Paranoid Shadowrunner Coordination Options

[virgileso]

Alright, I have a player that wants to have two or three commlinks as a layered form of security.

One would basically function in open mode like any normal schumck's, and transmit SIN data for easy bank account access for walking into a coffee shop, and isn't actually connected to anything on the player's person.

The second would be well secured & constantly running in hidden mode.

The third would have the antenna ripped out so it can't connect to the Matrix, and maintains all of his illegal cyberware and the like over his skinlink.

The skinlink maintaining his illegal cyberware can't receive data, except through a keypad, only transmit data to the image link.

The question is this, can he maintain an image link between the second and third commlinks, assuming the two don't directly interact? Would there be any problems we should expect from this arrangement?

[Backgammon]

[Ravor]

Well personally I think I'd use the following setup instead.

Commlink A - Joe Average commlink, used as a public face, and in the very least connected to some form of image link so he can actually use the easy banking access and answer any questions that stores/pigs might want to ask him over AR.

Commlink B - His "gear" commlink, runs in Hidden Mode and mostly uses skinlink to connect to his various gear, can be connected to his cyberware PAN as needed, but should be connected to an image link that is seperate from Commlink A.

Beta-grade Datajack - Used to connect all of his cyberware through internal hardwiring instead of a commlink, and loaded with as much IC as it's ( Rating 5 ) can handle, his cyberware is programed by default not to talk to the outside world at all without using the datajack as a chokepoint.



Because unless I'm missing something I'm not sure that you would really want to use one-way communications even to your image links because then the image link has no way of letting the commlink know what data it has recieved as opposed to something that might ahve been lost.

[Ol' Scratch]

Keep in mind that I'm still trying to wrap my mind around all the Matrix rules. Everything else seems to have gotten simpler, but these rules are just as convoluted as they used to be. Oy!

That said, correct me if wrong, but the thing to do is as follows.

Step 1: Cheap commlink broadcasting whatever fake SIN and licenses you want or need it to, switching modes as appropriate to the situation and downloading new information from your other, more secure commlinks when necessary. This is your "I'm a legal citizen, please don't harass me on the streets" item that you can easily shut off completely when you need to hide your profile. It's not connected to your PAN at all; it's little more than a dummy SIN broadcaster and has no valid accounts in your PAN (effectively being it's own, unique PAN). They come with display systems so any information you need to see is easily accessible.

Step 2: Hardcore commlink with agents protecting it. Hidden mode, massive Firewall, best Analyze you can afford, the works. Wireless functionality turned off but not removed, operating only via skinlink. This has all your vital software and data stored on it. It also maintains your PAN, all of which have had their wireless functionality and RFID tags removed, but each having a skinlink where necessary so that you can still control them via this commlink.

Step 3: That's it. You don't need another commlink. If your hardcore one can be comprised with your entire network running completely through skinlinks and despite all the software protection you have on it, then any other one you have is just as vulnerable.

You can turn the wireless connectivity of your hardcore commlink on or off whenever you need to (such as updating El Cheapo with a new SIN or license), but having it turned off under all other situations. If the agent in your hardcore one detects an intruder (who can pretty much only hack into it if they slap some other kind of commlink with a skinlink onto your body or something), it can delay them long enough for you to power the commlink down. In which case, you're dealing with a drek-hot hacker and better hope you have one on your side, too, else you'll be "running in the blind" as it were.

[jmecha]

Just tossing this out here but......what if you did have that third comlink though, and it was full up with as many agents and or IC programs as it could hold......couldn't you transfer them from comlink 3 into comlink 2 incase comlink 2's defenses were being over ran?

sort of like carrying a spare magizine of ammo, except that you have an extra comlink full of agents and or IC.....hell why not carry a dozen comlinks full of your best agents and or IC programs to have a virtual army of little matrix helpers to defend your PAN and or ruin someone elses day?

[Ol' Scratch]

If someone could get around all those defenses without using any kind of wireless connection, what's to stop them from doing the same with another one you have? Or even "jumping over" as you're copying files, since you're obviously opening a connection between the two as its being hacked.

Like I said before, if the second commlink I described above is getting hacked, you're screwed anyway. Your only solution is to completely shut everything down and go Old School until another solution presents itself (like having your own hacker in the group).

[jmecha]

No arguement there...if you are not a Hacker and or do not have a hacker worth thier drek on your side, best to turn the gadgets off and run old school for a bit.

but if you were a hacker, would thier be a down side to having pockets full of comlinks, each comlink being full of agents and what not?

The reason I ask is because I know about jack and shit about the maytrix despite rereading that chapter a few times, and I am sincerely curious if this multiple comlinks full of agents idea is any good.

I sort of think of each of thoose comlinks as truck loads full of S.C.U.D. vending machines, when you need help in the matrix, just keep calling on disposable assassions until the job is done.

[Ol' Scratch]

I haven't absorbed the Matrix rules nearly enough to go there. I'm sure someone like the 'monkey or Tarantula will be able to help you out. :)

[sunnyside]

I know the army of agents thing has been discussed on other threads.

On the attack it isn't such a good idea as, unless your purpose is to take them offline for a bit, the target will surely detect multiple incursions and just shut down. Especially if there is a human there who can literally just shut it down.

Defensivly it's a different story. Now RAW never spells out how servers we know if an agent is independently in a node it uses that nodes ratings. Does that ever reduce reaction like it would if you were running that same agent? Never spelled out, so I guess they're "free". You could rule that piling all those agents in drops the rating however, at which point advantage goes to the live persona.

There is some other stuff. Honestly when you get down to it I just don't want to always have to swarm a PC with ICE should the get into a guarded node. Having them break into something and then saying "OK now make 50 stealth checks" isn't how I want to run things even on the darkest of systems. And therefore it shouldn't be beneficial for a PC to do so either.

The correct answer may be to hope they fix it in unwired and until then ask players not to do it.

[virgileso]

So is there an arrangement to have an image link (one-way) to their illegal cyberware through a wireless commlink (using skinlink or something)? Or is it even important to have an image link to it, or can you just let your cyberware be out-of-sight out-of-mind, rolling out a physical mini-screen (wireless, of course) if you have to get a status report.

[Tarantula]

The biggest issue I see, is why do you need a PAN on wireless? If its cyberware, it connects via DNI. If it isn't, (what isn't anyway? Smartlinks?) You can connect via fiber, or skinlink. Eitherway, its virtually hackerproof. Get a datajack, and just plug your gun into that. Hackerproof (provided you turn off all your cybers wireless and rely on DNI, possibly with a provision that should DNI fail, wireless turns back on.)

[Ravor]

I don't think one-way links have ever been touched upon in RAW, and unless you have fully self contained cyberware then you have to allow some sort of outside connection so you can't ever be 100% secure. That why I suggest using a beta-grade datajack as a nasty chokepoint for your cyberware, if built correctly it's unlikely (But not impossible.) that a Decker will be able to get through it undetected.

[tweak]

This thread got me thinking about Crazy Eddie from that old tv show "First Wave."

Are you going to throw any conspiracies into this game?

tweak

[Buster]

[Ravor]

Because Beta-grade Datajacks are ( Rating 5 ) and thus can be turned into a nastier chokepoint, while being protrayed as relatively easy to get ahold of in the fluff.

Delta-grade is ( Rating 6 ), but I figure that the extra hassle of getting it installed usually isn't worth the effort.

[Fortune]

[Tarantula]

Yeah, but why not for much cheaper (and at chargen!) buy a rating 5 commlink, and plug it in to your wireless disabled standard datajack?

[Ravor]

Because it's easier for a commlink to be lost or damaged, wires trailing from a datajack to a commlink is more noticable, and there are times when you might want to be able to reach out and connect with something through your Datajack so it's more flexable as well.


Besides, in the event of being captured, it's harder for the pigs to keep me from wiping anything illegal from my datajack then it is my commlink, especially if my datajack is wireless disabled.

*Edit*

Also my datajack is more fire and forget since I can have it loaded to the gills with IC at all times and won't have to worry about changing my program loads depending on the situation.

[kzt]

[Ol' Scratch]

Commlinks can be installed for only +0.1 Essence or +1 Capacity more than a Datajack, and that connection is just as eligible for alpha-, beta- and delta-grade upgrades as a Datajack is. They come with more toys, all of which are integral to your body now, and can be upgraded with even more toys with no additional Essence or Capacity loss.

Unless you're really pushing the envelope with your Essence score and nuyen is really hard to come by, Commlinks are superior to Datajacks in just about every conceivable fashion.

Oh, and Skinlinks rock.

[Ravor]

True, but when I actually get to play as opposed to being the GM I almost always play a Mage, so I have to be miserly with my Essense, I mean, there are just so many toys to get and I have a hard time limiting myself to one or maybe two points of burnt Magic. :cyber:

[Ol' Scratch]

In that case, a few 50-nuyen Skinlinks and a Commlink works rather nicely. 0 Essence loss, damn near the same level security.

[Ravor]

Sure, but security is only part of the deal, a datajack also gives me more flexiblity, plus I don't have to worry about losing my security if my commlink is lost or damaged for whatever reason.

Besides, having virtually unlimited headware memory is nothing to sneeze at either, especially when I can store and use know-softs, linga-softs, ect even when running completely wireless silent.

[Fortune]

[Ravor]

<><><><><><><><><><>


Beta-grade Datajack Chokepoint -Skinlink Adapted

( Responce 5 ) - ( System 5 ) - ( Firewall 6 ) - ( Analyze 5 )

( IC 5 ) - ( Analyze 5 )

( IC 5 ) - ( Analyze 5 )

( IC 5 ) - ( Analyze 5 )

( IC 5 ) - ( Analyze 5 )

<Storage> ( Attack 5 ) - ( Black Hammer 5 ) - ( Analyze 5 ) - (Encrypt 5 ) <Storage>


<><><><><><><><><><>


User and Security Access has been disabled, so a Decker has to hack Admin access just to get in.

Unless in active use the datajack is programed to cycle wireless every 15 minutes, this will force a Decker to use the hacking-on-the-fly rules. (Might be overkill since a datajack only has ( Signal 0 ), so a Decker would already be forced to get within 3 meters of me or have hacked into a system that my jack is connected to.)

Due to system load, the Node is running at ( Responce 4 ) until some of the IC are crashed.

The Node is programmed to make constaint Analyze Tests. (What this actually means depends on your DM, for some it means that the Node makes a test every IP and for others it means it gets to make one test per intruder.)

The IC are all subscribed to each other and make constaint Analyze Tests using the teamwork rules. If an intruder is detected an alert is sounded as they load up either Attack or Black Hammer depending on the nature of the intruder. (And unless I'm in the middle of something and really fragging need my datajack I'll sever the connection and smile as I imagine the dumpshock I just gave the Decker.)

If I wish to send an encrypted outgoing datastream then I either have to drop one of the IC or degrade the system to ( Responce 3 ).



Now I know that it isn't impossible for a Decker to be able to hack his way past this chokepoint by any means, but generally speaking it should be secure enough to keep a Decker away from my cyberware considering that in most cases she'd also have to have hacked my commlink as well before she could even get a chance at my datajack.

*Edit*

If your DM allows you to upgrade your Datajack to ( Responce 6 ) either by replacing the chip or by getting a Delta-grade jack, then add three more IC if you don't want to be encrypted all of the time in which case only add two. Or you can keep the exact same setting, and run the system at ( Responce 5 ) instead of ( Reponce 4 ), I haven't put much thought into seeing which would be the better way to go.

*Edit 2.0*

On second thought, disable User Access and make the default access Security Level, having Admin as the only access level has struck me as being slightly scary after alittle more thought.