right i am a hacker/drone rigger normally i am only a drone rigger but our hacker has just now become our GM so i've taken on that role too, and i was wandering how it is that i can protect myself from TM's and Hackers who can send themselves like an e-mail without me detecting it so that they can get under my firewall.

it is really frustrating as whilst they are in and undetected they can see and hear everything through my cyberware and then interfere with our missions and stuff????

High Firewall stat and analyze analyze analyze. Agent loaded with it and a high Black Hammer program.

sounds like a plan thanks

Can't underestimate a good Agent or three, all of them constantly Analyzing, with orders to drop the Hammer and dispense indiscriminate justice on anything that's not you.

Having that work well may require you to up the system ratings in your most critical drones. Normally they're rating 3.

Note that you can increase firewall higher than other ratings. Per the FAQ it isn't limited to system/response like other programs.

In fact in SR missions you see things like drones that are rating 3 everything except firewall 5 or 6.

Also note that generally you can remove at least user level access. This makes the drones harder to hack on the fly. And unless your on a stackout people won't have time to probe them.

@SD: That pretty much sums up the security strategy of my mage (who has a cybercom-link).

Upping the system ratings is not necessary - the agents can run on a/the comlink, so their max. rating depends on the comlink, and while they do use the response of the node they are on, you´ll lose max. 2 dice. Run a few more agents instead to compensate.