Hacker Evolution Game

[Gundenia Ransbottom]

HackerEvolution and its sequel, Hacker Evolution: Untold, are hacking games by exosyphen studios, released in 2007 and 2008 for PC. They are a Spiritual Successor to Uplink except with less of a Wide-Open Sandbox and more of a tighter focus on storytelling. The second game is notable for having customizable map pictures for each mission, so that the game can simulate hacking individual devices in a single building and what not.

This game series provides examples of the following tropes: A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The main plot of both games. Disproportionate Retribution: In Hacker Evolution: Untold, John kills Brian's family just because of a bit of hacking! Drought Level of Doom: Operation Electrosphere, included with the Steam version of Hacker Evolution, gives a large cash sum of $50000. The following three final levels have no money, and a minimum of one third of the lump sum needs to be spent for removing your trace. Dynamic Difficulty: An option enables the dynamic difficulty factor in the game. Although one manual included with the game says it's not clear what it does, it multiplies the bit-length of decryption keys. The dynamic difficulty is calculated based on upgraded hardware, which has a flaw when you upgrade your stock system to have a class 2 firewall (increasing dynamic difficulty), then upgrade by adding a 1 Ghz CPU (reducing dynamic difficulty to default). EMP: A satellite hacking tool in Duality, which simply damages a target's firewall and integrity. It has a minigame which requires the satellite to point in the right direction. Fighting a Shadow: John Davis in the first game is actually a decoy for Xenti's AI Gone Horribly Right: In Hacker Evolution: Untold, Xenti's AI was originally supposed to be an automatic marketing tool. It starts killing people who are resistant to marketing. Hacking Minigame: Duality requires clicking on a set of numbers, from 63 down to 0 - but highlights the number if you take some time. Hollywood Hacking: The first games have the user type in commands for automated cracking. Duality seems to prefer visual hacking display. Instant-Win Condition: Completing all objectives advances you to the next level after a 15 second delay, even if you still have tasks you want to perform (e.g. transfer money from remote servers.) The sequel instead allows you to continue the hacking session for 10 minutes, which is more than enough time to finalize other tasks. It's Personal: John in the second game Kick the Dog: John in the second game Password Slot Machine: While the decoding process is not shown on-screen, it behaves as if characters/bits are decoded one at a time. Piecemeal Funds Transfer: Money transfers in this game are done in single blocks. However, larger amounts of money take longer to transfer as if the trope was in effect, and therefore puts a limit on how much can be transferred at once. In Untold, the car-chase level involves hacking the ATM for money. The tutorial instructs the player to transfer $1000 in consecutive transfers rather than doing it all at once. Duality has the money transferred in a normal piecemeal fashion, although the entire amount must be transferred. Phone-Trace Race: Computer hacker variant. While attempting to crack passwords, decrypt keys or obtain money, the task needs to be done within a time. You can extend the time using server bounces or getting a firewall. Failing the trace gives a major penalty to the trace meter, although success still causes a slight increase. In case of Duality, the trace timer counts down while you have a given server selected rather than just cracking it. However, the trace level only goes up gradually rather than a large penalty at once. The Singularity: The plot of the second game. Temporal Paradox: The first game involves informational time travel. The player character, Brian, is supporting Xenti's AI from the future, basically fighting himself. Timed Mission: Only the first two missions in Duality are explicitly timed (including the tutorial). There are also rival AI hackers that attempt to attack the player, providing a flexible time limit as well. Tutorial Failure: The tutorial does a good job at explaining game mechanics, but has to be done more than once: it guides you towards a 50% trace penalty for being detected, which is a serious penalty that gets carried to non-tutorial levels. It can be corrected by spending $2500, but it's better to exploit prior knowledge to optimize the result. In case of Duality, the firewall hacking window incorrectly states clicking "logout" prevents being traced. Instead, the player should select localhost or press space. The tutorial message shown beforehand gives the correct instruction. Sequence Breaking: Knowing the name of a server allows you to access them out of order. Unwinnable by Design: While there's more than enough money available, it's possible to enter a state where you don't have enough money to proceed with the next objective. The developers intended the unwinnable state to remain within just one mission, by requiring a trace level below a given threshold at certain chapters.

Sure, he liked mischief. He edited files to cheat at video games and remotely dialed into Austin radio towers with a modem, flickering their lights on and off. Perhaps the dumbest thing he ever did, he says, was once temporarily shut down the entire power system at a K-Mart store in North Austin to prank a friend.

The global cybersecurity market, valued at $77 billion last year, is expected to more than double in the next five years, according to industry research firm Gartner Inc. Businesses and government entities are feeling the pressure to secure their systems, racing against criminals who evolve quickly in the ways they pursue money, intellectual property and personal information.

This week, as hundreds of hackers and cybersecurity experts descend upon Austin for the annual SXSW Interactive conference, Moore is making connections and planning to serve as an adviser for a new tech incubator, which is still in the formation stage.

But Moore wanted to learn everything he could. Each day before dawn, he trekked the 2 miles to his elementary school, sneaked into the computer lab through a window and played on the bulky, black-and-white Apples IIs before it was time to drag himself to class.

At neighborhood libraries, he checked out books and manuals to study how computers worked. By the time he reached Gonzalo, an alternative high school in East Austin, he had assembled his own 486-DX computer with parts he dug out of trash bins.

But it was his side project that would revolutionize hacking. He was weeks from turning 23 when he created Metasploit, an open-source hacking tool that allows anyone working in IT to find, fix and test thousands of security breaches.

Some criticized Moore for it, saying he had given people with malicious intent a handbook to start trouble. But hackers working in IT and cybersecurity say the bad guys were already using all those tools and more in the dark web.

Through his work at Rapid7, Moore found that anyone could attack natural gas pipelines in Texas from a cell phone, as their flow rates were connected on a public network via modems. He worked with the Texas Railroad Commission to put pipeline operators on alert and fix the issue.

Talos, a threat research group in Austin where Moore has close friends, just last year thwarted one small group of international hackers who were using such a kit to target up to 90,000 victims a day, generating more than $30 million annually, researchers said.

Many breaches go unreported. But one study found more than 75 percent of U.S. businesses could be hacked within 15 minutes. Another survey, released by the business adviser Granton Thorton, put the total cost of attacks on businesses in 2015 at $350 billion globally.

At Mr. Tramps in North Austin, at least two dozen members of the Austin Hackers Association get together once a month in a back room shut away from the bar noise and commotion by a thick, sliding wooden panel. Experts from all areas of the cybsercurity industry give presentations projected on the walls that range from hacking and exploits to the newest technology and research.

In Austin, where top international cybersecurity firms like Rapid7, Cisco, Endgame Systems and Praetorian now have a presence, many credit Moore and Metasploit for helping foster a close-knit hacker community. Like him, many in the business started out hacking video games and do not have a college degree.

Now in an advisory role, Moore says he and his business partners want to serve people they know well and who do expert cybsercurity work in town. The incubator is still taking shape, but he said he wants to help get startups get off the ground.

Hacker Evolution series follows the escapades of Brian Spencer, an IT expert whose research into artificial intelligence has world-threatening consequences. As pseudohacking games, the series simulates various hacker activities such as breaking into computers by exploiting security weaknesses.

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