JustSix
Oct 15 2007, 06:22 PM
Hopefully this hasn't been asked yet, but I've got a question about teams and their commlinks. I'm still getting my head wrapped around SR4 Matrix rules, and this is something I could use help with.
Say you've got a team with a hacker on it. The hacker has a buffed commlink, while the rest of the team have average/crap commlinks. What would be the advantages to subscribing the team's commlinks to the hacker's commlink, creating a team network? Would opposing hackers need to crack the hacker's commlink before they could mess with the other team members' commlinks? Are the average/crap commlinks any more or less secure than before?
Any help would be appreciated...
DireRadiant
Oct 15 2007, 06:28 PM
Use Search, the older then 30 days option is always good.
Check the
FAQThere is an advantage to having the team subscribe to the better commlink, but it's more of a case of making monitoring the network easier, and reacting to hacks easier.
Any of the commlinks can be hacked directly regardless, but to compromise the entire network requires hacking the Hackers commlink. Hacking one of the weaker ones is just going to temporarily disable that one until the Hacker fixes or protects it.
One thing to think about when modeling Matrix Nodes is that Nodes = Network, so you can see that adding a single device can quite easily have no impact to the ease to which the entire network is hacked.
Dashifen
Oct 15 2007, 06:59 PM
Much of the SR4 Matrix is up to the interpretation of the GM and I think this is one of those situations. The biggest advantage that I usually provide a team in my games which networks their commlinks together behind the hacker's commlink is that the hacker can set their Analyze program to watch the entire network. Since the hacker's commlink is usually as strong as that character can make it, this can provide a better sentinel against intrusion than each individual commlink running their own Analyze at a lower rating.
deek
Oct 15 2007, 07:50 PM
Yup, GM interpretation...
And my interpretation is to simplify the runner's linked comms down to a single node...and that being the hacker's comm. So, I don't allow these "weaker" comms to be hacked unless they have access to the hacker's first, and thus accessed the "team node".
But then again, I like to abstract things down like this, YMMV.
kzt
Oct 15 2007, 08:08 PM
| QUOTE (deek) |
And my interpretation is to simplify the runner's linked comms down to a single node...and that being the hacker's comm. So, I don't allow these "weaker" comms to be hacked unless they have access to the hacker's first, and thus accessed the "team node".
|
As long as the other team members can't get phone calls while linked that's reasonable. If they can, they are being directly accessed from the outside. And more than just phone calls can directly access them. Increasing security always impacts functionality.
deek
Oct 15 2007, 08:18 PM
kzt, I understand where you are coming from there, but I don't see it the same way for my campaign. I view the networking functionality of a commlink as different than the phone functionality.
So, someone cannot call a person and use that "connection" to hack said commlink. Agree with it or not, that is just how we do it in our group.
Cheops
Oct 15 2007, 08:52 PM
@Just Six:
One of the advantages that no one has mentioned yet are the access of information. With everyone hooked up like that you can get visual from your teammates' positions, live feeds from their SL and other senses, and your hacker can paint all the combatants so you know who's friendly and who isn't.
Essentially, it allows all the Players at the table to act on information known to any of the Characters. No more having to think "does my character know what that character knows? or is that out of game knowledge?"
Tarantula
Oct 15 2007, 08:59 PM
deek: Do you allow someone to edit/spoof datastreams between the commlinks then?
deek
Oct 16 2007, 12:50 PM
Tarantula: Yeah, I do allow that as you can intercept the wireless signals, regardless of node. The reasoning I have behind that is that its basically one way communication. The datastream is not going two ways, its being intercepted and retransmitted. The hacker might notice a bit of a delay and want to investigate, though.
The thing I don't allow, is once the commlink is part of the team node, then another hacker must get into that node in order to affect the commlinks within it. The way I do that is that when looking for a node (with EW and Scan), you are only every going to find the single node, that of the hacker's commlink. So, you can't even see the other runners, as they aren't a node unto themselves.
Now someone will "see" that there is wireless traffic to the device, but that is between devices inside the node...
JustSix
Oct 16 2007, 02:06 PM
Thanks for all the replies. Next time, I'll check the FAQ first...
Tarantula
Oct 16 2007, 04:38 PM
Yeah... I don't buy that view. Good luck with it.
deek
Oct 16 2007, 07:25 PM
| QUOTE (Tarantula) |
| Yeah... I don't buy that view. Good luck with it. |
My players are fine with it...and honestly, that is all I care about.
Granted, if one of them brought it up and didn't think it was a good view, we'd talk it over and come to some end result that we all agreed with...but at this point, we are having good luck with the way its being run.
augurer
Oct 16 2007, 08:25 PM
| QUOTE (kzt @ Oct 15 2007, 03:08 PM) |
| QUOTE (deek @ Oct 15 2007, 12:50 PM) | And my interpretation is to simplify the runner's linked comms down to a single node...and that being the hacker's comm. So, I don't allow these "weaker" comms to be hacked unless they have access to the hacker's first, and thus accessed the "team node".
|
As long as the other team members can't get phone calls while linked that's reasonable. If they can, they are being directly accessed from the outside. And more than just phone calls can directly access them. Increasing security always impacts functionality.
|
Why wouldn't others behind the "firewall" be able to receive phone calls (or anything else)? Essentially all data is just being routed by the hacker's commlink to the final recipient.
There's nothing in canon that talks about DNS etc, but the Matrix works very similar to current day internet in my games. The hacker can set up his commlink to act as a DNS for all the other team members' comm codes, and set up packet forwarding rules for each comm code that routes authorized/sanitized data to the appopriate person's NAT address.
From what I've read of the SR4 Matrix rules, there's essentially nothing there that really explains how layered security can/should work. Since the "vpn" that the hacker has set up is still wireless, a hacker can still scan for hidden networks and attempt to connect to one of the team's commlinks as usual... but the centralized DNS setup does allow the team member's to use commlinks with relatively low Signal values, and the hacker has to be within range (and find them by scanning for hidden nodes) of their Signal to do anything to their commlink directly
Redjack
Oct 17 2007, 03:27 AM
The weak link breaks the chain.
My players had their team-net compromise in combat once when their street sam had his comlink (low firewall) hacked by a nearby hacker jumped into a fly-spy within PAN range of the sam. This did not give the hacker access to other nodes on the team net, but it did give them access to every video, audio and tactical feed coming into the sam's com. He then provided to his team the location of each of the team's runners.
They have also intercepted com signals and definitely learned the benefit of running an encryption program on their coms and their drones.
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