[Glorthoron]

I wanted to start up this thread so us GMs could have an opportunity to share ideas on security that isn't listed in the books.

The first that comes to mind for me is in reference to the barriers.  They talk about fences, barb wire, etc, but why not tall thorn bushes, maybe even magically active or genetically engineered to have razor thorns.

Also, they mention HVAC, but something they fail to mention is mist humidification.  Often, in ventilation systems, to ensure that outside air coming into the building is the proper humidity, mist is sprayed in the ducts.  This also works in reverse, if the temp of the water is cold, it can cool and dehumidify the air.  This would be a great way to snag up runners coming in this way.  Especially if they are wearing a chameleon suit, and the water was coloured.

[Mirikon]

An old favorite with a bit of a modern twist. Take one high security area inside a building. People who are supposed to be there get stealth RFID tags saying they have permission. Motion sensors on an isolated system inside the secure area, with backup power generator. Anything bigger than a rat moves, and doesn't have an RFID tag, corrosion foam sent through the vents. Basically, take the idea from Deus's white floors, and add on the 'safety' setting, so you don't melt valuable researchers.

[GiraffeShaman]

The 3rd edition book  mentions natural perimeter barriers, including hedges. One security idea I enjoy listed in there is infarared security lighting, invisible to most, but bright as day to the guards equipped with thermographic vision. Works well in conjunction with things like big open areas and lit up areas.

I like to use friendly conversations with security forces to probe at the runners. For example, in a recent run a security agent asked this Fomori runner if he was part of the Initiative Project, after a few easy questions about his visit to the corp site. (He had a very good fake id and visitor pass) He answered yes. Well, there was no Initiative Project and by answering yes, he made the agent suspicious.

[Wakshaani]

To dip a toe the other way, a big note on security is that while scads of this stuff exists, it isn't used as much as you might think. Today's methods are pretty dang advanced, for instance, but are also expensive. Spend too much on security and there goes your bottom line. Most of today's banks don't have on-site security guards, for instance, and the cameras mostly watch the tellers, to make sure that they're not stealing at the counter (Which is where most theft is) ... the number watching for outsider crime is usually one at the entrance and a second at the drive-through. There's probably an alarm that's turned on when the managers leave. Past that? Pretty much nothing.

Most ordinary places in 2073 won't be invulnerable box forts. Instead, they'll have a camera to record who comes and goes, a PanicButton (tm) to call for Knight Errant, an alarm for when they leave, and maybe roll-down shutters to keep vandals from smashing the windows up when nobody's there.

Of course, Shadowrunners tend to want to go to places that aren't ordinary, BUT.

If you crank up the Orwell too much, with cameras everywhere running face-recognition tech, security in large numbers that pops up at the drop of a chemsniffer, and any stray hair, skin cell, or drop of blood leading to your being tracked down by security mages, well, most players won't have fun. *Some* will, but most, not so much.

[Mirikon]

Actually, cameras are pretty much everywhere in the downtown area of most (non-feral) sprawls. The problem is that, in addition to jurisdictional issues (Horizon affiliate isn't going to hand tape over to an Azzie affiliate), there is simply TOO MUCH DATA.

[Mantis]

I second what Wakshaani said. Security is there to protect the really important stuff, not the front foyer of the corp's secondary office in Podunk UCAS. I usually use the salvage rule of thumb where if the cost to recover is more than a certain percentage value of the thing, then it is better just to let it go than pay the salvage cost.
Put another way, if the Johnson is paying the runners 25,000¥ (not each) for a job, then the item he is after is only worth about 250,000¥ and security on the item should reflect that value. Acid spraying vents just aren't going to be used on those sort of things. Of course there could be other factors involved like taking an item or destroying it could cost the company more in R&D costs or something, or allows the Johnson's corp to get their rival product out sooner or something.
As rule of thumb though, this works pretty well for us and helps keep the security to reasonable levels without making everything a cake walk.

[Exodus]

Blatantly lethal alarms and traps seem ridiculous to me. The more acid-shooting, laser-cutting, and murdergas-pumping crap they add the higher the overhead, the lower the bottom line, and the more likely an accident can happen.

I'm sure the corps and their security designers remember Deus and fear technomancers.

[ArkangelWinter]

Remember, just because cameras are there, doesnt mean they work. In the years I've worked private security, I've seen lots of dummy cameras in place only to deter minor criminals. Sure, the Doc Wagon facility's security is legit, but the Stuffer Shack? Or even higher profile places like streer cameras, dormitories, civilian factories? At least a quarter or more of those cameras were either installed for show, or stopped working a long time ago and were left for show.

[Wakshaani]

Blatantly lethal alarms and traps seem ridiculous to me. The more acid-shooting, laser-cutting, and murdergas-pumping crap they add the higher the overhead, the lower the bottom line, and the more likely an accident can happen.

I'm sure the corps and their security designers remember Deus and fear technomancers.

Yeah, we had a GM who ran us on a mission to break into an MCT facility and get a something-or-other. The place was topped with monowire.

We cut it, used a monowire spool, and took several hundred meters of teh stuff, left, and hocked it for twice what the run itself would have paid.

...

Not terribly *professional*, but hey.

[JustADude]

Blatantly lethal alarms and traps seem ridiculous to me. The more acid-shooting, laser-cutting, and murdergas-pumping crap they add the higher the overhead, the lower the bottom line, and the more likely an accident can happen.

I'm sure the corps and their security designers remember Deus and fear technomancers.

Yeah, we had a GM who ran us on a mission to break into an MCT facility and get a something-or-other. The place was topped with monowire.

We cut it, used a monowire spool, and took several hundred meters of teh stuff, left, and hocked it for twice what the run itself would have paid.

...

Not terribly *professional*, but hey.

Hey, we once had a 5,000¥-each nuyen job to hassle a factory to get the company to shut down. Part of our plan involved rerouting deliveries to a warehouse, which we'd rented under a fake name to use as the drop spot.

After the split, we made something like 50,000¥ each... ten times what we got paid for the job... and, after we tapped out our contacts' bankrolls, we still had enough truckloads left to "buy" a bunch of extra Loyalty by spreading the remaining goods around as freebies, just to get rid of the stuff before it could be traced.

[Ympulse]

Monowire. Monowire EVERYTHING.

(The hacker in my game currently has a house that is protected, at all times, by no less than 500 feet of monowire grids and whip-traps. Scariest thing I've heard described after the Renraku Arcology)

[Reaver]

Never over look the simple guard at the door checking IDs with all the technology that is in use in the 2070s, this may seem to be the most useless waste of time, but it's amazing what can come of it

My players team consists of a PhysAd troll, Gunbunny elf, human face, human merc. Human hacker. They were to infiltrate a secure compound, grab the digital and physical info on a new commlink (a bonus if they could get a working copy of the commlink, or failing that, destroy said 'link) but they only had a 3 day window!

First day they plan and learn where in the building they needed to go... All runners had their assigned tasks. However, they needed a biometric key card to access where the work/records where.

Second day morning: face cons his way into the building and is able to snag a key card from an employee... But it's a female troll! the team spends the rest of the days reworking their plan, and getting the hacker to adjust the info on the card to match the biometrics of the troll.... But they can't do much about the picture on it! (not enough time or the right equipment for how short of time they have left)

"no problem, you just insert the card, stand in the scan area, and your in!" they think. So they go ahead with the run.
The hacker is in the lobby faking a electrical repair man (reason to be playing with wires while hard hacking security as well and software hacking) the face is impersonating a bigwig from an other department and throwing a fit to act as a destraction for physical security. The Merc and Elf are acting as personal assisstant and bodyguard to the face. The Troll is walking into the secure area to get the goods.

Well, turns out, the hard copy of the data is in a maglocked room.... Guess who can't hack/re-wire a maglock? So the hacker goes to work and tries to unlock the door from in the system... And glitches... So, in a moment of desperation, decides to crash the entire thing while shorting out the electrical for the building... Electrocuting himself (6p damage). Door is open troll walks in, finds the info, makes for the doors with all the other employees (powers off, have to evac)... Right towards to 4 armed guards matching faces to key cards.... Things got interesting.

[Leigion]

1st things 1st how much security do you want ,and how experienced are your players? Other then that how much do you want to put in your game, on a scale of 1-10 on counter intelligence?

1. Off the top of my head get coporate security handbook and corporate shadowfiles. Both are old books but i am sure you can find them. Upgrade them to 4E, great resources to understand how it all works, well worth it.
2, Grab a real high security briefing report off the net. Here read this http://forum.rpg.net/archive/index.php/t-235629.html its a start.
3, Might i suggest http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=23034
4. Largely over looked but do real research on wifi, tech, and security. I also sugest you spring it ingame to players threw contacts/research/data searches. It helps them learn with out you having to give' em homework the size of war and peace... ok maybe not that big but you get the idea.

I think thats a good start. If you want to get down to brass tacks and ivory tusks, of service providers for comm links. Flipping ID's and all that jazz let me know. i also suggest grabing lonestar book and converting it to 4e then up grade  tech. Always fun to have PC's worrie about cops and corps  Another tid bit cameras like on the street or in a convenience store will work with the fuzz .Only the bigger company's AA and AAA will tell the cops to kick rocks.
Here is the low down from shadowrun wiki - All AAA-rated and most AA-rated corporations also exhibit a privilege known as “extraterritoriality”, meaning that any land owned by the corp is sovereign territory only to the corp and immune to any laws of the country within. Corporate territory is not foreign soil but corporate soil, just like its employees are corporate citizens, though dual citizenship in a corporation and a nation is common.

[GloriousRuse]

I would venture that actually camera - computer security is very prevalent. Even nowadays, a  casino can happily run anyone in the casino against facial recognition. and its usually pre-linked to a black-book of personas non grata. Its just a matter of processing power not being there to run every face that comes down the chute, forcing the security staff to decide "hemm, he looks like a card counter". By 2072, processing power is pretty cheap. Definitely cheap enough that entry or exit to a restricted area, which maybe sees a few hundred go by in a day, could run it on everyone. Don't show up on the approved list? Security officer bob gets a little alert that says "Should this person be here?" And this is cheap. Cameras, a few processing cycles, and bingo bango.

I envision more of a "mobile defense" strategy from corps when the costs go up. Unless its a hard site or VIP protection, I would imagine that most of the systems are really just tripwires and delays. Rather than keeping HTR teams on every building, and rigging it with poison vents, minefields, machinegun nests and spirits, set it with sensors, locks, the occasional drone, and minimal metahuman presence.  T

The whole point is to:

A) Let the appropriate element know something is wrong, and see what they want to commit to the problem. This is where the cameras, sensors, ID cards, and minimal human/drone presence come in.

and B) Allow a response to reach there in time. Mostly locks, doors, vault timers on the macguffin (ten minute non-ovverrideable delay like a modern bank vault for example) and things of that nature. God forbid the spider freezes the elevators and the runners have to actually run up 12 tall stories.

Especially when you consider say, MCT Seattle is unlikely to have multiple major crises a night. If you can just hold up a team for a 2-3 minutes after there's a known issue, you can get active surveillance via wage-mage and drone on the exits to allow a counterattack, plus you can start live feeding info to the guys who are going to make the big decisions.

Somewhere in the sprawl is a small ready center, operating the lethal stuff. The on-call HTR team, the machinegun drones, the electronic warfare guru, the on call hack team, that sort of thing. They simply exist, to be employed when the decision makers say yes/no/maybe. Now MCT Seattle can send a wide array of appropriate responses based on the situation, and for much, much cheaper than fortifying every warehouse.

95% of the time they probably just tag the runners, maintain surveillance, and guide the KE on to the criminals. Then a corporate rep bullies/bribes/lawyerizes to get the stuff back, and a at a fraction of the cost of sending a T-Bird thundering down the street, autocannoning the office, and then having a squad of wired to to the gills commandos duke it out with a runner team inside corporate property. the other 5% of the time - man, hope your johnson told you that this was a big one, yeah?

[Glorthoron]

I don't think that would work quite as effectively as you think.  Based on SR4 rules, Shadowrunners can be in, grab what they need, and be out in a matter of minutes.  A 10 minute response time wouldn't result in much more than the HTR team saying "Hey!  Where did the bad guys go?"

That, of course, is only my opinion.