For example, through "social" interaction with certain cherry-picked individuals that enable "acquisition" of fully legitimate access credentials just in the nick of time. Such credentials could then be exploited to impersonate a 100%-legitimate user in a host, which could otherwise have prohibitive security levels. Opening up more diverse options to circumvent matrix security (instead of reducing options) can lead to fun ways of approaching challenges and involve multiple players and character archetypes in the matrix side of Shadowrun.
That said, I too am eager to see which guidelines upcoming releases provide on matrix and host security design. Especially, a few detailed examples of host security architectures outlining underlying design decisions would be highly welcome.
I know that the book is well beyond being influenced at this point, and my posts along this line seem to have gathered scant sympathy -- but amen! "Social Engineering" has been a big part of security penetration since at least the Trojan Horse. (what is that you say? The Trojean Horse probably wasn't real? Yes, but it is a story that has survived at least 2500 years, and we are making stories here). In our world social engineering is a major vector for successful hacks. And I think we (mostly?) want hackers to be
less siloed in the matrix. So to me it just seems obvious that there should be opportunities for social engineering when it comes to hacking. There are three things that to me seem like really benefits of adding this in:
- A way to sometimes achieve minor hacks without having a decker (because not every team has one). Spend the money for single use fingerprint and/or iris duplicating gear, choose your target, get their biometrics, get their link, keep them subdued, make your way to their work station and log into the host as them, and access what they could normally access (with a steadily growing chance of being spotted, the more that you try and do)
-A way to get some bonuses for deckers (and given the cost-of-failure in hacking is probably the highest of all of three 'worlds' of meat/magic/matrix, being able to get some bonuses when you can is very desirable)
- Allowing for certain very challenging hacks that need some combination of social engineering, physical connection, and serious hacking ability. (OK, this one is technically possible with off-line hosts, except that the social engineering part is more optional)
And I say all of this as someone who has played a decker in 5th, a technomancer in 6th, and run a decker in 5th. I'm not looking for a way to bypass hacking, I'm looking for ways to make it more interactive with the meat world.