Spaceship security
DRAFT (needs work or removal)
Just thinking about how you’d secure your spaceship; for games, books, or other media.
A simple passcode makes the most sense. That way you can easily share the code with friends. And maybe have some “hacking” and passcode stealing. For games, where typing might be annoying, it could be replaced with a pattern, like the ones in smartphones, or another minigame, like the arrow puzzles in Helldivers.
But I wouldn’t imagine a world with spaceships having just the one solution. Or even a single implementation of a solution. Think how smartphones work, for example. They provide multiple methods of authentication, and varying implementations of the same.
Doors are not personal smartphones, however. You could have multiple passcodes given to different people, assign them to specific doors only, and then even revoke those passcodes.
Another option is fingerprint or face sensors. One case where it might not work is unsafe environments, which require you to wear a space-suit. It could be used if you connect the ship to the suit, and have authentication built into the suit. This could break with taking damage to the relevant sensors or the electronics in general. Disruptions in networking could also affect it. Also, not all people might be comfortable with it. Especially if it requires their data be shared online. They might not trust the security of the database, or they might have other reasons for keeping it private. So allow a fallback to passcodes or patterns.
Getting past these solutions would usually require clever workarounds on behalf of the “attacker”, since spaceship hulls are quite reinforced by necessity. However, people could cut through the locks on a door if they have enough time without supervision, and explosions are also viable in some scenarios, in addition to more powerful cutters/lasers or drills.
This would not be an issue for most people, since it would be a bit like how cars work right now. Their spaceships would simply blare an alarm, calling concerned citizens or even local security. They would rely on not being worth the effort, and other people noticing and reporting “attackers”. More advanced security is not really worth it for them, though there are a few options that I can think of.
One option is having turrets which activate if assumed hostiles get close enough. Approaching people can be verified by a network tag or other indicator, though it still doesn’t open the locks, which can activate the turrets if force is detected. The ship might also demand a facial or fingerprint scan. The safe range can be advertised through many ways: loudspeakers, network broadcasts, flashing lights in red or another colour, turret targeting without firing, warning shots from the turrets, signs that light up, and maybe even screens.
In some cases, turrets might be too loud. They could instead be replaced with lower powered and muffled turrets, or even with gases.
Additionally, players should be warned about approaches. This is an easy solution for civilian ships as well, although it won’t be as useful in crowded spaces.
For docking at a hangar, it could rely on trusting the controller. Maybe with a feed for actions taken by the controller.