unforum

[sledgecallier]

I'm guessing that would be a fair assumption as an author only generally gets to write one seminal work on a subject?

[tanner]

so who is this tanner guy anyway?

[Leeravitz]

Oh, yeah. Now I'm looking at the article while I'm awake, everyone has been quite right to point out the security analysis was leaked in 267. That does, indeed, seem to indicate that it was compiled purely for internal purposes originally, and what happened was that, in the wake of controversy over the Cube theft, someone leaked it to the Sentinel. The questions then would be:

1. How long before the theft was the analysis drawn up?
2. Who asked for the analysis to be undertaken?
3. Was this information accessible to potential thieves?

But also:

1. Who leaked the story to the Sentinel?
2. What were they after - a sizable paycheck, or to discredit Academy security further for some reason?

Ahgggh! Far more questions than answers there for my liking!

[Atrophied]

[Leeravitz]

Hmmm. Okay. I suppose if we pare this down, what we may then conclude is:

1. The assessment of security defence was carried out some time *prior* to the Cube theft.

2. The basic information on potential weaknesses in the system was given out to members of the faculty as a matter of course.

3. This became seen as being more relevant in the wake of the actual theft, and somebody saw fit to leak the information.

4. Nonetheless, the hypothesis that this was how the Cube was stolen remains just that - the report contained suggestions and guidelines for the 'possibility' of a security breach. Perhaps the theives intercepted the data, and gained some ideas, perhaps they orchestrated the theft in a different manner.

[leakingpen]

antiquated heat sensors? okay, as someone whos dealt with them. early ones were merely ir cameras that saw changes in heat as bright spots and that set off the alarm. later ones were designed to be able to seperate out body heat from surrounding heat (if the air was withing 2 degrees of the person, they were invisible.) these fell prey to a good old fashioned ir laser, thus making everything seem hotter, and making a colder spot invisble. they are now designing them to detect changes in temp in EITHER direction. beyond that? i dunno.

[Macavity]

Like using a laser pointer to fry a surveillance camera. (I refuse to call them 'security' cameras, because they don't make me feel secure - whenever I'm in view of one, it feels like someone's staring at me, which is rather unsettling.)

[brat-sampson]

Don't forget this report only suggests how four people could possible break in. It doesn't neccessarily mean that four people did break in in this way. It could have been more or it could have been done differently.

[wintermute_au]

as regards the timing of the report, have to point out the following quote:

[Leeravitz]

If that was the case, it would return to my original hypothesis, then...

Fruitless speculation for the moment, perhaps...

But I would agree - it sounds, from the article, more likely that Tanner would have conducted the analysis *after* the event. I also hypothesise that this makes the leak more understandable - perhaps rather than being overly secretive, the analysis was conducted with some publicity, maybe even ordered by the Academy to aid the police in their investigation in the wake of the theft. If the reports of what was being found out were circulating widely in Academy circles, then it would not have taken much for someone to give out some basic details to the Sentinel. That these details were offered at what would have been the height of the crisis in the wake of the Cube theft would have been all the more encouragement to the informer, I should imagine. Perhaps it was even a misguided attempt to demonstrate that the Academy was 'on the case' (a kind of 'damage limitation exercise'), in the same way that Sente was clearly relieved to reveal that the Cube had gone to earth, when he found out. A lot of Perplexians were up in arms about this, but it at least gave him the option of saying that he could now do something practical to retrieve the cube, and, hopefully, bring the thieves to justice...