I need some help for the background I'm writing because to be honest I couldnt hack my way out of a paper bag even with a device made for people who cant hack their way out of a paper bag.

I know you can find a lot of info in the shadowrun books but still there's tons of info out there that can help me make the background, what I'm looking for is info on hacker ettiquete, hacker ethics and things like that because well, half the fun of building a char is making the background.

What kind of character do you have in mind? One can become a hacker through many different life paths in SR4.

Thinking of a former member of a hacker gang, but even general info on hackers is welcome

Hacker

You know what being a hacker is about? The Matrix, hardware, software, commlinks and agents? Wrong. It's all about the data. You've got to understand something: everything is data. You are just a product of some data encoded in your DNA with some additional data stored in your brain. When you act, you're just reacting to whatever data you're getting. Data is the most valuable of things. You might have tons of gold, but it just takes one piece of data to get the gold price down.
He who controls the data controls everything. Now think about it: who does? Corps. Where do they store it? The Matrix. Starting to get something, chummer?
The data should be free, nobody should get control of everything. That's why I do what I do. That's why I liberate proprietary data on shadow nodes. That's why I'm a hacker

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That's one kind of hacker. Some hackers are just people who take things apart to see how they work, out of curiosity. Some just see hacking as a profitable business with low risks compared to other illegal actions... There are a lot of different ways to consider hacking.

There's a very real possibility that you'd still be in a hacker gang, unless you had a specific reason for leaving. Which might allow for an interesting background in and of itself. With most gangs, you're in for life. If you leave, they won't like you very much. They'll harass you, or even try to kill you if you're still on their turf, or if you ever end up on their turf. Which could be a good time (for the player, not so much for the character).

Also, a paper bag is probably fairly hard to hack your way out of. Unless it's the Gaeatronics PB2.0

thanks

putting together the two suggestions here (white hat data liberator + matrix gang) could actually be the skeleton of a sweet backstory. I'd say that the character (now called Bob) goes groping around for the truth on the matrix for truth. He falls in with a data liberation hacktivst cell / matrix gang. Thematically go rewatch way Mr. Anderson finding Trinity. Bob and his crew spend a couple years fighting the good fight and getting really tight. Then someone betrays the crew. This leaves one member dead, and you black ICed and dumped shocked near to death. The leader loose massive cred, and the crew is rocked by discord. One crew member is in love the the fallen comrade and blames the leader for their death. Another thinks the leader should have been able to see the betrayal coming or stopped it as it was going down, or at least handled the fall out better. Your character had to pay off the massive debts they owed for hospital bills and this white hat pro bono shit just wasn't cutting it. That's when bob started to do regular shadow running on the side.


What i like most about this set up is mixed loyalties, and rampant plot hooks.

How about cribbing bits/all of Ed(ward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV)'s bio?

The idea of Ed already crossed my mind but I see her more as a technomancer instead of a hacker, weavermount's idea is good I'll take bits and pieces from that.