Talk:Command Navigation Program/Archive 1

How CNP Infiltration Differs from Infection

My understanding is that, while the CNP is obviously functional and works as designed, the CNP's backdoors was what made it dangerous. Whether the CNP's backdoors allowed activation of a virus, Trojan, or system command access seems consistent now with our viewing the behavior of a Cylon virus on Galactica in "Flight of the Phoenix", although the CNP was never loaded on their computers.

It's reasonable to assume that post-war (modern) Colonial ships were still not easily hackable despite their advancements, so it took the CNP backdoors to make that happen. As far as Galactica was concerned, it's relatively primitive computers were not as advanced as those used on other Battlestars and were more likely to be directly infected, as done in "Scattered""--IF they were accessible by wireless. Obviously the computers were never available for infection until the events of "Scattered".

It's likely that the process of networking Galactica's computers with hard lines at Gaeta's console (Gaeta mentions in "Scattered" that he would network the FTL computer with the Navigation, Damage Control, and Fire Control computers) also interfaced them to the comm channels of the ship and to ship's wireless by default. Otherwise, Gaeta would not be fearful of simply creating a closed network to make the calculations. Networking any computers on Galactica would automatically create a wireless portal to them. Interesting Colonial technology in that way; it's like two laptops that automatically form a wireless connection when they want to share data.

So the Raider's programming may be two-fold. Option one: Attempt access to an enemy ship via a CNP backdoor, where it may activate a Trojan Horse program in the CNP or directly command the CNP to stop operation of the ship. Option two: Use First War tactics and attempt to hack and infect a computer that's available by wireless. Just my take on it, but it's consistent with show events. Spencerian 15:46, 23 September 2005 (EDT)

Strictly speaking, Computer viruses and worms are defined by their ability to proliferate. It would be most proper to state that the CNP (or part of it) was a Cylon-designed Trojan horse.

The Logic Bomb that infected Galactica's systems was obviously very different - either a remote exploit or the work of a Cylon agent onboard Galactica, as I speculated on the "Scattered" page. --Peter Farago 15:53, 23 September 2005 (EDT)

A Trojan Horse is typically a malevalent application disguised as a benevolent one, with no "good" code within. Trojans generally do not activate themselves (as viruses do) or proliferate themselves (as worms do). The CNP was a functional program with backdoors that allowed commands, of which shut down commands, commands to activate a hidden virus or worm inside the CNP code, or copy commands to receive and activate a new virus would work. In "Scattered", Galactica becomes infected by the Cylon virus transmitted by the attacking fleet using old-school War I tactics--that I'm pretty certain of at this point since we have no other data to support otherwise, and fits Galactica's technology base. Doesn't mean there wasn't someone on the inside that copied back the virus code on a low-level system into Galactica after the initial purge in "Scattered." We already know of one or two Cylon infiltrators (Godfrey, Biers), and at least 6 others remain at large. The virus created the Logic Bomb...or the Logic Bomb was implanted by an infiltrator, yes, but we have no way of knowing just yet.Spencerian 17:25, 23 September 2005 (EDT)