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Is there any way to give a droid a updated version of a computer virus?

This would seem to be an simple and effective way for the clone army to easily defeat the droids.

Ever heard of a ROM chip? Stands for Read Only Memory, you commonly find them in computers today, especially computers which have specialist functions like the engine control unit in a car. The only way to alter a program on a ROM chip is to physically remove it, and put in a different chip.

The droid brains probably have most core software embedded in this kind of chip, strictly limiting what kind of havoc a hacker could play. Encryption is easier then decryption in any case, we know even today that perfect encryption is possible. So a bunch of droids run physically enter the factory and alter the assembly line.

The reason modern computers, especially ones running Windows, get so many virus is because these operating system must by nature be open and highly flexible, since they are used for so many different things. A computer system with a specialists limited task is far far less vulnerable.

After all, just look at modern militaries, computers are already in everything from radios on missiles to the engines of hummves, but no ones running around hijacking them with a computer.

I would have thought a computer virus would not be efficient anyways post Episode I. Once the Trade federation stopped using Droid Control Ships there wouldn't really be a way to upload any malicious software en masse. Besides, why go through a lot of work to upload a virus when it's much more simpler to blow them up?

Sea Skimmer wrote:The droid brains probably have most core software embedded in this kind of chip, strictly limiting what kind of havoc a hacker could play.

For all known and predicted technologies this is more robust and, in large runs, cheaper. The disadvantage is that if a bug is found in the software, you can't just send an update out over the network, you have to do physical maintenance. But Star Wars software engineering technology seems to be pretty advanced, compared to both us and the Federation, so perhaps their software is just sufficiently high quality that this isn't an issue (realistic in any case, if specialised droid brains are used for droid brain design).

Plus the trend recently has been towards more and more DRM, to protect valuable IP and prevent people from using products in unintended ways. Given the heavy corporatisation of the SW galaxy I would not be surprised if most droid software was very heavily DRMed to impede both user modification and competitor reverse-engineering.

Encryption is easier then decryption in any case, we know even today that perfect encryption is possible.

However it's technically impossible to completely secure a platform where the user has both the cyphertext and the keys. You can force up the time investment and tools required, but there's no way to completely prevent reverse engineering. If you mean SW /networks/ use some from quantum encryption - well maybe some do, but it doesn't seem to be ubiquitous, given the amount of hacking we see in the EU novels.

The reason modern computers, especially ones running Windows, get so many virus is because these operating system must by nature be open and highly flexible,

The reason why they get so many viruses is primarily because Windows is a piece of crap, secondly because the current IT industry still priorities fast development and low costs over software quality and thirdly because contemporary software engineering is still a very immature discipline with relatively limited tools. It's true that if the code was burned into ROM (and execution from RAM was impossible) there would be no viruses by default, but general purpose computers are not inherently virus prone.

Adamskywalker007 wrote:Is there any way to give a droid a updated version of a computer virus?

This would seem to be an simple and effective way for the clone army to easily defeat the droids.

Yes. IG-88 was set to have every droid constructed on the world he took over to attack all live beings at his signal.

That didn't strike me so much as an example of an uploaded virus but as a sleeper protocol buried within the droids' standard programming.

Most likely, all you could do is change who they took orders from, and then only with difficulty. Hacking production lines would be different, but probably require physical access to the assembly line computers, in which case you could just blow them up.

This could be one of the things that keeps the Nemoidians awake as the reason the droids are so flawed is that they fear an uprising and so made them so difficult to alter to try and appease that fear.

(name here) wrote:Most likely, all you could do is change who they took orders from, and then only with difficulty. Hacking production lines would be different, but probably require physical access to the assembly line computers, in which case you could just blow them up.

Although this wouldn't eliminate all the existing droids. Maybe if you wrote code that made them start shooting friendlies as soon as they are given an open fire order.

Adamskywalker007 wrote:Is there any way to give a droid a updated version of a computer virus?

This would seem to be an simple and effective way for the clone army to easily defeat the droids.

It would depend on how the droid army was designed.

Astromech droids can be sent software updates that are stored and run from volatile memory. In the Wraith Squadron sub-series, the droid Thirteen reverted to its factory behavior (including a known bug) after its memory was accidentally wiped from an EMP blast.

A protocol droid in the Rogue Squadron, Emtrey, had programming installed into it to allow it to act as a spy. (Though I don't recall if the method of installation was ever specified.)

However, utility droids such as those can clearly benefit from receiving upgrades.

Military droids, on the other hand, may not have similar functionality, or may have safeguards in place to prevent unauthorized modification to their behavior. Most likely, any modification to a unit's programming would require physical access to that particular unit.

While I repressed almost everything from the book, wasn't there an EU novel between Black Fleet Crisis and the Correlian Trilogy (New Rebellion?) with just this plot device?