Two-Factor Authentication In Starfleet
Posted by Hypnotician@reddit | TNG | View on Reddit | 53 comments
I noticed something between s01 and the rest of TNG. I think s01 "Conspiracy" was the turning point.
At the start of "Conspiracy," the computer simply needed voice print identification, to open the Code 47 communique. Picard's response was delightfully non-secure: "Picard, Jean-Luc, Captain, USS Enterprise."
But in s02 on, everybody began using identifiers with characters, numbers: basically, verbal passwords. "Alpha Charlie Alpha Bravo," "Pi Alpha Bravo," stuff like that.
I think this measure came about to defeat the blue gills. "That's their weakness: a lack of memory." - Captain Rixx
AnalogKid2001@reddit
How about the prefix code for Reliant being 5 digits on WoK?
Hypnotician@reddit (OP)
The keyboard they used was practically sending the prefix code in assembly language.
BalasaarNelxaan@reddit
Authentication in Starfleet seems to change every two minutes tbh.
The self destruct in Star Trek III needed three command officers to activate. In TNG s1 the Captain and First Officer were sufficient. By First Contact we’re back to three but Voyager apparently just needs Janeway.
And don’t get me started on the holodeck safeties - two officers, one officer or someone sneezing on the wrong control panel depending on the plot.
Least-Common-1456@reddit
Wasn't the destruct code something like 0 0 0 DESTRUCT?
ComesInAnOldBox@reddit
The final code was 0 0 0.
The "destruct" code is the method of self-destruction. There are two methods: 0 and 1.
Destruct 0 is what we see in Star Trek III. Control rooms, weapon systems, computer core, and other technical systems throughout the ship are destroyed while the antimatter in the warp core is magnetically secured and ejected. This method is used when the ship is too close to something you don't want to damage, like other friendly ships, stations, or planets.
Destruct 1 is the method you use when there isn't anything around you worth protecting and you're trying to take the enemy along with you. The magnetic containment fields holding the antimatter simply turn off. The old Constitution-class starships didn't hold a whole lot of the stuff (and various sources are contradictory on the amount), but to give you an idea an antimatter annihilation yields about 1.2 megatons per ounce. Big bada boom.
Effective-Board-353@reddit
Isn't a code of 0 0 0 only slightly less predictable than 1 2 3?
bgplsa@reddit
The exact destruct sequence codes aren’t the primary means of securing the process, biometric authentication of multiple bridge officers handles that along with the fact even systems today often have lockouts against brute force guessing, they’re just an arrangement of tokens that nobody is going to accidentally trigger while discussing sports scores near a console. Even if gamma shift janitors guess the codes the computer knows they aren’t authorized to initiate the self destruct.
BalasaarNelxaan@reddit
That’s amazing, I’ve got the exact same combination on my luggage.
ComesInAnOldBox@reddit
Well, the other three codes were 11A, 11A2B, and 1B2B3, so at least they're consistent.
Ceylonese-Honour@reddit
Amazing. Starfleet Self Destruct Protocols!
worm-friend@reddit
This is amazing. How do you know this???
ComesInAnOldBox@reddit
I read it in one of the dozen or so sourcebooks and technical manuals I had when I was a kid. I'm pushing 50 now, so I can begin to tell you which one it was.
worm-friend@reddit
Nice. I was thinking about how I've always remembered the code itself since also seeing it as a kid. Thanks for sharing the meaning behind it!
dinosaurkiller@reddit
This guy self-destructs
ComesInAnOldBox@reddit
In more ways than one.
thegovernment0usa@reddit
Bada big boom
FMPhoenixHawk@reddit
"Thanks a lot, Takei!"
MrZwink@reddit
Thats in TOS i believe.
MindlessNectarine374@reddit
Meh. You omitted the Defiant and DS9. When Sisko has just become captain, they order self-destruction. "Sisko-Alpha-One-Alpha" "Kira-Beta-Two-Beta".
scooped88@reddit
For First Contact, computer probably asked for 2 senior officers to agree with the captain because the first and second officers weren’t available.
Ceylonese-Honour@reddit
Great point! That scene was great with the music and going between the launch of the Phoenix and the Enterprise Self Destruct protocol.
PhysicsEagle@reddit
Notably in TNG s1 the self-destruct could only be activated from Engineering and only deactivated from the bridge. There was also no way to change the “fuse” - the timer was hardwired. Meanwhile by Voyager, Janeway can activate it by herself, through voice commands, from anywhere on the ship.
froot_loop_dingus_@reddit
Voyager also had a replicator endlessly spitting out new shuttlecraft, nothing on that show is canon
BalasaarNelxaan@reddit
I think they handwaved the torpedoes in an episode by saying they were trading tech?
The shuttles they just built I guess?
sitcom-podcaster@reddit
None of that happens on the show. They set up those stakes, never addressed them again, and relied on fans to hallucinate explanations that they swear were on the show (see also: the Borg baby).
To be fair, only the torpedoes are explicitly established as limited and irreplaceable - but it stands to reason that a torpedo is easier to build than a shuttle.
BalasaarNelxaan@reddit
Well they built at least two Delta Flyers
sitcom-podcaster@reddit
Yeah, that's the thing that contradicts the thing from earlier in the show. Early in season 1 (The Cloud), they have "no way to replace" their torpedoes. They don't say that they could replace them if only they had more resources: "no way" is pretty definitive.
Four seasons later, without even a line of dialogue about how they overcame that problem, they're firing torpedoes left and right and pumping out Delta Flyers. A torpedo is matter, antimatter, and a casing. A Delta Flyer is matter, antimatter, a casing, and a bunch of other stuff.
It's not wrong to assume that they must have solved the problem offscreen somehow, it's just terrible dramatic storytelling. If the writers didn't want to tell stories about overcoming those problems, they needn't have set the problems up in the first place.
BalasaarNelxaan@reddit
True enough - a lot of the survivalist stuff in the first two seasons disappears. It’s a shame actually as it had a lot of potential but it wasn’t what the network wanted.
I read somewhere that they kept track of the torpedoes very strictly until s4 and then just abandoned it.
sitcom-podcaster@reddit
Yeah - as a youth, I was all on board with the pivot to dark-n-gritty Borg stuff, but now I see how much was lost in that transition.
2nd-Reddit-Account@reddit
I thought it was canon that all intrepid class ships have an industrial replicator?
sitcom-podcaster@reddit
It's not. Industrial replicators are never even mentioned on Voyager.
Civil_Nectarine868@reddit
It was implied... but they might've just found the infinite shuttle glitch.
Scrat-Slartibartfast@reddit
I like the "someone sneezing on the wrong control panel" 😂
ExplanationFit6177@reddit
I’m sure the screen can also ID them by their badge or just scan the person in front of it and match DNA? Otherwise, yeah, you’re right. Probably why aliens can “hack” into starfleet tech all the time
MindlessNectarine374@reddit
I'm DS9 "Civil Defense", Dukat's code with many identification subroutines seemed to be an unusual case, made by a paranoid man.
Ceylonese-Honour@reddit
That's a good point. Perhaps recommended by Data? The Self Destruct sequence activation also seems to get a similar upgrade over time.
Ceylonese-Honour@reddit
There was also Data's style with security codes...
"173467321476 Charlie 32789777 643 Tango 732 Victor 73117888 732 47678 9764376."
pakrat1967@reddit
I've always felt that the self destruct got downgraded on TNG. At least compared to TOS. Both in Let That Be Your Final Battleground, and The Search For Spock. It takes 3 senior officers to active the self destruct. Yet on TNG it only takes the captain and first officer.
PhysicsEagle@reddit
And on Voyager it just takes the captain alone
Ceylonese-Honour@reddit
That's a good point! The crew had better make sure the Captain of Voyager gets her Coffee, or there won't be a Voyager.
Ceylonese-Honour@reddit
Yes in the series that seemed like the case. There are some classic moments though, for example with the Computer asking Riker if he concurs to abort it when Captain Picard takes it down to the last few seconds against Nagilum! In the TNG movies though, it seems to be more secure like the TOS movies. For example in First Contact.
MetalSufficient9522@reddit
I always thought the "engage' command was dumb and unneccesary theater.
RadVarken@reddit
I mean, the captain clearly studied the theatre
Cute_Repeat3879@reddit
In season four's 'Brothers' Data is able to impersonate Picard to the computer by just mimicking his voice then lock the real Picard out with a long access code.
Ceylonese-Honour@reddit
Data: "Computer. Prepare to Initiate Self Destruct Sequence 001 and do not Disengage unless the following voice command is given from the Bridge!
173467321476 Charlie 32789777 643 Tango 732 Victor 73117888 732 47678 9764376.
Initiate!"
MetalSufficient9522@reddit
Yes, but they said their codes in front of everyone, generally. It's not secure.
penguins-are-me@reddit
Yep. Neelix overheard an office give an engineering command override and used it himself and it worked.
PhysicsEagle@reddit
What episode was this? I always thought it was code+voiceprint that authenticated it, but there goes that idea
caphis@reddit
Investigations
DoubleAgent-007@reddit
Voice recognition plays a large factor above and beyond just saying a certain phrase.
Fabulous-Emu-8291@reddit
No one casts about cyber security in the future. If everyone locked their screens when they got up, the Klingons would never have gotten the Enterprise D’s shield modulation. And what kind of code is 000 destruct 0???
ComesInAnOldBox@reddit
The final code was 0 0 0.
The "destruct" code is the method of self-destruction. There are two methods: 0 and 1.
Destruct 0 is what we see in Star Trek III. Control rooms, weapon systems, computer core, and other technical systems throughout the ship are destroyed while the antimatter in the warp core is magnetically secured and ejected. This method is used when the ship is too close to something you don't want to damage, like other friendly ships, stations, or planets.
Destruct 1 is the method you use when there isn't anything around you worth protecting and you're trying to take the enemy along with you. The magnetic containment fields holding the antimatter simply turn off. The old Constitution-class starships didn't hold a whole lot of the stuff (and various sources are contradictory on the amount), but to give you an idea an antimatter annihilation yields about 1.2 megatons per ounce. Big bada boom.
LiveLongAndProspurr@reddit
TOS: Queen to Queen's level three