‘Hacking’ is a relatively new concept in fiction. It’s leapt from the realms of pure science fiction into everyday reality. This means understanding ‘hacking’ can be helpful in any number of genres from suspense/thriller to YA to general fiction.

Today is the final guest post from Piper Bayard of the dynamic writing duo, Bayard & Holmes. I really hope y’all pick up copies of their books. I’ve read all of them, even wrote the foreword in one.

I’ve added their books as staples in my reference library and strongly recommend y’all do the same (especially since one is on SALE).

Hackers! Take It Away, Piper!

Most people think of computer invasions when they think of hacking, but any electronic item that transmits a signal can be intercepted and/or hacked.

That means cybersecurity is an issue for every one of us; therefore, unless we are writing historical fiction or some other genre that predates electronics, cybersecurity can a potential issue for any of our characters.

Volumes can be written regarding cybersecurity issues. Rather than offer a comprehensive treatise on the subject—which would no doubt be obsolete before dinner time—today, we’ll focus on common objects in the modern world that can be hacked to spice up our story lines.

Thriller is the genre most likely to involve ‘hackers.’

So we’ll cut to the chase, so to speak, and look at the big picture first. If our character is using electronics to find someone, that character’s capabilities will depend on their nationality and the power of their government or underworld contacts to assist them.

Every allies from folks at the NSA to Anonymous to private security companies could be at their disposal. There are far too many variations to address in a single article, or even a treatise. Suffice to say more than one government has the capability of scooping up every electronic transmission in a given area.

More than one hacker can access everything from a home router to the Pentagon.

As Much or as Little as Necessary

With the vast array of capabilities, this means when, in a crunch, allies can either assist OR should you need a complication, be UNABLE to come to the character’s aid.

Bad guys can apply countermeasures.

Say we flip the coin and our character wants to try to HIDE from government surveillance on the part of any country in the West, Russia, or China.

A character’s best bet is to hide in plain site with a new identity. If that isn’t possible, they must go to an all-cash existence, never carry any electronics of any kind on their person, and avoid all cameras in businesses and on streets.

Since this is pretty close to impossible in First World countries at this point, it’s also best if the character stays on the move in Third World countries. However, human intelligence will still be a threat, and odds are better than good they will be found eventually.

What about a smaller/more intimate picture?

Most of us can look around our workspace and find items that can be hacked. Computers and phones are the most obvious.

We recommend that everyone put a sticky note over their computer camera, because entities from corporations to any number of governments to hackers can and will observe you without it being obvious to you. . . .

We’ll pause a minute for you to cover that camera . . .

Thank you. We feel better talking to you now that strangers can’t see you in your pajamas. If you want to be particularly cautious, cover camera on your phone, as well.

Speaking of cameras . . . Nanny cams, doorbell cameras, security cameras of all kinds, and children’s toys are also regularly hacked by unscrupulous individuals and used by governments foreign and domestic to record information on private citizens.

Why Would Hackers Care About ME?

Most people think, “Why on earth would foreign governments want to digitally molest my nanny cam? I’m just not that interesting.”

Not to promote paranoia, but you actually are that interesting. These are only a few reasons foreign governments want to spy on you:

• To spy on expatriates
• To monitor trends in society
• To improve training of deep-cover operatives
• To better design propaganda efforts in foreign countries
• To gather information on possible targets for covert action
• To identify blackmail targets
• To build files on important foreigners

Yes, foreign governments use Internet devices to collect information on regular citizens to tailor their enormous propaganda efforts, and those data collections on have helped hostile nations level up substantially in their subversion tactics targeted at the West…but that is an article for another day.

Some Folks Just Wanna See the World BURN

We are aware that our computers are open books for governments, both domestic and foreign, as well as hackers.

A hacker can get into a computer and do anything that the computer’s owner can do. They can destroy everything on the device, pilfer through everything on the device, or plant spyware that will record every keystroke.

Computers are most vulnerable when connected to unsecured Internet networks, such as at coffee shops or in hotels, and hackers know this.

Great material for plot lines, right?

There are numerous companies that sell cybersecurity programs to help detect and protect from such attacks. Also, if a computer is turned off, it is safe from hacking.

Hackers and CELL PHONES

Phones are also common targets of governments, local police departments, and hackers.

For example, everyone in the DC area can assume that all of their phone calls are being intercepted by the Russians and the Chinese. That’s true of several large cities in the US and Europe.

In addition to stationary devices, foreign agents, DHS (Department of Homeland Security), and local police departments literally drive around the city with “cell site simulators,” or “Stingrays” in their vehicles that simulate cell phone towers and intercept phone signals.

What’s a Character to Do?

There are two easy ways a character can protect the information on their phone. First, they can put their phone in a faraday bag, which is a bag made of a shielding material that blocks transmissions.

Another way is cheaper and faster than shopping—tin foil. Yes. There is something to the tin foil hat, or in this case, tin foil envelope.

To protect a phone, a character needs three layers of tin foil.

The first layer is smooth. They must be careful to wrap the phone thoroughly, leaving no open seams.

The second layer is crumpled. They crunch up the tin foil, unfold it enough to make it useful, and wrap it around the phone. Again, the character needs to pay attention to seams.

‘The third layer is another smooth layer over the crunched layer. Once the phone is wrapped, anything a hacker could get off of it would be so distorted that it would render the information useless.

This tin foil trick works for computers and key fobs, as well.

Yes, key fobs.

Vehicles with keyless ignition systems, such as pretty much all rental cars these days, can be hacked from outside a building. This is called a “relay attack,” and it can be accomplished with cheap equipment found online or at an electronics store.

One character holds a key fob relay box close to the outside of a building. The box picks up the signal from an unprotected key fob inside and relays it to a second device that a second character holds near the car.

This fools the car, and the vehicle can be unlocked and/or started. Great for car theft, planting surveillance devices, or hiding in a back seat or trunk.

Deliciously creepy, right?

If written well, though, this hack could be used in a romance, and a lover could leave a gift on their beloved’s dashboard. Or perhaps a comedic situation could arise where a character stashed something in a rental car, and they need to get it back on the sly.

Alexa is Listening

Another source for plots comes from voice-controlled speakers such as Alexa or a Smart TV.

Yes. Numerous governments and corporations really are collecting everything said within range of these devices.

Hackers can do the same.

Everything said within range of these devices is collected and transmitted to servers to be analyzed for “search words.” Sorry. This article is too short to discuss what can happen to all of the conversations collected that do not include “search words.”

However, such devices sometimes make mistakes. Voice-controlled speakers have been known to transmit conversations to random individuals on a contact list. For example, a couple can be having a conversation in range of their Alexa or Alexa-equivalent, and it can accidentally be transmitted to some random individual on their contact list.

Cross my heart and hope to die, this has actually happened in real life. The possibilities in fiction are endless!

A more personal digital violation is becoming more common all the time. We’ll be as delicate as possible when describing this . . .

Adults ONLY

Talk about violating privacy For REAL. There is a method of surveillance is called “screwdriving.”

When couples fall in love and become intimate, or they just want a hook up or whatever, sometimes they like to involve certain electronic implements . . . Oh, never mind. Sex toys. We’re talking about sex toys.

Sex toys often now connect to the Internet. The Internet connection allows couples to express their passions, even when they are at a distance, whether across town or across the planet.

Screwdriving is when hackers drive around and seek out these devices in the buildings around them. Hackers then hack the devices in the hopes of delivering a tingly surprise—a digital threesome of sorts.

The romantic and comedic possibilities are endless! Of course so are future episodes of Dateline.

These are only a few of the devices hackers target in real life and in fiction. Others are pacemakers, cars, fitbits, and any other electronic device that connects to the Internet or emits an electronic signal.

Apply imagination, and any of these can be a source of comedy, romance, crime, thrills..or plain terror.

Kind of like this blog.

Apologies.

Thanks for having me!

Wow…Um, Thanks Piper

So thank you, Piper, for this informative and utterly terrifying post.

In all transparency, Piper and I have been friends for almost 12 years. We bond over our healthy dose of paranoia and the NSA LOVES when we chat on the phone.

When the Alexas first came out, my brother bought everyone in the family Alexas for Christmas. It was an incredibly thoughtful gift…

…that I left in its box (buried in another box).

Then, my mom got Ringr and I had a FIT for a BIT…but can only preach so much.

I have a TON I could add to this post, but we’ll save that for another day since many of you might already be hiding in a three-layered tent made from emergency shock blankets (foil) eating cookie dough.

For now, The Edge: How to Write Mystery, Suspense & Thriller is available ON DEMAND (sign up HERE and use Thrill10 for $10 off). The recording turned out FANTASTIC, so check it out. This class pairs really well with everything Piper has talked about the past four posts.

I will be uploading more classes this week, and Piper will soon be teaching as well for Bad Lamb Academy. YAY!

We LOVE hearing From You!

Have you used hacking in one of your plots? What genre was it?

If y’all have any questions for Piper, this is the time. She’s here and available from her underground silo .

SALE!

FINAL DAYS ONLY $2.99 — Click Here

What do the main intelligence agencies do and where do they operate? How do they recruit personnel? What are real life honey pots and sleeper agents? What about truth serums and enhanced interrogations? And what are the most common foibles of popular spy fiction?

With the voice of over forty years of experience in the Intelligence Community, Bayard & Holmes answer these questions and share information on espionage history, firearms of spycraft, tradecraft techniques, and the personalities and personal challenges of the men and women behind the myths.

Though crafted with advice and specific tips for writers, SPYCRAFT: Essentials is for anyone who wants to learn more about the inner workings of the Shadow World.

“For any author, this is the new bible for crafting stories of espionage.”

~ James Rollins, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Demon Crown

Piper Bayard and Jay Holmes of Bayard & Holmes are the authors of espionage tomes and international spy thrillers. Please visit Piper and Jay at their site, BayardandHolmes.com. For notices of their upcoming releases, subscribe to the Bayard & Holmes Covert Briefing. You can also contact Bayard & Holmes at their Contact page, on Twitter at @piperbayard, on Facebook at Piper Bayard, or at their email, BayardandHolmes@protonmail.com.

The post Hacking: The Secret Spice of Modern Storytelling appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Firearms are a staple in many different genres of fiction. Choosing a genre is critical because it makes it far easier to define your audience, connect with them and ultimately, sell more books. Here is a post that explains all the different genres, as well as the nuanced differences.

Firearms are obviously most commonly used in thrillers, but they can be used in mystery, suspense and all the varied kissing cousin genres. For those who want to learn more, I have a class next week The Edge: How to Write Mystery, Suspense & Thriller where I will also cover more on this topic (register HERE).

Today, however, we’ll defer to the serious experts. Piper is here on behalf of the fabulous Bayard & Holmes to download some critical information.

Take it away, Piper!

Know Your Firearm

Whether you love firearms, hate them, or can take them or leave them, they are a staple of crime and thriller fiction. Unfortunately, fiction is often laden with firearms fictions. Bayard & Holmes are dedicated to helping authors avoid those firearms fictions, so we’ll take a look at the firearms that turn up most often in espionage and crime fiction—the revolver, the semi-automatic, and the automatic.

Before we get to the differences in those types of handguns, though, we need to address the most common firearm misnomer of all time — the “clip” vs. the “magazine.” Time and again in fiction, shooters are reloading their “clips” into their “automatic” pistols, when they should be loading their “magazines” into their “semiautomatics.” Let’s take a look at the distinctions so that you savvy folks will never make those mistakes.

Clip Vs. Magazine

A magazine has a spring that force-feeds the ammunition as the shooter fires. A clip does not have a spring or a feed mechanism. It simply holds the ammo and attaches to a magazine or inserts directly into a firearm. These are examples of “clips.”

On the left half of the picture, we have an empty M1 Garand clip, an M1 Garand clip loaded with eight rounds of 30-06 ammunition, and the brass from a 30-06 spent cartridge. On the right half of the picture, we have nine rounds of 7.62×39 ammunition loaded onto a “stripper clip” and an empty stripper clip. This stripper clip holds ten rounds. The tenth 7.26×39 cartridge is just above the loaded clip.

The clips are plain metal with no springs or gadgets of any kind that assist in feeding the ammunition through the firearm. Once the cartridges have been fired, the clips can be reloaded. However, in combat that is highly unlikely. A clip would normally be discarded and a new clip loaded into the magazine or the magazine well, depending on the firearm.

The vast majority of firearms made after WWII do not use clips.

Extremely few modern weapons that use clips are being manufactured today unless they are replicas of old weapons, with the rare exception of a few Smith & Wesson revolvers that use moon clips. So unless your character is using a historical weapon or one of the rare modern firearms that take actual “clips,” the terminology is a fiction.

Next we have “magazines.” Magazines are widely used in both handguns and rifles. They can be detachable or not. They hold cartridges and can be quickly and easily reloaded. There are springs in the magazines that assist in feeding the ammunition through the firearms.

The larger magazine in the picture is an “extended grip” 9mm SIG Sauer magazine, and the smaller magazine is from a Smith & Wesson Bodyguard .380. These magazines fit into the handles of the pistols shown. Magazines are made of metal or plastic and can be reused countless times. They don’t get “used up” just because all of the rounds are fired.

Writing Tip:

If you’re writing historical fiction, you might, indeed, have a weapon that uses a clip. If you are writing anything post-WWII, your weapon, unless it is a revolver, will likely have a magazine. We recommend you do a bit of research on the specific model of weapon in your manuscript, including the year it was made.

Revolvers

A revolver is so called because the cartridges reside in a revolving cylinder.

Almost no revolver ever made has an actual manual safety mechanism. Like the semiautomatic, one trigger pull equals one shot. However, the brass shells are not ejected automatically. A shooter must open the cylinder and eject all of the shells simultaneously and reload. A shooter can hasten this process by using a “speed loader” to insert all of the cartridges with one motion. The legalities of revolver ownership vary from state to state, but revolvers are generally the most legally accepted of handguns.

Things to remember about revolvers:

1. Ammunition is loaded into a cylinder.
2. Revolvers virtually never have manual safety mechanisms.
3. One trigger pull results in one shot.
4. No brass is ejected.
5. Legal in varying degrees according to state law.

Semiautomatics

With a semiautomatic, ammunition loads into a removable magazine that usually fits into the pistol grip, like the ones pictured above.

To reload, a shooter drops the empty magazine out of the grip and snaps in a full magazine. Most people are able to drop a magazine and snap a new one into a semiautomatic faster than they can reload a revolver; however, a skilled shooter is just as quick with a speed loader. Like the revolver, one trigger pull always equals one shot. Unlike the revolver, the brass is ejected with each shot. Also unlike the revolver, a semiautomatic often has a manual safety device.

Semiautomatics are legal in all states, but only to varying degrees in different places. In a few states, they practically come as prizes in the bottom of Cracker Jack boxes, while in others, they are more difficult to obtain than a straight answer from a politician.

It is extremely common for a semiautomatic to be inaccurately referred to throughout media, movies, and TV as an “automatic” weapon. No matter how hot the journalist, movie star, or soap opera star might be, it simply isn’t so. If you make that mistake in your own writing, you are sure to get a bursting inbox full of corrections.

Things to remember about semiautomatics:

1. Ammunition is loaded in a magazine.
2. One trigger pull equals one shot.
3. Often has manual safety mechanism.
4. Brass is ejected, usually to the right of the weapon, every time a shot goes off.
5. Legality varies according to state. Some states make semiautomatics difficult to obtain, or they restrict the size of the magazine. Other states have the Cracker Jack Box standard.

Automatics

With an automatic weapon, the cartridges load into a removable magazine. The weapon is called automatic because when a shooter pulls the trigger, it automatically fires repeated bullets until the shooter takes their finger off the trigger. When the shooter fires, the brass shells of the cartridges are ejected from the weapon at high speed.

Modern automatic weapons are generally illegal for private ownership without special government procedures—emphasis on “generally.” There are three ways an individual in America can obtain an automatic weapon. . . .

The Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986 made it illegal for private individuals to acquire fully automatic weapons without special permission from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Private gun owners can still obtain one of the pre-1986 fully automatic firearms if they fill out a form, wait several months, secure a tax stamp, and purchase the firearm for an exorbitant amount of money—exorbitant because, according to the National Rifle Association, there are only around 150,000 pre-1986 fully automatic weapons in private ownership.

The second way private individuals can obtain an automatic weapon is by going through the intense process of obtaining a license to manufacture Class III/NFA firearms. Once the individual has this license, they can secure a conversion kit to modify a semiautomatic rifle to make it fully automatic. With the hassle and expense, though, we recommend using the money for a nice beach vacation rather than pursuing one of these weapons.

The third way to obtain an automatic weapon in America is the timeless and ever-popular method known as theft. If your characters try this method, especially with anyone who owns an automatic weapon, that owner might remember to use it on your character.

Things to remember about automatics:

1. Ammunition is loaded in a magazine.
2. One trigger pull equals multiple shots.
3. Likely has a safety mechanism.
4. Brass is ejected as the shooter is firing.
5. Illegal for private owners everywhere in the United States except with a very detailed, expensive process.

Other Factors

It’s worth noting that different types of ammunition and barrels impact accuracy and are used for different purposes.

For example, Bayard & Holmes use hollow point cartridges for self-defense because the bullets are less likely to pass through the target and harm someone behind them. Different barrels with different types of rifling are also used depending on the purpose at hand.

Firearms experts have written treatises about the many subtleties of ammunition and barrels. If you discuss types of ammunition and barrels in your fiction, we recommend you read one of these treatises before you commit your writing to stone or Kindle. If you make a mistake, firearms experts will call you on it, and they can be pretty rough about it.

Writing Tip:

Be aware that no matter how much you research, there are firearms aficionados who will write to you about the rarest and most obscure exception to whatever you say and tell you that you’re stupid. Don’t let that bother you. It’s what they live for. Be reasonably diligent in your vocabulary, hit the big things like “revolver,” “semiautomatic,” “automatic,” “clip,” and “magazine,” and you can be pretty sure the vast majority of your readers will be satisfied. As for the rest, don’t feed the trolls.

Thank You, Piper!

I love these action-packed genres and I’ve lost count how many times I’ve encountered otherwise great books that botched their gun research. One time, I tossed a book across the room when the character put the safety on her revolver *silent screams*.

If we are going to put anything in our books, firearms included, then we need to do at least the basic research…which is why I have posts like this to help!

We LOVE Hearing From You!

Any thoughts or questions? Piper is here to help y’all out so ask away.

Do your characters carry or use firearms? Which firearms do they use?

What are your firearms pet peeves in fiction? Do you have any questions for us?

SALE!

LIMITED TIME ONLY $2.99 — Click Here

What do the main intelligence agencies do and where do they operate? How do they recruit personnel? What are real life honey pots and sleeper agents? What about truth serums and enhanced interrogations? And what are the most common foibles of popular spy fiction?

With the voice of over forty years of experience in the Intelligence Community, Bayard & Holmes answer these questions and share information on espionage history, firearms of spycraft, tradecraft techniques, and the personalities and personal challenges of the men and women behind the myths.

Though crafted with advice and specific tips for writers, SPYCRAFT: Essentials is for anyone who wants to learn more about the inner workings of the Shadow World.

“For any author, this is the new bible for crafting stories of espionage.”

~ James Rollins, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Demon Crown

Piper Bayard and Jay Holmes of Bayard & Holmes are the authors of espionage tomes and international spy thrillers. Please visit Piper and Jay at their site, BayardandHolmes.com. For notices of their upcoming releases, subscribe to the Bayard & Holmes Covert Briefing. You can also contact Bayard & Holmes at their Contact page, on Twitter at @piperbayard, on Facebook at Piper Bayard, or at their email, BayardandHolmes@protonmail.com.

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The post Firearms: The Writer’s Guide to “Knowing Your Weapon!” appeared first on Kristen Lamb.