Well, yeah, I'm in IT, too, but when you plug my phone into my computer, it's still locked, and until I unlock it and turn on file storage, it's not any more accessible than it would be remotely. That's not just true of my phone, it's true of my grandma's, and my boss's. And that's today, when a wired connection is still common: in Shadowrun 4, I don't see any reason a commlink would have a wired connection except for diagnostic or other specialized purposes, do you?

It seems like everyone's really excited about the possibility of getting their hands on someone's commlink; I just don't see, within the rules at least, how that helps in any way.

Because it beats getting the information out of the guy by way of dark alley and 2X4.

I assume most things in the SR universe still have wired connection. My evidence is there's no line like "oh man, I would totally use cables, but my commlink doesn't have a WTFBBQ port!" in the fluff especially concerning fiberoptic cables. Also hardwired hacking is the way you directly hack slaved devices. It also makes sense because everyone who isn't a random pedestrian has a bunch of wireless crap turned off.

But as for physically having the device making it easier to hack, I don't really see a direct advantage of it (like you get a +2 bonus or whatever). The reason why it might be handy is that you can just turn the device back on if the device shuts down as a defensive measure. I guess you also stop the owner from stopping your attempts by turning off wireless, walking into a faraday cage, or spoofing the accessid or one of a thousand little tricks he might try. You still gotta hack the good old fashion way however.

Hey, I think this really matters, but I'm too sleepy to read about it now.


I do think this is important, definitely. If we assume commlinks have some local storage, you need to be able to prevent a remote wipe or lo-jack or whatever.

Honestly, I'd like to see a 'commlink cloning' device for runners. Kind of like how tv shows and movies these days have Phone Cloning, where someone's phone can be stolen, duplicated, and replaced with a pre-bugged one or something.

Gives people a reason to steal links, and for people to get them implanted.

I guess it depends on where the character is from, and for what purpose he or she learned to pickpocket. Growing up in a Third World hellhole (whether it was the Cote d'Ivoire or Redmond), there may have been a lot of things worth stealing. Or he was in an Oliver Twist-style gang where the leader used kids because they're impressionable and disposable.

Or the kid's version of pickpocketing might have been a little different. Maybe slipping something into someone's pocket unnoticed that helps the hacker liquidate all their accounts. Or leaving some sort of dedicated router when you take someone's comlink, so they stay connected to their PAN for the necessary few minutes it takes you to steal what you need. Or something that simply makes a record of their activity that you can pickpocket back later after they've purchased something so you have their financial information. Or taking their comlink, staying close enough that they don't realize it's gone, implanting or altering what you need and putting it back with them none the wiser.

I don't know if any of this is possible because if there's anything I know less about than SR hacking it's real world hacking, but I think it sounds possible, and that's good enough for me. I mean, it doesn't have to be stuff that runners would use, because it's street level scams run by children. From a character background perspective, I think there's a lot of stuff you could throw in that would fit under the umbrella of pickpocketing.

On a personal note, pickpocketing (and lockpicking) is one of those skills I like picking up with a high AGL character, because while the hacker can do a lot of things sometimes you actually need the physical thing dealt with.

Yea! Someone caught it!


I actually tried to RP that guy. When the GM pieced together who I was it was the thumb of God.


Need an answer? Watch Burn Notice.

It's also a good show to prove how to use someone's own personality and preconceptions against themselves.

One family trait that I did not inherit, unfortunately.

I would tend to agree. Generally my players have to hack everything, even if they steal it. Using a cable just saves you the trouble of finding their hidden node, and maybe breaking PAN encryption.


Authorization happens with any number of means (which I believe you have to buy as accessories), just like a maglock - password, implanted RFID chip, biometrics (fingerprint or iris scan). Which might allow you to use skills mostly associated with locks to open the commlink. However, most of the authorization will be software, so I still think just hacking the thing is your best and quickest bet.
The access ID is the physical network adress of the device, which somehow changes when you insert your SIN information. I would expect that's the first thing you would need to do on a wiped device.

The one thing you might have in advantage when stealing is their physical storage media, which you could extract from the link and then put into another device. Even if they are encrypted this is now not vs firewall but merely vs encryption to read them.

I would say that this, as you mention, is a device that lacks a lot of detail-so it's possible that some of this is true or conversely very untrue.

I think a hardcore shadowrunner could come up with good ways to make a ton of more money than trying his hand at pickpocketing. However, as the OP mentions, a street kid could earn a decent living from swiping some stuff here and there. (On the plus side, getting caught could just mean warm night in jail with free food, depending on how old of a street kid we are talking). Though getting the right target could earn a huge payday.

I would aslo say that a street level pickpocket is going to be more about conning people. Get them distracted while he makes off with their goods. Also in the wireless world, hacking a commlink would probably be the best way to go rather than straight up taking it, but this is a street kid who probably doesn't have that kind of knowledge.

I don't see this street kid taking any major information from the commlink. The way I see it, he steals a commlink, if its unlocked he writes down your stored numbers and email addresses and sells those to a underhanded marketing campaign. (I'm assumming that financial data would still be out his reach) He then takes all the commlinks and sells them in a batch to a hacker to get to the juicy stuff. He probably isn't going to be living a luxery lifestyle any time soon, but he should have a nice street level lifestyle paid for. Even if you had to wipe the commlink clean and reinstall an operating system without getting any data off it, that is still probably 400 nuyen per commlink (if not more) in resell value.

Not to mention SINs to be spoofed for a limited time for some SINless Begger to plead for some cash.

Well, I finished the NPC: meet Becky Owens (300 BP character).

It all depends on what the standard way is for people to authorize money transfers through their commlink.

I'd say that any transaction should require some actual manual action to authorize - pressing a button - otherwise it'd be too easy to remotely hack a commlink and shake it out. So that's the part where physically stealing the commlink matters. However, then you can have commlinks that require biometric identification to work, foiling streetkid pickpocket tactics - unless the streetkid can beat the biometrics. There's probably some sort of tool for that, just like there are tools to bypass all the other biometrics in SR. Or you can crack open the case and do some screwdriver work, if you're good at Hardware. It won't work on the really high-end commlinks, but it could work on low-end or even middle-level commlinks.

Speed is an issue; ideally you've cleaned out a commlink before your target notices the commlink is missing. Since a lot of peripheral devices have Signal 0, that needs to happen within about 3m of the mark. However, you could have an accomplice with a relay-capable device to give you a bit of space.

Alternatively, you've got a wifi-shielded handbag you stick the commlink in, so that it appears to vanish, while you yourself disappear into a crowd.

So as soon as you can, you transfer the money into an anonymous credstick, and then ditch the stolen commlink.

All in all, it takes a lot more grounding in technology to be a succesful pickpocket.

Looks cool to me. Follow up some time down the road and let us know how it road tests?

Will do. I think I'll have her lift one of the PCs' commlinks and/or firearms and see how long it takes them to notice.

Distraction is your friend.