comStar Firewall alert - PhaseThrough

paYdata
General rules for fencing paydata
are found on p. 303 of SR4.
Additional modifiers that apply to
paydata can be found on the Paydata
Street Costs table.
proprietary file format
Megacorporations and
some national military and research
institutions make use of
proprietary file formats (PFF)
to safeguard data not meant
for release to the general
public. The programs and
files in PFF are for internal
release only and typically
are only compatible
with that megacorporation’s
specific software
or operating systems,
meaning a character can
only open PFF files or
run PFF programs from
the same corporation that
made their OS. Specialist
emulator programs (or
cobbled-together hacker
variants of the same) can be
used to open or run PFF files
or programs on other
OSs, with minimal
data loss. Treat this
program as a patch
in terms of cost or difficulty
of acquisition.
While a company-specific OS is
enough to read a PFF file, hackers need
to activate the correct software modules
in the OS to create or edit a PFF file. If the
character has a valid corporate SIN that matches the maker of the OS,
this requires a successful Logic + Software Test; a character without a
valid corporate SIN requires a successful Hacking + Edit (3) Test.
Pistons has downloaded a PFF datafile from a
Renraku system. Unfortunately, Pistons is running
Novatech Navi as her OS and can’t read the file directly.
Normally she would have to find and download
a Renraku PFF reader program, or else write her own.
Thankfully, Pistons still has an older commlink running
Renraku Ichi—she can just send the file over to that commlink
and read it from there. Of course, if she wants to
edit a few details and save it, she’ll have to activate the
software modules first.
certified data
Matrix users can choose to certify any file by burning
it to a certified datachip; all other copies of the file
Unwired
on the user’s system are deleted automatically during this process.
Certified datachips include an integral log of when a file is created,
accessed, copied, and edited. This log is carried over to any copy of
the data made from the certified datachip. Attempting to edit the
log typically corrupts the data irreparably.
The log on a certified datachip can be wiped without corrupting
the data with a successful Hacking + Edit (4) Test.
tHe forger’S art
Since nuyen in circulation are constantly being tracked and
monitored, the only way to counterfeit nuyen is to copy an existing
certified credstick. This requires a certified credstick with a positive
balance, an empty certified credstick (called a blank) of the same
type in which to place the illicit cred and an Extended Forgery +
Edit Test (see the Forgery Table for Interval and Threshold). For
every 5,000 nuyen or part thereof the character is attempting to
counterfeit, apply a 1 die penalty to the Forging Test.
Kat o’ Nine Tales has a certified credstick for 6,000¥
and decides to copy it. A visit to her local and above-board
bank gets her a blank, and she connects the two credsticks
to her commlink and gets to work. Kat has Forgery 3
(Credstick Forgery +2) and a Rating 4 Edit program, and
she receives a 2 dice penalty for the amount of nuyen on the
credstick, so she rolls seven dice. She decides that the rating
of her forgery will be 2, making the threshold 48. In twenty
days, Kat manages to accumulate the hits she needs and now
has two certified credsticks: one with 6,000¥ in real nuyen,
and a Rating 2 forgery with 6,000¥ in fake nuyen.
When the character attempts to transfer the counterfeit
nuyen (either to an online bank account or when making a
purchase), make an Opposed Test between the rating of the counterfeit
nuyen and the rating of the verification system (typically
1–6). If the counterfeit wins, the system accepts it as genuine; if
not, it is immediately flagged as counterfeit, the transaction aborts,
and local authorities are alerted. Ties are ruled in favor of the verification
system.
Kat uses her fake credstick to pay her 300¥ bar tab at
Aces. The rating of the forgery is 2, and Aces has a Rating 2
verification system. Rolling for her character, Kat’s player
scores a 3 and a 6; the gamemaster rolls a 2 and 4 for
the verification system. Looks like Kat’s faux cred passes
… this time.
forgerY taBLe
forgery threshold interval
Fake Corpscrip (Rating x 20) 1 day
Fake Game Credits (Rating x 16) 1 hour
Fake License (Rating x 16) 1 hour
Fake National Currency (Rating x 18) 1 day
Fake Nuyen (Rating x 24) 1 day
Fake SIN (Rating x 32) 1 week
Simon Wentworth (order #1132857) 9
95
hacker’s handbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .