Given that a minispydrone is in a location it's not supposed to be, a place with security that should be on the lookout for just this type of thing. Taking an general security hacker with Electronic Warfare 5 and Scan 4, to detect this drone, he'll get two to three hits each IP. Making it easier on the runner, we'll say he's in AR mode and he only gets two hits each combat turn. The test to find hidden nodes in general is EW + Scan (15+, 1 turn). So in eight turns (24 seconds), the security hacker will detect the bug. If we add a Stealth 6 program to the drone and add the Stealth rating to the threshold, the drone will be detected in just 33 seconds.

Doesn't this seem completely wrong to anyone else?

Nope it just means that if a Corp has a network and is paying for a dedicated Hacker to maintain security for the site then a spy drone is not going to be the best option for the runners to utilize.

No, it means spy drones are useless... as Lone star watches everypart of a city with A or better sec rating

I assume the drone is operating in hidden mode. What if you instruct the drone to turn off its wifi and only connect once an hour to download any content.

This should limit the exposure to the infiltration, the wifi data burst and the extraction. It's unlikely that EW surveillance will be continuous, so the drone is pretty much invisible.

Then you're into the realms of trying to spot bugs, for which I can't find any rules. But you're looking for, I guess, some sort of opposed roll between searcher and drone with threshold of at least 4 for the size thing. Intuition + perception vs pilot + stealth autosoft for physical search, or intuition + EW + scanner rating vs pilot + EW autosoft for electronic search, the second search stands a much better chance, which mirrors reality as most people use bug hunters not eyeball mk 1.

Also, spoof the bugger's ID. if they think it's a poster on the wall, they won't care if it's there.

Well, to find a particular node that you expect to be there, you first have to expect it to be there. if you have no reason to do a sweep, chances are you aren't going to find it.
This is also a good use of the Skill limit on rolls.

that falls under the distracted penalty.
But remember perception gets a +3 bonus if you are focusing only on finding something. Now, just how many times can a reasonably intelligent (2 to 3 Logic/Intuituin) be expected to focus that hard on something in the 6th hour of a shift?

I think the lesson we learned is that it's better to make your spybot part of the background noise (i.e.: spoofing to look innocent) rather than to outright hide it.

If you think you've been discovered, THEN go into hidey mode and attempt to relocate the drone to a safe retrieval position before shutting it down. As illustrated above, you have maybe half of a minute (on average) for the cops to tag your toy once they start looking.

The scan program doesn't list "all nodes" in a radius. It search for a PARTICULAR node... So, if you're running a spy drone in an area, the lone star patrol will have to KNOW that you're running that drone if they don't spot it with their eyes!

However, if they spot it with with their eyes, they will have to launch scan program if they want to locate the wireless network to then track it. And only THEN it will take 33 seconds.

Which is why you give it a dummy Security RFID that is connected to a fake commlink ID that has a legit purpose for the Flybot to be there. Meanwhile your upgraded flybot response, pilot and firewall are connected to yours. would you really continue looking once you found something remotely plausible? Lonestar is like most cops, if it looks like a duck, smells like a duck and quacks like a duck but the ID says Mallard, they probably aren't going to call for an expert to see if it's really a Baikal Teal, they'll call it a Mallard and leave it at that.

Right. So it looks like you get a list of all hidden nodes in the area, then just have to make that EW+Scan (4) test to isolate the suspicious one. So make that subtitle "Busted in 33 seconds"

But how do you decide which hidden node is suspicious? I mean, since almost all gadgets are wireless (and online), you will get thousands/millions of active, passive and hidden nodes.

SYL

Hidden Nodes are always suspicious - they are unusual and sometimes illegal.

or just someone that value their privacy...

Yeah, thats unusual.

so, the best way to hide a transmitter in SR4: leave it in active mode but have it fake what it is (like say a temprature monitor or something).

Actually, original posting credit for that idea goes to Nikoli.

So nice to be recognized.
I use that for my character, carrying two commlinks. One decoy with nothing useful in standard mode or passive, as is appropriate for the area, never hidden. the main comm is always hidden and has firewall & stealth out the wazoo.

Those folks with legit reasons for hidden mode in high security areas will present their license or other pertinent information when requested by an authorized Agent of the Law (Drone or otherwise).

apple, what makes you think that police would not have active or passive PANs? If nothing else so that the SINful can immediately call them for help without having to search them out.

Whicn brings a side point, when a guard, cop, or target can send out an SOS with a simple button press or thought it makes keeping things quite that much harder.

Which is why jammers are so important as well as ECCM. However, a rating 5 signal and SCCM basically renders jammers moot. I thin you should be able to use Logic+E. Warfare to up the "DV" of the jammer to make it more effective. with E. Warfare+ECCM to counter or "dodge"

Problem is - those would be perhaps operationg some things in Hidden Mode, but in most circumstances, it would respond to verification requests appropriatly.

BTW - the quote does state 'Thou shalt maintain complete radio silence'

as in, from the first test that they showed up in?

Why not? That would be activly playing hide & seek with the scanner... but that would reset subscriptions, too - they are based on an Access ID.

As part of one Complex Action?

Warning: not Backed up by any actual reading

With that above warning, i'm gonna have to go with Blakkie on this, just by "common-sense". Lets think back to the poor days where most of us were on dial up, and, alot of people were still using AOL (shudder). Now, in the world of Dial up, you get a new IP address every time you connect (Read:Access ID), However, just because that changes, AOL (read: Subsrcibed Lists) Still knows who all of your account buddies are, and they all know you. Now, if in 1994, AOL can manage to keep an account name with a varying IP afddress, i would think the hackers of 2070 would manage to say "ok, find new access ID, inform all subscribed objects of new id change... change ID..NOW... blip blop, maybe a moment while their Doorway™ OS hot connects everything (Doorway™ has detected a new subscription) but beyond that, i dont see a problem...

actually, your analogy is off. AOL you still have to sign in, that is your Access ID and how your subscriptions are maintained. While part of the ID is the machine address and that is likely changed in the hardwar ebased spoofing, you also are telling the network you aren't really Dr. Johansen but rather Mrs. Kettlebum.

While you could probably send out a command to all of your subscribed nodes saying, my Access ID changed and get all of them at once (sending the same command to a fleet of drones works so why not this?), I have to imagine that most hosts would not accept a command to change the Access ID. Legal devices/users would never change Access IDs, that is something only illegal users do. From that point, Spoofing should invalidate all of your existing subscriptions and start you over again. Otherwise someone could Spoof your Access ID just as easily and all of those nodes/devices would be very vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack.

Granted, there's nothing in the rules that says anything about this one way or the other.

Actually, there are such rules - Spoofing Commands.

I was referring to spoofing your Access ID forcing (or not) you to re-subscribe to all your nodes.

EDIT: Sorry for being unclear.

Ok, let me get this straight. There is a new version of car jacking: spoof jacking.

You're on a run and you've got a surveillance drone picking up vital information, when it suddenly vanishes off your subscriber list. A few minutes of searching later and there's still no sign of it. A few hours of investigation later and you've found out it was a bunch of 'jackers who specialise in stealing drones by spoofing their commands and taking them over for black market resale. And now you've got to get it back as Johnson's deadline is approaching fast.

Or you buy a drone off the black market and suddenly there's a lot of heat coming down, what have you done this time? (bought a stolen drone with a very important data onboard is what).

I like the new system its bringing out some really cool adventure ideas.