In SR4, a really skilled hacker can interfere with drones, vehicles, and even handguns. So why not connect everything by fiber optics and add a great big "shut down all wireless modems" button? It would be extremely inconvenient and require a bit of cyberware (if nothing else, a datajack and some sort of router) to make it work, but I could definitely see this being used by paranoid street samurai.

You know. One of these days players will learn that if you hack cyberware all you get is the diagnostics output. You can't make people punch themselves in the face with their own cyberarm. It does not work that way. Why else is a cyberarm connected to your NERVOUS SYSTEM?

For guns you could get (and maybe spoof it though I doubt it*) the smartlink system. Fire it if they have a triggerless gun (most people don't). But not aim it.

*Smartlink as I understand it requires a camera on or in the gun. Spoofing the smartlink system would require providing near-correct but wrong video feed.

EVERYTHING comes with Wire-Less Capability built in.
Yes, even your underwear. even the coffe that you allready drank.
It can be switched off, of course, but to get it to be GONE, you have to get rid of it by tinkering BEFORE you install something . .
Of course, the paranoid street-sam will do something like that.
But if you did not, specifically, state your intent before getting ANYTHING . . yeah, you are wifi-capable.
Because in SR4 society just ticks like that. People allready look at me funny when i tell them that i neither have nor want a cellphone.
Now imagine that in the Solid State Society of SR4.

Theoretically, couldn't a hacker turn off your cyberware as well? It's kind of impractical for a combat situation, as it'd take a bit for the hacker to get in, and it'd be just a mental command for the original user to turn the cyberware back on

Personally I don't think so. If cyber can be turned off, I wouldn't expect anything other than a physical hardwired switch.

Reasoning? You'd only need to turn it off if you're doing repair work or getting it put on/taken off.

But feel free to run your cyberpunk your way where anyone with a little money can hack everyone's limbs...

(Though our GM did come up with the idea of a trid show, I forget now what he called it, but it shows a street monitored by a security camera, the first person to make someone slip/trip by hacking cyber wins.)

I personally feel that the ability to mess with cyber and other "personal electronics" is half of what makes the Wireless Matrix worth bothering with in the first place. Hackers can do stuff besides sit in the van and edit cameras if they want to. That's a big win in my book.

In my book as well, thoguh it is generally not EASY... and can be made more difficult if you do it intelligently...

EDIT... OOOOOps Doubel Post...

Most 'ware can't be significantly altered without a direct neural connection, the wireless link is for diagnostics and stuff. That said, if you hack into a datajack or a simsense unit you can in turn hack into someone's DNI and send command to the 'ware.

Smartguns, by definition, can fire wirelessly. You have have to explicitly turn that feature off if you didn't want it to do that.

Really though, hacking in electronics is an important part of what hackers do. While most runners(and high end security teams) will practice good matrix security so that they are difficult if not impossible to hack, people who don't run the shadows for a living will usually sacrifice security for ease of use.

It's called a Gargoyle Rig, and yes, some of us have been promoting them for quite a while. Unlike skinlink, a Gargoyle rig doesn't require a mod on every single bit of equipment you own. It just needs you to string fibre between everything. It also gives you greater throughput than a skinlink, since you get less crosstalk.

Fibre costs about 5 nuyen metre^-1. Unless your limbs are 10m in length it's cheaper.


Draco,
Diagonistics also include full range motion tests. You can't really tell if a joint is properly working without doing one since there may be things in the joint that are invisible to normal sensors. Even if we have sensors that are capable of performing a full analysis of the situation, it's cheaper to do a motion test than throw it in. Always.

Diagnostics take machine time, so even if you only have diagnostics available you can switch off their wired by spawning an infinite loop of diagnostic tests. If it includes range tests, so much the better.

What to keep in mind about cyberware, smartlinks and similar is that they will only have admin account available.

Thats a +6 on the hack attempt.

Also, one do not need to full on bondage queen just to get out of the wireless thing.

Make sure all gear is equipped with skinlink.

Another trick would be to run two (or more) separate comlinks. One deals with your pan, smartlink and all, and talks to a set of contacts or cybereyes (this comlink would be totally off the matrix). Then you run your communications comlink using a ear piece and monocle (or shades).

Your team hacker wants to show you something? pop the monocle in place and have a look. The smartlink crosshair on the other hand will always be in place when you grab your gun.

And maybe keep a couple of extra communication comlinks stashed around the plex. Or have some certified cred in a hidden compartment on your body, so that you can grab a throw away if your com is burned.

Only as a houserule, there is nothing in SR4 or unwired that claims such a issue.

Hacking the cyberarm to grab the neck and then followed up by a maximum force test. The only unfortunate thing with that is that it will definitely kill the person.

That's a free grapple followed by redlining the strength of the arm.

The way I would go around this problem is that the diagnostic software is not installed in the cyber. It is a proprietary piece of software used by cyber doctors and demands a license. This way corps can squeeze money out of users through elective medical tune-ups.

Did I say it had any ingame effect?





Incidentally, I believe this should also apply to spoofing these devices.

Good point.

In either case, I'm betting that you could access diagnostics data without the testing software ("How well has this joint been performing under normal use?" kind of stuff, rather than full range of motion testing, but rather observatory data).

All diagnostic systems (and I mean all of them) will let you bypass complicated I/O systems and directly modify each individual output. While making someone punch themself in the face would require superhuman on-the-fly coding abilities, replacing the input from a user's central nervous system with a random number generator would actually be pretty easy. Having a rapidly spasming limb is bad enough, but having a rapidly spasming limb that can crush steel bars is much worse.




The smartlink system is, if I'm not mistaken, linked to the clip release. And the safety. Mess with either of them, and you've got a very ornate paperweight.




Bingo.

Disabling wireless capability even temporarily is going to be a big pain in the ass - for starters, you'll have bits of cable looped around your body, and many things suddenly become very inconvenient. You might still be able to connect to smartguns via a skinlink, but you'd have to have all your gear connected to you at all times by a conductive material. Group communication would be severely limited, and fuggedabout the matrix.




......what color is the sky in your world? It's obviously not the same one I live in. Firmware-level spoofing is widespread even today, from Hackintoshes to Rockbox'd iPods to ink cartridges that tell the printer they're brand new each time you refill them. Do you think it will be any less so tomorrow?

Today's cars have incredibly complicated computers inside them.

Can YOU start up a diagnostics run on one?

No.

Why?

Because all of the software and equipment necessary to get it to do that is a giant honking box sitting in the mechanic's garage.

Nope, but nor did you specify that it was not...

Well oops, pesky unwired messing up my point...

And in SR, the computing power found in that honking box can be found in the pocket of a gang member, and then some...

Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-Board_Diagnostics

There is even plugs for that socket that can convert to bluetooth. 10 meter access range, at least...

And some interesting software to use that with:
http://openbossa.indt.org/carman/

But in the end, it comes down to how your group of players wants to play the game...

Admittedly it's not like you can do anything damaging to the car while it's moving.

Cyberlimbs on the other hand could be quite dangerous to the user if hacked, so you'd want to keep the level of control available to the wireless network to a minimum.

Not to mention that cyberlimbs have signal rating 0.

I imagine that a cyberarms user would be involved in the standard diagnostic testing of a cyberarm, so a simple, "Please flex your elbow ... Thank you. Now, extend ..." would be easy and appropriate. I can't see how any marketing campaign could convince the general public that allowing someone else to control your body would go over well. I can see spoofing diagnostic signals, giving false warnings, which might cause the owner to hesitate, or even hold back, but outright control, even for a second, seems far fetched.

I don't see how this hinders hacker usage in the field, either. There are so many other things to hack, besides the occasional cyberware, such as peripherals (gloves, glasses, earbuds), communications, locks, security devices, vehicles, etc.

That's what I've always said. Hacking cyber is one of the least effective things a hacker can do in combat. Even with the reduced hacking times (complex actions!?) in the current edition.

How about this then, the hacker only uses the diagnostics access to get inside, the actual override is thanks to some undocumented "feature" of the software/firmware running the arm...

Maybe the programmers that wrote the firmware had a test interface to simulate DNI signals back when they where developing it, and just disabled the ui access to it when they shipped the final product? And the hacker is just prodding the right areas of memory to trigger that latent code, hot coffee style?

I don't see the issue here.

The first problem is getting in. As a general rule wireless on stuff like that will be disabled. They make special injection vector nanites just to go in and enable wireless interfaces on things which normally have them disabled.

The other problem is signal... even if it is on.. the signal rating is pretty weak, so you need to be very close, or have a top flight directional antenna.

If you have that much cyber, you really should have some baseline cyber skills of your own for opposed tests and self-defense decking.

Similarly if things get turned off... it's not just a wink and a nod to turn them back on. Remember, the reboot rules... it takes time for devices to reboot based on their system ratings. So it's much more akin to having your leg fall asleep at the wrong point in time.. yeah you can turn it back on... but can you hold out long enough for it to come back on while it's effectively paralyzed for combat purposes.

If someone can overcome the two biggest problems... getting past shutdown interfaces... busting through the security... (especially because this stuff really should be slaved to another device w/ a much better firewall/security rating... I always liked putting in a cybercommlink in the capacity of the cyberlimb to slave all the cyber to). Then they deserve a chance to do a little bit of damage, be a little annoying.

I would balk at trying to pull off fine motor tricks... (you haven't cutoff the users mental link to the device) so it's an opposed test at best for your commands vs. his own innate mental control. Though I'd have nothing against an ongoing struggle taking place w/o the kit doing exactly what either guy wants.

Hmm, i just had the mental image of the hacker doing a jedi handwave followed by the sound of the magazined of the guards guns hitting the floor.

On the points concerning signal, does a rating of 0 really matter if your own is say, 3? If you're a block away in the van, then shouldn't your own 400 meter reach be enough?

Yes, actually.
Though I don't know what RAW says, but I'm betting that it's the weaker of the two. That's the way it works in real life!

On signal... no

Think of it this way... you're putting out enough wattage to go 400m. But the other guy isn't.

Or a more extreme example... you can pickup the high power radio emissions from a satellite (say direcTV). But the satellite is going to have a VERY hard time picking up your weakass signal against the background noise, unless you can put some juice behind it. (higher signal rating... satellite uplinks don't come cheap).

Or another take... there's a signal rating 2 bug, in the presence of a rating 2 jammer. Your commlink is rating 3 and out of range of the jammer. The bug is still jammed and out of range w/ an effective signal of 0 despite your higher signal rating on the other side.

Receiving data is one thing (DirectTV), it's the sending that's the problem, and you need both to hack.

Hacking cyber need not be about fine control.
A hacker could simply delete the firmware that interprets your nerv impulses to movement. Result: dead limb.
Hacking cybereyes to shut the pupil. Blindness modifiers arent fun.
The fun you can have reversing the friend/foe designation of someones smartlink is not to be missed.
Any of these and more are possible if your foes are stupid enough to leave wireless active on cyber.

Theres a good reason for the mention of turning wireless off on cyber in the main book.

On topic of signal range, cracking the firewall takes two way com, and therefor needs to be within range of the lowest signal rating, but spoof do not...

Yes. At least I could in 1996. Nothing like performance tuning a Grand National while doing 75 on the interstate. That supercharger was sweeeet once we got the fuel air mix right. You could control the throttle through the software via the cruise
control interface.



Because I had a 486 laptop. My friend supplied the GN. and ordered the parallel port adapter cable and the software from an auto supply company. His mom worked at the parts company. Yay employee discount.



Yeah, that's just a pc in a big metal box. The box is big so the pc can stay cool and metal to protect it from mechanics, tools and cars.

This is what I was thinking, but I just remembered that spoofing an order first requires a matrix perception test, which in theory should still be two-way. Let's just say you where able to get close enough to this guy at the dinner table to get his access ID; after the date, this guy's your bitch, right?

Indeed, if you have the accessid of anyone able to send commands to the targeted node (rember, a node is a computer, from the rfid in your boxers to the renraku mainframe) if said accessid have the correct rights.

Think is tho, i'm not sure if the persona, who's accessid your spoofing, needs to active on the target node at the time, of if he just needs to be listed in the nodes subscription list. I cant really say the rules are clear on that topic.

Ugh, never mind. You cant spoof a generic node. Only agents, drones (a agent in a can, more or less) and sprites can be spoofed. Been a while since i read the spoof description it seems.

So if you want to play around with mr chromes internals, you have to get familiar with his firewall(s)...

Although players will no doubt do much to protect their cyberware, if NPCs get their ware hacked, or the PCs are careless, I think the hacker should be able to go to town on them... as suggested in the possibilities of Vermithrax, or getting cyberarms to punch their owners, etc. I imagine this sort of techno shananigans is one of the things many folks play hackers for.

On the question of low signal verses high signal, your signal 3 com can crack his firewall, but his signal 0 cyberarm can't send back the results.

Regardless of what kind of interface a cyber-part has, the action it takes is controled by information. A DNI input still has to be translated in to language the device understands. A hack later and you can disrupt the feed from their nerves and use your Command program to flash gang signs, bouncing the return signal off their own comm node.

Fibre optic isn't that great for short haul applications, by the time you set up the attenuation and all the buggering around with that, its generally easier to use a bit of old fashioned copper. Plus, it doesn't like bending much, that causes all kinds of problems with glass fibre, not the least of which is breakage, but simply because the signal will distort, they're making it better over time but its best left in a static position.
So yes, if you're making a secure network in a building, its much better to have everything cabled up to a old turtle computer that controls it all with no RF gear at all.
Course, to do that retroactively it is quite costly having to re-run everything every time there is a firmware upgrade to your drones, sensors and electric fence!
(remember- everything is by the lowest bidder)

RF you can do a fair bit with in terms of messing with it, its why we have fairly firm laws on its deployment to avoid jamming each other, aside from that the encryption takes care of anything else when your device speaks to whatever is on the other end- that tends to be fairly robust though when we're talking mobile networks. Its also fairly easy to triangulate a comms signal, especially a strong signal so your 'hacker' or rigger if you will has a problem with being overwhelmed then they just need to take a couple readings of the source to figure out where it is... then send in your problem solver with a hammer to go fix it

(I'm a network engineer by trade for both a telco and an ISP using both RF and fibre, plus a couple of large private WAN's)

Deteled, because several others said it more clearly than I did.

Yeah, this mental image totally rocks.
I might have to throw this into a story.

I have a merc character that has all of his gear non-wireless. No wireless at all, not just turning it off. It's a pain, yes, but only initially during equipment acquisition.

Day to day, he has no more difficulty than anyone else, really. The cables are all pre-wired into his vest or in his cyberlimbs, nothing dangling out.

There's not a whole lot of gear that needs to be networked anyhow. Comms and a small computer are in his earpiece (and not connected to anything else). He has a pair of data glasses if he needs to see some graphical data. His cyberguns he controls with old fashioned palm induction pads. His cyberware is all internally connected. What else does he need networked?


-karma

How about old tech. As in all the cyberware is before the wireless Matrix?

FUBAR the fuel-air map - the engine stalls, the car loses brakes, and the occupants are in lots and lots of trouble.



Last I checked, all you needed was an EEPROM burner and a laptop. And I'm not even sure you need the EEPROM burner anymore.



Old cyberware had a fiber-optic jack. New cyberware has wireless so you can download firmware updates and upload diagnostic information without having to muck around with cables.

Also, because SOTA Rules suck.

Nono. See you need to be OUTSIDE the car at the time.

Otherwise it's like a cybersam hacking his own limbs to fuck with himself.

My grandfather was a submariner (1942-1949 Pacific Theatre). What you do is grow your finger nails long on your left hand, paint them red and lie on the arm until it goes numb. Then you reach around the curtain to give yourself a good wank. I guess this would be the 2072 version.

That's...so wrong?

Yeah, no kidding. I mean, I would feel so cheap with those fingernails red. I might go more with a nice pretty pink.

Not exactly. For example, you can get fiber optics (SM/MM) in elevator traveling cables, but just try to get Cat 5e in a traveling cable. Fiber optics doesn't have any real issues with continually moving, thin copper wire does. Neither likes sharp 90 degree bends very much.

Yes but to be honest, I've houseruled it in game that all cyberware can be hacked in that manner, that even if it doesn't have wireless, it's slaved to your commlink and can be hacked through there.

Basically, I told my players that RAW it was a lot harder to do that, but that I could make it easier, BUT that it would have to be the same for them, and they still wanted to take the risk.


Hey, for me, it was an easy way to get them to run out of a hacker bar when they started trouble and then there guns started going off in there pockets.

If it's even remotely possible to cause someone else's gun to go off, I don't see how SR has managed to maintain any level of civilization at all.

Unless there are far fewer dickwads in SR than there are in real life...

(Imagine the number of internet trolls that would cream their pants at the ability to hack into some dude's gun from half a mile away and cause him to shoot up a bar).

As a GM, I would have to carefully adjudicate whether it is possible to set off the gun remotely.
If the gun was electronically fired (such as the Fubuki, or a gun was modded for it) and had its wireless on then it's a definite "yes".
If the gun has a Smartgun System and its wireless was on then "yes" (p311-312 under smartgun system "It allows a smartlinked character to mentally switch between gun modes, eject clips, and fire the gun without pulling the trigger.")

Sometimes, I think the only reason wireless became so ubiquitous in SR4 is to make hackers funner/more powerful.