After rebirth, I became a great master

Chapter 363 Home Advantage
"memorandum?"

Ning Yuanjia immediately remembered.

Zhou Haoran previously visited the United States and discovered that Oracle had employee cards that could be used for attendance tracking, access control, and payment in the cafeteria.

This thing is too low in technology.

There is no need to keep it a secret.

Seeing that Zhou Haoran was interested, Oracle sent him a memo on application maintenance.

This document details the issues that arose after Oracle's employee ID cards were implemented. It also provides a detailed record of the causes and solutions to these problems.

There are over a hundred.

Zhou Haoran said, "Companies like Oracle have very strict product specifications. Our campus card is indeed not in use yet, and no one can say what minor malfunctions might occur in the future. But we have Oracle's memos as a reference."

“This…” Ning Yuanjia didn’t think it was very valuable. “We are different systems, and even our application languages ​​are different.”

Zhou Haoran smiled and said, "Different software and different hardware are individual problems. What we need to find are the common problems of this smart card. From a technical point of view, Oracle is much stronger than the University of Tokyo. The problems that Oracle can discover and solve may have been troubling the University of Tokyo for a long time."

"Common problems..."

Ning Yuanjia's eyes lit up, and he understood what he meant.

It's just like a mobile phone.

This phone has a good touch feel, while that phone has a bad touch feel; that's an individual issue.

However, any mobile phone is prone to freezing in low temperatures. In mountainous or suburban areas, the signal will be very poor.

This is the commonality.

Some phones found a solution and had strong signals even in the mountains; others couldn't solve the problem for a long time, so poor signal became a synonym for the phones generation after generation.

Zhou Haoran asked, "You printed out the memo, right?"

"Yes, but it's the English version."

Ning Yuanjia's English proficiency is not very strong, and he finds it difficult to read English materials, which is his weakness.

"Bring it here, let's study it together."

Zhou Haoran had already figured out a way to deal with the University of Tokyo campus card.

The memos provided by Oracle revealed some thorny common issues.

While waiting for testing.

Leveraging home advantage, we can address this common problem by developing our own campus card, which is not feasible with the University of Tokyo's campus card system.

Which one is better and which one is worse is clear at a glance.

The memo was very detailed.

The first part is about offense and defense.

Where there is technology, there are vulnerabilities.

Where there are loopholes, bad people will take advantage of them to seek illegal profits.

For example, one of them involves "wireless eavesdropping," where radio frequency signals may be intercepted by malicious devices, and attackers can crack the key by sniffing the communication.

Another example is a "replay attack." If the smart card system does not use dynamic keys or timestamps, a replay attack can copy the door opening signal.

Other examples include "side-channel attacks," "cloning and simulation," and so on.

Zhou Haoran didn't pay much attention to this part.

Different national conditions.

The privacy protection requirements in the United States are too high. If employees use Oracle's employee cards and cause a large amount of information to be leaked, Oracle may face a class-action lawsuit and have to pay hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars.

Therefore, they must conduct in-depth research in this area.

It's not needed domestically.

Once it's leaked, it's leaked; nobody cares.

This means there is no incentive to seek personal gain.

If you're capable of attacking and cracking smart cards, you're an industry elite with skills even better than Dr. Ning Yuanjia. What can't you do? Stealing personal information doesn't make money!
The second part is about protocol and software layer bugs.

This can also be ignored.

It's not easy to display.

The third part is about hardware design flaws.

This needs to be given serious attention.

On the day the campus cards from both sides are compared and tested, many school leaders will be present. No one will look at the codes; they will only look at the accuracy and response speed of the campus cards when interacting with the card reader.

"Simultaneous operation of multiple devices or a strong electromagnetic environment can cause communication failure." Zhou Haoran's eyes lit up as he looked at the English translated into Chinese. "This is great!"

Ning Yuanjia said, "The radio frequency chip doesn't need to make contact; it emits signals and then makes contact with the card reader. Since it's signal transmission, there will inevitably be situations where signals interfere with each other."

Zhou Haoran narrowed his eyes. "Their radio frequency chips are from Tokyo Electron. The quality isn't very good, is it?"

Ning Yuanjia laughed and said, "They are definitely not as good as the chips we purchase from Mikron. In terms of anti-interference and signal stability of radio frequency chips, their products are definitely not as good as ours."

Zhou Haoran said happily, "This is great, we should make use of it!"

Ning Yuanjia said, "Our radio frequency chip has a strong signal sensing capability. On the day of the test, we'll get a few mobile phones, make all the calls, and secretly slip them into our bags. We'll also get a few radios, all muted. Then, the whole room will be filled with signal, and their campus cards will definitely perform poorly!"

"Hmm, very good! And this too, electromagnetic environment."

"Yes, transformers, motors, scanners, computers, and the like can all generate electromagnetic interference. Electromagnetic interference can also weaken the signal of smart cards."

“We should make use of this too!” Zhou Haoran pointed to the memo, which contained a solution. “Look here, we can coat the inner layer of the card reader with high-quality electromagnetic shielding material to isolate the internal circuitry from the external electromagnetic environment, ensuring the accuracy and stability of signal transmission.”

Ning Yuanjia wasn't excited. "This solution is just so-so, a temporary one. You could come up with it in a flash, right? The University of Tokyo should have the equipment, right?"

"Not always!"

Zhou Haoran has been immersed in the industry for many years and has a deep understanding of the characteristics of Japanese IT products.

In the technology sector, the US and China follow the same path: cost is king, getting more done with less money is best, and a shorter lifespan isn't necessarily a bad thing. Germany and Japan follow the same path: they both pursue excellence, aiming for products that last for decades without breaking down.

Applying electromagnetic material to the casing of a card reader is a simple, crude, and cheap method, but it lacks technical sophistication and doesn't align with the product values ​​of Germany and Japan.

Applying the material is easy, but it won't last more than a few years before it peels off.

This only treats the symptoms, not the root cause!
It doesn't align with their product philosophy.

The US and China don't care. As long as it's cheap, effective, and usable, that's enough. If the materials fall off in a few years and the signal becomes unstable, isn't that even better? Customers will have to buy new ones, which will greatly increase product sales and make more money.

This leads to a phenomenon.

German and Japanese products have gained a good reputation, but their corporate profits have declined, and their international standing has decreased. Meanwhile, Chinese and American technology products, despite their generally poor quality, have swept the globe with high sales volumes thanks to their affordable and high-quality products, making them incredibly profitable.

Ning Yuanjia suggested, "I believe that knowing yourself and your enemy will ensure victory in every battle."

"Ok?"

Zhou Haoran thought it made a lot of sense.

Ning Yuanjia said in a low voice, "If we want to introduce the University of Tokyo's campus card, the school must first have a technical team to conduct an assessment, right? We may not know their situation, but someone else must."

"Yes, we need to take advantage of our home field."

Fudan University is Zhou Haoran's home turf, and he has abundant resources.

“The technical team didn’t even recruit anyone from our college.” Ning Yuanjia said with some indignation, “It seems that Vice President Zhang Xuezhen is deliberately avoiding the Computer Science Department and has recruited people from the Communication Engineering Department.”

Zhou Haoran snorted, "He's feeling guilty!"

"Don't you know Professor Gao Xiangwen? Go ask him. I think he's the leader of the technical team."

Compared to the memorandum, this was what Ning Yuanjia was most interested in.

“Okay, I’ll go find him!” Zhou Haoran was completely relieved now and laughed, “Then this matter is settled! Get their detailed information, then pinpoint their weaknesses, and match them one by one according to the causes of the bugs recorded in this memo. All set!”

……

The Red Mansion Teahouse has closed down.

All the old buildings in that area have been demolished.

Zhou Haoran is now a senior student.

He wants to put that sign back up.

We need to find a new place.

Where are you looking?

Zhou Haoran had a bit of a headache.

Tea culture isn't popular here in the harbor area; coffee shops are everywhere. It's the coffee capital, the city with the most coffee shops in the world.

There are only two types of people who drink tea.

At the very top, a tael of tea costs tens of thousands of yuan, reflecting status, while coffee is too cheap; at the very bottom, a pound of tea costs only two yuan, much cheaper than coffee.

Who are the customers of Honglou Teahouse?

One or two hundred years ago, there was no distinction.

Because merchants had such a low social status, no different from peasants, they would practically kneel and kowtow to any official they met.

Things are different now.

If the Red Mansion Teahouse primarily caters to businessmen, then it must target the high-end market and become a business club. The venue cannot be too ordinary; it can't be as simple as just finding any place to open a shop.

There are three options.

First, open a shop in a five-star hotel.

The area is too small.

To accept hotel management is too low a standard.

Second, rent two floors in a luxury office building.

That's how many business clubs in the capital operate.

It is both mysterious and grand.

They are also very low-key and not easily discovered by ordinary people.

This approach lacks originality.

It also lacks the historical heritage symbolized by the "Dream of the Red Chamber Teahouse".

The localized office building seemed somewhat out of place.

Therefore, Zhou Haoran chose the third path.

Since the port opened, development has mainly revolved around the banks of the Huangpu River, where there are many old buildings that are one or two hundred years old. There are department stores, restaurants, and European-style mansions.

Most of them have been nationalized, and some have even become architectural relics.

But Western-style buildings are different.

The dilapidated buildings were all demolished.

Okay, they've either been bought by private individuals or occupied by the government. For example, the Harbor Writers' Association is located in a beautiful garden villa.

Zhou Haoran wants to buy a European-style detached villa near the Bund!
It has both history and unique characteristics.

It can carry on the legacy of the "Dream of the Red Chamber Teahouse".

Otherwise, if the location is too poor, even a senior gentleman like him would be embarrassed to take over as the "master".

Zhou Haoran then contacted Jiang Feibiao of Narcissus Electric Appliances.

Please ask him for help.

These kinds of houses are so expensive that even money can't guarantee you a purchase; you need to pull some strings first.

(End of this chapter)