No Virus scanners and firewalls capable to stop the spreading.

Nevertheless they were quite capable to adapt.

[Metallgewitter]

WoR make it sound as if the warriors simply do not care about some parts of their toumna as long as it runs. I think it reads as "HPG's on board of Warships are the least understood by the warriors and therefore made perfect targets for the virus which was transmitted by HPG." And I would also assume that only contact with the IS gave the Clans  a taste of "new crimes".- I think I read somewhere that the society actually began to adopt ideas captured IS scientists brought into the mix in terms of subterfuge and sabotage (or tactics as Is scientists would call them)

[Alan Grant]

WoR page 114 says that HPGs are actually very difficult to crack and have multiple layers of security to prevent something like the SLOT virus from working.

The problem is that the Falcons by the time of the introduction of the SLOT virus (it originated in Falcon space) had a standing annihilation order, which by the time of SLOT had already seen the deaths of most of the Falcons' top HPG and software scientists. (WoR page 114 makes this very clear)

SLOT took down 95% of the Falcon HPG network. The Wolves lost 57% and the other Inner Sphere Clans less than that.

In March of 3073 the Falcons acquired some Wolf scientists, who were put to task to the problem and had solved it by June.

So the Falcons' destroyed their own software expertise by killing everybody, wrecking their own ability to fight back against something like the SLOT virus. A problem echoed to varying degrees by the other Clans. It turns out when you are fighting a kind of war against scientists, software scientists, geneticists and so on... you need...well scientists.. to counter effectively. A medium laser doesn't fight a computer virus or a genetically tailored virus designed to kill Trueborns of a specific bloodline.

WoR directly tells us that at least some of the Clans made these problems triggered by Etienne and the Society worse by adopting a "kill them all" attitude in regard to the scientist caste and even members of other castes who might be involved. They killed a lot of the very people they would have needed to prevent the SLOT virus from becoming the big deal that it became.

To be fair to those Clans, figuring out who was trustworthy would have been tough, a real Catch-22, and I'm sure they were under tremendous pressure to act quickly and decisively. But instead of killing them all, they might have been better off capturing them, locking them up, and then beginning many months of interrogation and investigation to figure out who the guilty actually were. Rather than just mowing everybody down.

Even as I say that, I can see the Falcons regarding that as a mistake. They had already let Etienne live. Believing they could monitor him and keep him on a tight leash. WoR page 103 is basically an apology leader from Khan Marthe Pryde admitting that letting Etienne live proved to be a mistake and the rest of the letter informs saKhan Clees that most of the scientists will now be killed. So Marthe Pryde regarded letting Etienne live for as long as he did as a mistake, and she pivoted hard toward the annihilation order. She even acknowledges that it will hurt the Clan's scientific expertise, but she feels like she has no choice.

[Gaiiten]

The slot virus was a case wherein the admins put the virus to work.

[Alan Grant]

The slot virus was a case wherein the admins put the virus to work.

Yeah actually, that's an important point. Imagine how much damage can happen when your own admin and cyber security people are the ones launching the cyberattack.

[GhostBear]

Was anything outside WoR revealed for the SLOT Virus?

There's so many similarities between it and the Blackout it's either linked or an intentional red herring. And the name, "SL.10.T.RWR32.000.82v.2" really makes it seem like this was a Star League era weapon either intended for or wielded by the Rim Worlds Republic. Computer viruses affecting WarShips is nothing new for that era either, see The Theseus Knot.

Back when that was written, it was set as a plot seed for the future 3250 setting that was being created. Long story short, that tech would've returned back to the Sphere sometime after the ilClan was propped up, to help reconstruct the downed HPG network, through reverse engineering. We were setting up Society>>WOB connections for 3250 plot points. Basically, I was setting up a long game plot thread.

Then stuff happened, so now it's just another mystery.

[VanVelding]

But instead of killing them all, they might have been better off capturing them, locking them up, and then beginning many months of interrogation and investigation to figure out who the guilty actually were. Rather than just mowing everybody down.

I don't take it as absolute, but my impression from Lethal Heritage was that chemical interrogation in the 31st Century--as least among the Clans--was pretty solid science. IIRC, it was so simple even a warrior could use it. Of course, not everything from the books is absolute and there's no guarantee Phelan wasn't an outlier.

At this point, I assumed the Blackout was a multi-spectrum issue. The real technical ****** is having two (or more) adapting issues simultaneously. Decent technical knowledge would eventually assume hyperspace itself was somehow screwed or there was malicious code in the HPG software. But with overlapping issues--hyperspace irregularities, viruses with differing codes bases and origins--finding the correct result would be far more difficult.

You could theorize about a correct point of failure, treat it, test it, and get a failed result, indicating it wasn't a correct point of failure. In fact, you were correct, but the test of a good solution failed because a second issue was still present. Two or three or four interruptions of various severities, combined differently for each endpoint, and updated by malicious actors would be a satisfying explanation for the Blackout.

It's also, to me, consistent with the multi-modal attacks recorded on Gray Monday.

In that case, the SLOT virus and/or its WoB-cousin derived from the same SL code would almost have to be involved.

[Gaiiten]

Back when that was written, it was set as a plot seed for the future 3250 setting that was being created. Long story short, that tech would've returned back to the Sphere sometime after the ilClan was propped up, to help reconstruct the downed HPG network, through reverse engineering. We were setting up Society>>WOB connections for 3250 plot points. Basically, I was setting up a long game plot thread.

Then stuff happened, so now it's just another mystery.

So it is a dead end now, only a time part of the WoR.

BTW welcome back Mr. Rome .

[Alan Grant]

Back when that was written, it was set as a plot seed for the future 3250 setting that was being created. Long story short, that tech would've returned back to the Sphere sometime after the ilClan was propped up, to help reconstruct the downed HPG network, through reverse engineering. We were setting up Society>>WOB connections for 3250 plot points. Basically, I was setting up a long game plot thread.

Then stuff happened, so now it's just another mystery.

Oh wow, ok. It's very interesting to catch some of the behind-the-scenes development. Thanks for sharing.

[Shin_Fenris]

Then stuff happened, so now it's just another mystery.

That sums up so many plot threads in BattleTech.