Network Fragmentation

Network Fragmentation is a known risk for Ansible communication networks resulting from the loss of Mother Stone fragments. Every device connected to an Ansible Network requires a fragment of the network's Mother Stone in order to communicate. When devices are discarded, stolen, or otherwise lost, the fragments they contain are lost as well. Since anyone in possession of a Mother Stone fragment can both send and receive messages on the network, it is possible for bad actors to hack into communication channels via stolen or reclaimed fragments.

Mitigation

Though messages on an Ansible Network are typically encrypted, the network itself remains open to anyone with a Mother Stone fragment. As a result, individual networks (Such as the Starchild Network) employ a variety of mitigation tactics to ensure that all distributed fragments are accounted for.

Self Destruction

Most commonly seen in the various lines of LionFire VR equipment, this mitigation tactic sees a device's fragment installed with a sort of "self destruct" mechanism designed to render the fragment functionally inert in the event of an unauthorized removal. When the failsafe is triggered, the fragment is designed to crumble. Though the sand-like residue that remains is technically a collection of fully functional fragments, the individual grains are too small for existing devices to successfully send or receive vibrations.

In practice, this technique is used in conjunction with other mitigation tactics, as the deliberate destruction of a Mother Stone fragment is not a sustainable practice. While there are several theories regarding processes to reconstitute the residue into a serviceable size, none of those theories have produced tangible results. As a result, destroying fragments outright is considered to be an unsustainable practice, and is treated as a last resort.