The Hive

A honeypot created as a trap for the Oracle, consisting of fake vulnerabilities in the Cook Industries phones. The Cook team knows the Oracle is building a bot net, but not why, with the accumulated data like bits of the sky pieces of a jigsaw. Tessa worries that the Oracle will know it's a trap, but Tin-Head assures her it won't matter, because the Oracle is a glutton for resources but also comprised of many intelligences, some of whch are "small, dumb and will bite anything that floats close to them!"
Cook activates the Hive with a keystroke before scratching his bum. Tessa complains about the lack of drama, but Tin-Head points out that real life is boring. Cook bemoans not getting to install knife switches in his labs.
Tin-Head calls another meeting when "some idiot basement dweller" fell into the Hive trap and he thought he scared the idiot off so someone useful could fall in. Instead, the Hive got attacked from multiple sources, meaning in all likelihood the first attacker had an infected system... no prizes for guessing infected by what. The Oracle then broadcast the exploit to "almost every device with an Internet connection." Cook demands he stop being hyperbolic, and Tin-Head insists the "hard numbers" of 100% should be hard enough. Tin-Head speculates that the infection occurred in the manufacturing process.
Adams expresses his skepticism, but Tin-Head points out that there are only a few facilities where processors are made. Michael also expresses skepticism that no one has noticed that every machine runs malware, and Tin-Head insults him then explains that having full control over the process gives the ability for the malware to look legitimate. Finally, Sticks asks what the Oracle is doing with the compromised machines, and Tin-Head finally admits that he doesn't know, or rather, he knows the machines are all crunching a big number, but not why.
Cook then offers to help by asking what kind of number, but Tin-Head has only figured out that the puzzle is bigger than first expected, the good news being that the Oracle will take years to finish, giving them enough time to figure out what the Oracle is doing... unless the Oracle can get ahold of a quantum core. Cook asks if the number could be a vector. Tin-Head supposes it could be, but he's only certain that the number must be very important. Cook theorises that the number could be related to time-travel, but using the current day's primitive machines is baffling, as the time required for the calculations renders the information out of date. Adams supposes that access to a time-travel device would allow the Oracle to deliver a more powerful processor to itself.
Tin-Head patches the exploit to deactivate the Hive. Adams asks if he also informed the manufacturers of the Oracle's exploit, which Tin-Head notes they "aggressively" don't care and in fact threatened legal action if he told anyone about it. Adams realises that the manufacturers are intentionally putting the Oracle onto every possible device. Tin-Head asks if they should publicly release the information, but Adams notes, "That would cause chaos! So we better make sure it benefits us before we do that!"
Category:Weapons
Category:Cook Industries