DeathGrrrr attack

In the DeathGrrrr attack, a digital virus designed by DeathGrrrr infiltrated the shared code found in most spaceship sensor systems. The virus originated on August 9, 2922, from an unmarked sensor buoy parked in geostationary orbit within sublight broadcasting distance of Terra’s second-largest trade lane. Its release was timed to strike simultaneously around the galaxy. Within hours, hundreds of ships were carrying an unnoticed software slot-in; within a week, this package had unknowingly spread to a dozen star systems. The virus didn’t disable spacecraft (something which would have been extremely difficult given inherent safety backups unrelated to sensor suites), but it did lock every infected sensor suite to grayscale mode. Traffic ground to a halt until a fix could be reached. Billions of UEC in shipping were lost.

DeathGrrrr was never captured or even identified, and it remains unknown whether the attack was intended as a prank or something more sinister. An analysis of the software and the drone turned up nothing. But the method of infection was clear: a small worm script delivered directly to common-core code.

The winner in the situation was spaceship software company WillsOp. With their unique code, WillsOp’s sensors were unaffected by the attack. Overnight, the company became a household name and sales skyrocketed. Some newscasters went so far as to suggest that the company might even be behind the attack. Whatever the truth, by the end of the fiscal year, WillsOp had captured a 35% market share in the private spacecraft sensor market (up from under 1%).