[vegitoex]

I am not my group's hacker. I am sort of curious as to what exactly can be hacked? And does it have to be linked to the Matrix? Also with technomancers. What can they sense? Could they sense that I have Gameboy in my pocket?

[TheNarrator]

The answer to both questions is pretty much "things with wireless capability." So no, a technomancer couldn't sense or hack a Gameboy (because they have no wireless connectivity), but could sense and hack a Nintendo DS (which does have wifi).

It's a good idea for a shadowrunner to limit their vulnerability to hackers by having as much of their equipment as possible set to not send or receive signals wirelessly. By equipping everything with a Skinlink, you let all your gear stay in touch with each other without sending out any radio signals for hackers to intercept or attack through. The only thing you have that's sending and receiving wirelessly should be the commlink itself or a microtransceiver, so that you can stay in touch with your team, and you should stay in hidden mode whenever you can get away with it. Also it pays to have a good Encrypt program to protect your communications and good Firewall and Analyze to slow down hackers trying to break in and warn you if they do.

[Bastwolf]

Yeah I the hacker for the group and I'll look for just about anything that can be hacked and find someway for it to be useful for my team.

One thing that keeps popping up in our group that I would like to know is: If you have admin rights to someone's comlink, can you send them into VR?

[raggedhalo]

If they are set up with a sim module, then yes, possibly.

[KommissarK]

Of course, unless you're running with an cyberware version of one, it seems pretty odd to be walking around with all of that set up.

[_Pax_]

Trodes aren't huge; they can be worn under a hat, or even just concealed by hair.  Heck, they have versions that come as PASTE (yayy, nano-trodes).

[KommissarK]

It just seems similar to walking around with the safety off on your gun.

If you're not actively in VR, why leave it so you could slip into it at a moments notice? I'm just saying the request seems a bit awkward if randomly directed at someone walking down the street.

[Thrass]

about that gambeoy versus nintendo ds thing

everything that nowadays has cables to connect to something else or has slots to push in cartridges, cds/dvds/..., casettes, usb sticks(generally anything that nowadays has usb), magnetic bands, drives, ...
all that has network/matrix/mesh/wifi capabilities

in adition everything that would be convenient to remotely control has matrix capabilities probably even the streetlamp which can be turned on or off by the authorities via the matrix...

in a sense nearly everything that is electronic

except! for the stuff that paranoid people stripped (or built) off their wifi transmitter

examples

washing mashine: hackable
oven: hackable
street lamp: hackable
mp3 player: hackable (although in most cases this would eb your commlink)
front door: hackable
intercom: hackable
traffic lights: hackable
electric grid: hackable
ceiling lights: hackable

building wall: not hackable
cereals: not hackable
your oldschool roommate hackers vintage usb drive he keeps all his private stuff on and ripped the wifi transmitter out: not hackable

[Falconer]

It depends on what echoes the technomancer has... if he has e-sensing or m-sensing (forget the name of both the e-field and m-field powers).   He can sense ANY of them whether they're broadcasting or not close to him.  There's another one which allows him to hack into anything he can touch, whether there's an access port or not.

Also if the node isn't in hidden mode it's generally obvious and you don't need to hunt it down.


Bastwolf:  SimModule
Yes, you could activate it.  (and knock them unconcious just long enough for them to knock themselves out... also remember while in full VR, you're still aware of your surroundings but at a very large penalty to perception tests).

It's possible, that admin or not... it might be configured to only allow someone on a direct connection to initiate the sim-module.  But as full admin, you can probably reprogram those access privileges... it might take you some extra time to do so though.

[_Pax_]

It just seems similar to walking around with the safety off on your gun.

If you're not actively in VR, why leave it so you could slip into it at a moments notice? I'm just saying the request seems a bit awkward if randomly directed at someone walking down the street.

Trodes can be used for AR too.  And, bonus: no glasses, no gloves.