Passive tracing and the Banks

But I cleared the access logs!

I have the following scenario:

In one of my games, I completed a mission to trace where a large amount of money went. Specifically, I followed 700,000 credits into an account at Neoware Technology International Bank.
After the mission, I got a Proxy Disable (did not have any other bypassers), accessed the account, transferred the money to my account, erased the money transfer log, disconnected, and then cleared my access logs from InterNIC.

I then accessed my account at Uplink International Bank (not directly, but by bouncing), and erased the receipt transfer log from my account. I then disconnected and cleared my logs from InterNIC.

Both hacks bounced through 30 Public Access Servers and active traces started at about 100-120 seconds. By keeping backup copies of my agent, I made three attempts at this. Only once did I succeed.

I had assumed that, under no circumstances, will a Passive Trace ever run faster than an Active Trace. I think I cleared my Neoware bounce logs at InterNIC within the original Active Trace time for hacking Neoware Bank. Ditto for Uplink Bank.

Question: If I cleared the access logs and the transfer logs, how did I get caught?

(edit) Just to be clear, I only deleted the bounce logs and the admin authorized logs from InterNIC; I didn't touch the connection logs.

At this point, my best guess is that Uplink merely traces much faster than everyone else. (/edit)

This post has been edited by James Chin : 26 November 2004 - 11:04 PM

Well, the feds see that money has been transferred away from an account, they look at yours and see that the money is there, then seize your gateway. You have to delete the transfer log once you have done the job, and do the same at UIB.

Agent_Vast, on Nov 27 2004, 09:38 AM, said:

Well, the feds see that money has been transferred away from an account, they look at yours and see that the money is there, then seize your gateway. You have to delete the transfer log once you have done the job, and do the same at UIB.
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I erased the money transfer logs using Log Deleter v4.0 on both accounts. I still got cought 2 out of 3 times.

This post has been edited by James Chin : 27 November 2004 - 09:56 PM

Banks are FAST.

To speed up your hack times, I suggest creating a new account in the bank you are transferring funds from. It will be easier to get rid of your logs that way, since there are less steps involved.

mrxak, on Nov 28 2004, 09:49 PM, said:

Banks are FAST.

To speed up your hack times, I suggest creating a new account in the bank you are transferring funds from. It will be easier to get rid of your logs that way, since there are less steps involved.
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Thanks, I hadn't thought of that.

I've come to the conclusion that Uplink merely passive-traces much faster than everyone else and that merely having 40 Public Access Servers isn't going to cut it. I decided to try using 40 Public Access Servers and 30 compromised Internal Services machines, and that worked. My youngest brother (not Eugene) also tried this, twice and didn't get caught.

Yeah, 40 is really not enough for a major hack.

40, I don't know, I didn't think that I needed that many when I hacked a bank...

But, as said earlier, banks are stupidfast!
They have to be because the actual breaking into them, is pretty easy to do.
(That is asumming you are not hacking the admin)

This post has been edited by Gamerman : 29 November 2004 - 10:53 PM

Hack smarter not harder.
I had three unsuccsessful bank attempt hacks until I got smart and did everything that needed doing.

Tips from Achilles:
1. You really don't need 40+ bounces, I had two succsessful transfer hacks ($200,000 in my pocket) and performed each with about 10-15 bounces (including maybe two banks, three mainframes, the uplink servers and a few public access). I didnt have to worry at all about an active trace because of bypassers, dont hack a bank without monitor and proxy bypassers (v5 of course).
2. Make an account at the same bank to transfer into. Faster. Just remember to switch to that account when buying your trinity so you dont overwithdraw.
3. Delete transfer records from both accounts. Log deleter version 4.
4. How to kill the passive trace? Normally my passive trace defense is this: Hack into a low level internal system (same one I always use) and delete the "routed to" logs, and the log saying that I logged on as admin at Umph oclock. Then I hack Uplink test machine and do a redundant log deletion there (confident, cocky, lazy, dead, whats worth doing is worth doing twice).
5. For the bank however, I decided that I needed more UMPH to my passive defense, so I had a great idea. The low level internal system I normally delete the logs on, I crashed instead.
In Console:
cd log
delete
cd sys
delete
shutdown
(then I deleted the logs on uplnk test machine as always)
That poor system got shut down twice in a day, and I hacked the same bank twice in a day, no probs at all. 200k buys a lot of toys.

Just a note, some banks might be more posh than others (uplink bank for example) and might have much faster passive traces, but I still don't think you need more than 20 bounces.

This post has been edited by Achilles : 09 December 2004 - 12:36 AM

Achilles: That was one of the best walkthroughs I've ever seen.
Keep up the good work.

nfreader, on Dec 8 2004, 01:20 PM, said:

Achilles: That was one of the best walkthroughs I've ever seen.
Keep up the good work.
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Lol thanks, If I had picked this game up a year or two ago when it came out I coulda made a worthy guide

This post has been edited by Achilles : 09 December 2004 - 12:34 AM

I just used monitor and proxy bypass and an account on the same machine and transfered just 3000 (it was all there was in the first account I checked). All I had to do was delete the transfer logs and I haven't been caught days later.

Steps:

Connect to bank, bypass monitor and proxy.

Make an account, note account number.

Crack the password for the other account. Make the transfer (look up the IP on the map, it's the one to which I'm connected). Deleted (v4) the log entry on the originating account. Done with that account.

Manage my own account. Delete (v4) the transfer log. Done with my account. I suppose I could have transfered the money out to my Uplink account at this point if I cared.

Disconnect.

No active trace generated. Fast forward several days. No visit from the Feds. That makes it sound like you wouldn't even need to bounce the connection.

Post to this message board.

Incidentally, Uplink techs started a memory install while I was fast forwarding and it did drop out of FF when the motion sensors went yellow. I am using 1.3.3 under 10.3.? on a G3 iBook.

-deustrux

I wouldn't recommend creating accounts on banks (other than Uplink, of course). I recall a bug deleting accounts when you create them, leaving you with fewer >300000c accounts to hack.

To quote myself:

The trend I've noticed is that the game creates seven banks, each with about fifteen nonwealthy people (less than ten thousand credits each) and one rich person with between 300,000 and 1,300,000 credits. Now, an interesting, extremely irritating, and potentially devastating bug to your potential wealth is the fact that if you yourself create an account at a bank, or if the game creates a bank account for a mission, then all bank accounts with a higher account number than the newly created one are deleted from that bank, along with their money. However, if the game creates a "Our esteemed colleague wishes to make a donation" mission, then the money to be transfered is created with it.
So, the moral of the story is: The added trace time made by creating accounts at the banks is not nearly worth the amount of money that is likely lost if you plan on hacking banks.

Eh?

In any case, it's a heck of a lot easier to do bank hacking if you have an account with the bank in question. Any potential disadvantages I feel are outweighed by the fact that your chances of getting caught are far lower.

Then after you are safe with your money, transfer the money to your uplink account.