I was reading somewhere an discussion about hakcing into a comlink that had one's cybergear subscribed to it. I am somewhat unnerved by the possibility of a good hacker scrambling my cybereyes, turning off my cyberlegs or other such mischef. A couple of questions on this-

Can a comlink in hidden mode be hacked, or does it refuse the outside connections? Edit: If it can still be hacked, can you run a stealth program to make it harder to find?

Can you just reset your comlink thus dumping the hacker? If so how long does that take if the comlink user is ordering the reset, not just the security in the comlink trying the reset on its own?

Also, are comlinks basically considered nodes for other purposes, like having a +4 to firewall once an active alert is in place? If you are really paranoid can you run IC programs on your comlink to go after somone trying to hack in?

Yes... And, technically, Maybe... A Stealth Program can make a File or Node Portal more difficult to find, or appear as something else. I simulate this as the Extended Roll for finding a Hiden Node amidst the confusion of Nodes in the area. If the target does not Hide their node portal, then I use the Single: Detect Hidden Node Roll. I do not see Hideen Nodes running Stealth to Further conceal it, as very common outside of the Shadows (Runners and Paranoid Individuals likely do this routinely). Some Corps do this to hide specific Sections of their networks, if they do not just use a completely seperate Network.

Yes, but a reset is not automatic, and is not immediate. It takes time for that to happen. See Below from SR4A Matrix Action.



Yes, Comlinks are Nodes in their own right. Yes, they receive the Bonus to Firewall on a deteceted intrusion. Yes, you can run IC in your Comlink to deter Intruders if you like.

Thanks for the quick reply. It sounds like at minimum any runner would want Firewall 6 and the best analyse your comlink can run. The paranoid (i.e. the survivors) are going to be running hidden and Stealth when "working". The really, really paranoid (i.e. the long term survivors) might go as far as a dummy disposable comlink in active to give a false target and maybe some IC if somone does hack in.

Oh, btw, do commlinks get the same mods on hacking thresholds for access levels, or is any account on a commlink considered to have admin rights?

You'd think so but in every game I've run across...not so much. Most GMs really don't want to bother, because the Matrix is confusing. If you really take the time to read Unwired, well, it gets pretty insane.

No seriously, by all the rights every corp compound should have a Tacnet and TI, which means they should know the location, speed, direction, Access ID, and public data of any wireless device in their base. And your average runner eats at least 3 RFID chips every day, which they're probably not cleaning off. But that's not fun, so we ignore it.

@Fatum
Yeah, it's +4 for security and +6 for admin

Well... Comlinks are considered to have Admin for the User, and any other rights that he may set up for others. Most won't do so, as why would you allow someone to have access to your comlink. So Admin Rights. Which impart the same thresholds for the Hack, in this case, +6 to the Target Threshold.

Problem is that most of these Corps have visitors that are not working for them. And this happens all the time. Some will have to sign in and receive "permissions" to the facility, others, not so much. You can get around some of this. For example, you can take the place of a sick guard or wageslave and spoof his stuff to emulate his presence. And please note... ALL of the workers also eat 3-10 tags a day, so there will be a continuous string of false positives in any facility in the world because of this. Easy to get lost in that mess; which is why a lot of corp facilities will NOT have such measures in the first place. So no, no real need to ignore that at all.



+3 for Security, not +4.

If I were running the game I would save this kind of stuff for the times that the team was fighting very high end opposition, like other runner teams or elite corporate security. If you are just breaking into an office to plant a file or hijacking a truck for your mob connection this probably won't come up.

It is also something that the players themselves would want to keep in their bag of tricks. If nothing else, it gives the hacker something to do in combat other than pull out a pistol and fire away with a mediocre dice pool. It lets the hacker be a sort of debuffer in metagame terms, you can screw up the badguys smartgun system, maybe even disable their enchanced reflexes if they have it subscribed to their PAN.

Edit: By "this kind of stuff" i meant hacking comlinks to get at cybergear. Same general principle applies to overall matrix secuirty, however. The more important the target the better the security. Research, prototypes, or gear worth millions or potentially billions will not be guarded by three guys with tasers and no matrix overwatch. On the other hand, breaking into a garage to get a vehicle probably doesn't involve going up against tac nets and spiders.