This Just In! - Cold as Ice

Welcome to This Just In!, an internal NBN broadcast for training and continuing education for cybersec personnel in using our superlative information network to trace, tag, outpace, and frag any Runners who dare to show their face on the corporate grid. I'm your host, Cybersec Sergeant Scrier.

In the previous episode, we gave you an inside look at what makes NBN ice unique, and showcased Data Raven as an excellent example of all those traits. If you missed it, you can catch it on-demand at This Just In! - Ice Ice Baby. This episode continues where the last one left off - pulling more ICE out of the toolbox so we can show you when and where and how to use it to smack the Runner scum right back out to his mama's basement.


Tollbooth (Core)

The Ravens routinely catch celebrities and politians in all kinds of compromising situations. Having dirt on a few Senators comes in handy from time to time. One of the recent updates to copyright law included an adjustment we, ahem... suggested... that forced the media outlets online to adopt file codecs with built-in, automatic payment protocols that let us charge consumers every time our content is accessed. One of the cybersec devs caught wind of this and adapted it for our intrusion detection systems, and that's proved even more useful than the original application.

I don't think all the pirating crybabies we stopped thought we would approve when they started calling these Tollbooths, but we all thought that was pretty bloody fitting, so the name stuck. Marketing made us stop using the name to refer to our content provider payment collection system, but they don't get to tell us what to do with our cybersec tech. The only issue we've had so far is that our content stream denies access when a consumer's accounts are dry and doesn't bill them for content they didn't get. Some of the more clever Runners have figured this out and keep a nearly-empty bank account so the "billing" will be rejected when they're just probing to map our server logical architecture.


Out of all eleven of the Code Gate ice available as of Humanity's Shadow, only four of them have an "End the run." (ETR) subroutine, and Tollbooth has the highest strength amongst these. Its on-encounter ability will force even Yogosaurus (Yog.0 (Core) hosted on the Dinosaurus (Cyber Exodus) console) or a previously-fortified Gordian Blade (Core) to pay its three credit toll if the Runner wishes to continue. Both of these characteristics make Tollbooth one of the most common ice to see included in any corporate deck, even out-of-faction.

Tollbooth's high cost to break makes it a very effective guardian for both your primary remote server and R&D. Tollbooth is typically so costly for a Runner to break that it is quite heavily targeted by the Femme Fatale (Core) icebreaker, which allows the Runner to bypass it entirely (including the three credit toll!) for just a single credit, so make sure to account for the possibility of a Test Run (Cyber Exodus) Femme Fatale or a Personal Workshop (Cyber Exodus)+Femme Fatale+Stimhack (Core) when considering whether or not your defenses are adequate. This problem will be even worse when Self-Modifying Code is released in the Creation and Control expansion. To further cause trouble, Runners can also use derezzing abilities like Emergency Shutdown (Cyber Exodus) or Crescentus (A Study in Static) on this ice to heavily pressure the Corp's economy.

In spite of these counters, Tollbooth is an effective way to block off your main remote server or R&D, where real stopping power is needed. In front of HQ, not only is its high rez cost probably more than is warranted for the protection needed there, placing one will discourage Runners from spending clicks running HQ, which is one of the safer places for NBN to drain off Runner resources (but be wary of Criminals!). If you are using Pop-up Window (Cyber Exodus) on HQ, a Tollbooth there is also probably enough of a deterrent to eliminate the Pop-ups as an economic tool.


Matrix Analyzer (Core)

I thought this thing was a raw deal when I first heard what the Suits were dumping on us. They decided we were using up too many resources, and instead of cutting our budget, they got this lunatic idea that they would start siphoning off processing power from the cybersec servers to divert to other divisions. As if they don't hurt us bad enough already when they're constantly waffling on budgeting to protect Archives. At least the software didn't cost much to deploy, and in fairness to the Suits - yeah yeah, I know, who is this guy and what did he do with the sergeant. Wiseguys. In fairness to the Suits, this Matrix Analyzer thing does come in handy when we get authorization to have all the little slices they stole from the cybersec servers give us a turbo-charge on a honeypot deployment. It's especially taunting to the Runner when the honeypot that's getting the boost isn't even in the same gateway installation.


Matrix Analyzer's attack subroutine is mediocre at best; it's simply a strength two trace that tags the Runner. This is very mundane compared to Data Raven (Core)'s tagging ability. In its defense, Matrix Analyzer does rez for only a single credit, and it does give NBN an easy way to cost the Runner some money in the early game with its identity ability. Either the Runner can pay 2-4 credits now to avoid taking a tag, or they can pay three (counting the click) or more (counting opportunity costs of Magnum Opus (Core), etc.) credits removing the tag later, assuming that the Runner feels threatened by tags, and assuming again that this isn't a problem for an NBN deck.

Continuing the theme from Tollbooth and Data Raven, however, Matrix Analyzer has a very interesting on-encounter attack. When the Runner encounters Matrix Analyzer, the ice allows the corporation to spend one credit to place an advancement counter on an advanceable card. Probably the most obvious application of this is to advance agendas that are in play, which saves the Corporation a click that they can use to further advance the agenda on their own turn to score it. The next use that is commonly seen for this card is to fortify advanceable ice like Ice Wall (Core), Shadow (Core), and Hadrian's Wall (Core). It's not uncommon to see Matrix Analyzer used in Weyland as part of a Commercialization (Cyber Exodus) and advanceable ice strategy there, and it's not uncommon to see advanceable ice and Matrix Analyzer in an NBN deck that adopts Trick of Light (Trace Amount) from Jinteki to promote the fast advance strategy.

Barring the advanceable ice/Trick of Light strategy, however, NBN really needs a more thoughtful approach to deck strategy in order to make Matrix Analyzer shine. The NBN faction tends not to have the nigh-impregnable remote server to leave agendas in play like Weyland or Haas-Bioroid are sometimes capable of building, so using Matrix Analyzer just as a way to quicken agendas is dangerous, since you are announcing to the Runner where your agendas are hiding. In order to combat this, an NBN deck that wants to use Matrix Analyzer will have to build around traps; if your deck concept for NBN can't accomodate them, you probably shouldn't use Matrix Analyzer at all.

The strategy for how to play Matrix Analyzer properly in an NBN trap deck is an idea that I believe is still in its infancy, because many players are waiting until the release of Project Beale in the Future Proof data pack to really explore this avenue of play. I actually believe based on my ruminations on Matrix Analyzer in preparation for this article and the same deck construction concepts I used to put together my NBN Never Advance deck that this could be a powerful sleeper deck concept even without Project Beale. Those deckbuilding strategies will encompass an entire future article on their own, so for now, I'll just leave you with that as food for thought!


TMI (What Lies Ahead)

The whole "security through obscurity" strategy is looked down on by the cybersec eggheads in general, but we do have one ICE tech that uses this idea to great effect. We can squeak data through a thousand tiny covert data channels scattered over tens of thousands of media streams and the Runner scum won't even know it's passing them by unless they have enough parallel processing resources to handle the chaffing and winnowing in real time. There's just too much useless information crammed into all those viral videos of cats, boobs, and morons trying to win Darwin Awards. Get it? TMI? ...Too Much Information? ...Tough crowd here today.


TMI has the same rez cost as Wall of Static (Core), the basic neutral barrier ice that can be found in just about any deck from any faction because of its cheap rez cost and no influence cost. TMI's strength is five versus the strength of three on Wall of Static. That makes it cost twice as much for Corroder (Core) to break (four versus two) and nearly twice as much for Snowball (Trace Amount) to break (five versus three). This is a significant advantage, so it has a significant drawback as well: TMI only stays rezzed if the Corp can succeed in a strength two trace at the time it is rezzed. Timing the rez action for this card can be tricky, particularly if the Runner knows what the ice is - for instance, when the first trace fails and TMI is derezzed. Because of that, TMI is often best left unrezzed until a point when you are certain the Runner can't win the trace. Don't wait too long, however. High link and especially Compromised Employee (Trace Amount) both really devastate this ICE if it's unrezzed, so you're best off trying to get this into play before the Runner assembles too much of his rig.

If you can get it rezzed, TMI's stopping power makes it stay relevant far longer as ETR defense than Wall of Static. While rez timing difficulties can potentially make it a dead card late game (a characteristic it also unfortunately shares with Wall of Static), even an unrezzed TMI can help provide defense against Criminals' powerful Account Siphon (Core) event. Since the trace occurs before Gabe or Andy has a chance to break any subroutines, the Corporation can drain their coffers so that there's nothing to steal if it's already inevitable that the thief will make it inside the vault.


Uroboros (A Study in Static)

This baby is a new pattern analyzer for binary data streams that is being worked into our current routing software. Turns out that Runner system intrusions have some typical patterns that we can sometimes use to detect them and cut their connection. I guess that's what all the little script-kiddies get for sharing the same icebreaker tech. The current build 0.7_3_1004a is not yet fast enough to guarantee that a quick Runner can't skate by the algorithm before it has time to cut the connection, but it does cache enough data that it often can prevent another connection with the same entry pattern afterwards.

There's a limited amount of space in the rolling data cache, of course, but since most intrusion attempts from the same Runner tend to come in short bursts of mayhem, the analyzer tends to have the information it needs for all but the initial intrusion. The cybersec devs even gave it some hippy name based on this cute little vulnerability. Some circle-of-life nonsense about a dragon chewing on its own tail.


Uroboros is a powerful example of NBN's tracing capabilities, with two trace routines that both have a base strength of four. While tracing ice in general has a weakness to a high link or a large credit pool, Uroboros staves off this weakness longer than any other ice. Even a Runner that has installed three Rabbit Hole (Core)s will have to pay at least one credit per trace to break through it (other than Kate, who starts with one point of link on her identity), and the Making News NBN identity can add two credits to this cost once per turn as well. Its ice strength is also four, which is not as impressive as it was on Data Raven since its rez cost is two higher at six credits, but still enough to be a sufficient economic deterrent until the Runner has breaker modifiers in play to reduce their cost.

What makes Uroboros interesting is its unique reward for landing the first trace against the Runner. If the Runner fails to elude this trace, then the current run is the only run that he or she is allowed during that turn. This could potentially be powerful defense against many of the Nerve Agent (Cyber Exodus) and Medium (Core) strategies that are popular with Runners. It's also an effective way to halt the Runner from probing all of your servers in the early game when he isn't worried about the side effects of hitting your ice subroutines without breakers installed, particularly since one weakness of NBN is that it often can't afford the influence to add Neural Katana (Core) or Rototurret (Core) to its deck builds effectively. If the Runner runs Uroboros with no breaker, its high base trace strength is likely to mean it is the last run he will make that turn.



Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of This Just In! In the next edition, we will finish with the NBN ICE dossiers, including the recently spoiled Flare from Future Proof!