The Watch Dogs 2 video game comes to stores today, an adventure born from the same family as the story of Assassin's Creed that will soon reach theaters.The difference between one and the other is that, instead of speaking over the past, the new game focuses on our near future, one in which corporations control the Internet of things to mold us and hackers fight against that power.
You, in the shoes of Marcus Holloway, are part of that latter group, a legion of hacktivists who use their hacking tools to make their way between corporations, control vehicles and drones remotely, steal other people's accounts for their own benefit and create blackouts throughout a city to escape the police.The question is: if we talk about the near future, what about fiction and reality in all that? How far does the power of a hacker go?
To do this, we will do something very simple: pick up a regular mission of the game and move forward in its plot as we discover what and what a hacker cannot do today .Soon we will discover that, although there are " buts " in everything that is presented in this fiction, we are very close to a reality that raises more than one concern.
A hacker's day in Watch Dogs 2
To end a corporation that is taking advantage of user data to modify the walls of a well-known social network, seeking to change the voting intention of an entire country, Marcus must enter it overcoming its security systems and escape from there without being seen.The first thing you do to control the area and see if there is armed security inside or outside is:
Hack security cameras
True
As you may know, almost all current security cameras are sold with a particular feature: they offer the possibility of controlling what is happening in our house from a distance, either because a alarm or simply because we want to see if the dog is tearing us apart on the sofa.
Last August the alarm on this subject was raised when it was discovered that the Live Camera Viewer application was showing security cameras from around the world whose owners had not changed the default access password.You could see the room of two Houston twins, who urged someone to post it on Facebook to alert parents and thereby uncover the cake.
We continue with the adventure and, after checking that there is no danger of being seen, Marcus must enter the building using a security code.There is no surveillance at the door because the card scanner already fulfills its mission of keeping out the intruders, so the hacker modifies his phone to turn it into a key that opens the door.
Cheat on security doors
True
The head of Poland's computer emergency system, Przemek Jaroszewski, showed a year ago that he could access different VIP lounges at the airport with something as simple as creating a fake QR code from his phone.He claimed that it only took 10 seconds to mount the dwarf and that there was no security at the doors, the only thing he had to cheat was the security system.
Marcus continues on his way and hides from the employees that he starts to cross, however one appears that he cannot overcome and has to find a way to get rid of him.To do this he accesses his phone and makes him vibrate , thus creating a distraction that allows you to pass without being seen.
Access third-party phones
True
Not only hackers can access your phone to wake up certain functions such as vibration; in fact, they can even use that engine to monitor conversations.Last June the University of Illinois published a study detailing how the vibration motor of a phone could be used to listen to conversations thanks to the magnetic field it generated and how the air vibrations affected it.
The next room is a bit more complicated, it is full of enemies and you have to find an efficient way to end each of them little by little.The simplest thing in this case is to take advantage of the systems in the area to create traps. Overloading electrical systems , gas pipes or any other device can create a distraction.
Overload home systems
True
In an experiment promoted by Pen Test Partners, it was shown that intelligent thermostat systems could become infected with malware to reach desired temperatures, creating unbearable heat or cold without users being able to regain control of the device.show that internet security of things often left a lot to be desired.
Marcus manages to reach the central computer and steals the data he needed, discovering that the perverse mind behind it deserves a warning.To do so, he intends to attempt against his life by manipulating a medical device to which he is connected.
Hacking medical devices
True
Although with reservations, it has been shown that some systems enjoy very little security despite being connected to the internet for remote assistance.Johnson&Johnson alerted their patients last year about a security breach through which someone could get to access an insulin pump to control the flow that was given to the patient.
With the work already done, the following is to escape from the area without being seen, so to do so disable the building's lights and, creating a distraction, prevents someone from seeing their escape or being able to alert authorities.
Create blackouts in a building
True
The University of Dalhouise and the Institute of Science of Israel recently demonstrated that a virus could be created that spread by itself through smart bulbs to turn them off or create flickers by turning them on and off continuously until overloading the power grid .
The following is to find a car , open it without turning on your alarm so as not to alert anyone and drive it to a safe location where the mission will be terminated and the player can turn off the console and go back to your daily chores.
Control a vehicle remotely
Lie
Although it was an issue that exploded months ago by demonstrating that vehicles could be controlled remotely to access not only their air conditioning or radio system, also at the wheel or the pedals , the truth is that after that there are years of study with a specific car and it has not been shown that anyone can access an outside vehicle to control it.
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