Our dear @SmurfHunter went exploring some of the Red Portals t | Ingress Updates [ENG]

Our dear @SmurfHunter went exploring some of the Red Portals that appeared tonight, and helped gather some more information about their behaviour. Here's what we found out, thanks also to reports from Agents in our Discussion Group!

These Red Portals appear to grow in Level if left untouched, (at a rate to be confirmed) the "plague" spreads to nearby Neutral Portals and Links get created to other Red Portals.
Ever watched the Ingress Anime?
This spread resembles a lot the one seen with Dark XM Portals in some Anime episodes.

Intel
• The Red Faction is called "Machina" on Intel Map data.
• [To Be Confirmed] The new Intel-x Map appears to be faster than the regular Intel

Hacking
• Hacking or Glyph Hacking the Portal yields keys and gear as normal.
• Hacking the Portal has a chance to zap you, which causes the entire XM bar to be depleted. This applies also on Drone hacks!

Attacking/Flipping
• Attacking the Portal causes Resonators of the Portal's level and Portal Shields up to Very Rare, Turrets, Force Amps to be dropped to the ground, along with some Portal Keys. AP gained is 75 AP (150 because of the Event) per Resonator destroyed.
• Using a Jarvis Virus or ADA Refactor on one of these Portals simply neutralizes it, dropping installed Resonators and mods to the ground.
• When a portal is destroyed, no messages pop up in the game alerts, but on the Intel Map the "X destroyed a Resonator on Y" message can be seen.
• Killing a linked Red Portal only destroys the link, does not stop the spread of the "redness"

Linking
• Red links block other Faction's links.
• Red Links appear to be created even over existing Blue or Green Links.
• Red Portals do not follow normal linking rules. Up to 11 links have been spotted originating from a single portal. In this case, the center was a L4 Portal

This post will be updated with anything new that's found by the community!

@IUENG