If Liber8 can hack Keira, why doesn't Keira or Alec hack them back?

Question

Of the people who were sent to the past, three to date have been shown as having CMR implants. These three are;

• Keira Cameron, the CPS agent protagonist,
• Elena, the CPS agent that was sent back to 1975, revealed in "Second Skin",
• Travis Berta, a member of Liber8

It is revealed that Travis has the CMR implant in an earlier episode, in which Sonya Valentine is instructed to "terminate" the project (him) and shut down the operation she has been working on. This is shown as the point in which Sonya and Travis swapped sides.

There is a particular plot point in the episode "Second Skin";

While trying to locate the second suit, which Elena had been wearing when she was sent back to 1975, Alec "power cycles" all other CMRs connected to the network (excluding Keira). This causes Elena's CMR to power up, and Travis to experience a sudden and intense pain.

In addition to the plot point from Second Skin, there is an earlier episode - "Playtime" - in which;

Lucas Ingram hacks into Keira's CMR to take control of her and force her to take actions that she would not normally take, against her will.

With these two instances being revealed as something that can happen as a result of having the CMR implants, what is stopping the protagonist from utilising these methods to control the threat that Travis Berta obviously is to the security of the future?

Answer 1

The CMR Travis has is a militairy version of the CMR. It could be of a higher security level than that of Keira. Based on the same technology, but better/different security/firewall to avoid having the supersoldier hacked (which is more dangerous than having a normal officer hacked)

The fact that Travis got the intense pain reaction while Keira's partner did not could be because it was off but it could also hint at a difference in CMR soft/hardware.

The fact that they have not tried to access his CMR is still left unresolved. Unless I missed something, it could be that Keira is unaware of Travis' CMR. In the last episode, Alec says that 'someone else was accessing the network'. They do not assume it is Travis, which is a valid reasoning if they would know about the CMR. As the supersoldier project was terminated quickly and highly confidential, Keira might not know all the details about Travis' upgrades.

Answer 2

I agree with Origin pointing out that Travis's CMR is super-soldier version with more advanced firewalls in place and also the lack of knowledge about his CMR.

To add to that, remember Keira's CMR was hacked physically using that head gear when she was playing that game. The code to hack was built into the game. In a way, she voluntary allowed to be hacked. No matter how good computer security gets, it remains vulnerable in real-world situations.