The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

White Court, Venatori and Kemmler

<< < (15/15)

wardenferry419:
But does Ivy have the ability, within the limits of her mantle, to personally remove tainted knowledge from the internet or is she required to merely suggest and guide these actions through others?

Froklsnt:
Ivy is mortal, as evidenced by the death of so many in the lineage. As long as she isn't put in harm's way, there's no reason Ivy couldn't take direct action.

Kindler:

--- Quote from: kazimmoinuddin on October 04, 2017, 08:27:22 PM ---Just as Ivy has all that magical lore in her head, she also has everything about hacking. So she could potentially search and wipe out any tainted knowledge on the net. She would know the instant some one made a digital copy, so ready to attack when posted.

--- End quote ---

She doesn't need to hack. She knows their passwords. The problem would then be preventing someone from doing it again. With extreme decentralization, it'd be perfectly possible to design things with biometric authentication that would automatically upload new stuff. Do it from airgapped computers, and the information becomes impossible to track and destroy without physically doing it on every terminal. Hacking doesn't really work that way; the best case scenario she'd have would be to encrypt the information, but that doesn't destroy it, just locks it up, and even then it can be impossible if the security is good enough.

Unless she knows the location of everything that's written as well as its content, finding and destroying hundreds of properly deployed, un-networked servers behind the right kind of authentication isn't possible without the information leaking to somebody. Then multiply the problem by even just three nerds, and the Oblivion War is over within a generation.

It's possible that knowledge of hacking could allow her to temporarily eliminate distribution platforms—if she was astronomically talented, which I think she qualifies for, it's possible she could take down YouTube, for example. But that wouldn't last long—a few hours, max. There's no way Google wouldn't get its money-printer working again in relatively short order.

It's possible, at the high level, to cut off internet access itself. It was done in more than one country recently in response to civil unrest (AVOIDING SPECIFICS AND TOUCHY TOPICS). It would require more than someone from the outside could accomplish—it's the equivalent of shutting down the water supply to a city rather than someone's tap. But, again, you'd have the might of entire governments looking to fix it, and it couldn't stay down long. You're talking billions of dollars lost per minute if all ISPs and mobile providers were cut off. Riots within hours.

Unless she has Venatori in the Oval Office, and among the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and DHS, ICANN, and the Telecommunications Commission, it'd be impossible to do in the first place, and less possible to do long-term.

The good news is that the people interested in the Oblivion War aren't the type to think about this. But imagine what someone like Butters could do if he had the time and inclination. He might not live through it, but the amount of damage would be incalculable.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page