Ah, this one is confusing many players:
A device can not not inside a Host,
but it may be slaved to it. A slaved Device (letīs say, a camera) can then use the High Matrix Attributes of the host to defend against hacking. The Icon of the device is outside of the Host, out on the Grid. You can hack it without having to go inside the host. In many situations, this might be the smarter choice: You donīt need a Mark on the Host and you donīt need to worry about IC.
However, when you go inside the Host, you can still affect the devices that are slaved to it, because everyone inside the Host is treated as having a direct connection to it. Sadly, still no explanation on how this
looks like in the Matrix iconography. Are there some kind of "windows" in the host
However, a direct connection means that the device is acessible from inside the host as well. This also means that the Device doesnīt benefit from being slaved to the Host and will defend only with its own attributes against your attacks.
This means there are multiple ways to proceed here:
- Hacking the Device from outside the host: The quick solution. If you donīt expect to hack into any other slave of the Host and if you donīt need to retrieve any Data from the Host, do this. Since you also get a Mark on the Host when you get a Mark on the Device, this is usually a good way to start things. You may still proceed with #2 when necissary.
- Hacking the Device from inside the host: You need at least one Mark on the host, which means that you need to make at least one roll against the usually higher firewall of the host anyway. Also, you might get busy with the IC. However, if you want to hack multiple devices, track multiple camera feeds or have other business in the Host (like finding Paydata), this is the better way: The fact that you are treated as having a direct connection to the slaves of the host means that itīs a lot easier to hack them.
- Hacking the device with a real Direct Connection (Cable or Skinlink): The only way to absolutely avoid having to roll against Host Ratings. Since you also get a Mark on the Host when marking a slave, you can also (ab)use the device as a backdoor to enter the host more easily.
For my campaign, which starts tomorrow, I'm going to go by the RAW for the most part. Anything that is slaved to a host via wireless will follow this convention. But for anything using wired security, with wireless disabled, I will show the device inside the host. That won't happen often, but I feel like it needs to be an option.
In short: Wireless Devices (i.e. their icons) can be accessed both from inside
and outside the host they are slaved to. The concept of "wired" hosts hasnīt really been explained very well in the rules until
Kill Code , which dropped this very day. Iīm currently sifting through it. From what I understand, itīs now
officially possible to have:
- Hosts that are completely offline and can only be accessed by physical access
[li]"Local Hosts", which may or may not be accessed from the Matrix and have some kind of physical backbone that you can attach wireless-disabled devices to. In this case you would be forced to enter the host to hack the slaved devices. Iīm not entirely sure on that one, but it would make sense.
[/li][/list]
Not that many tables already assumed these kind of security architectures exist
However, according to
Kill Code, these are rare, because the suits prefer universal accessability and put too much trust into GOD, most likely while the IT guys are grinding their teeth in frustration. Just like in real life