| The Burglar's Guide to Getting Away With It, Part 3 Megacorporate Security By David "Slippery Tom" Katz |
| You know, a lot of the time, corporations don’t really rely on active security. Active being physical people on site, walking around with flashlights checking the corridors. And that’s a bad thing, because it’s the human eye that’s most easily deceived. Most of the time, corporations and other government or private locations use technology to watch over their expensive stuff. Technology and other passive security measures, designed to observe and alert rather than totally stop the entry. And it’s these measures that are the ones that shadow runners and other assorted criminals are often least prepared for when it comes to the crunch. So, choomba’s, here’s my personal guide to slipping in, and slipping out, ghost-style. |
| Know Thy Enemy First and foremost, information is the key to a successful break in. If you know what you’re up against a head of time, you can plan for it, and if you’ve got enough capital you’ll get through pretty much any passive security system. Recon, contacts, all of this is useful, but by far and away the most useful tool in obtaining this sort of information is the neighbourhood decker. Beware though, when you ask for ‘floor plans’, make sure you ask for ‘security plans’ as well. Often the floor plans, especially for the more public and accessible buildings, are stored in places that aren’t totally secure. This means a decker getting them is a cakewalk. However, because they’re somewhat publicly available, the data on security systems is almost never stored here with the floor plans. This means a decker needs to check, and then delve deeper. Make sure you don’t get shortchanged on this info. If there’s no listed security, this never means there’s no security. It means your decker didn’t find the right file. Now once you’ve got this data, you can make some plan on how and where you’re getting in. Which brings me to my next section. |
| Security Measures and How to Beat ‘Em. Maglocks Maglocks are the most annoying thing to deal with on a run. A lot of runners consider themselves somewhat competent with these things, but when you think about how long it takes to get a lock open, and the chances of coming across a decent lock and triggering the anti-tamper before you even get the thing off (and putting the whole building on alert), maglocks are not something you particularly want to gloss over. So there’s a few items and techniques you can use. The first is the good old sequencer (SR3). Somewhat fast, but you still have to deal with the anti tamper to get the casing off and make a bridge to the device. It does cut down the time though, however the good SK ones tend to be prohibitively expensive. And trust me, you do want a good one. The second device is the Skeleton passkey (SR3). These are far better than sequencers because you don’t have to take the lock apart, and therefore you don’t have to deal with antitamper (and lets face it, if you can get a decent lock with anti-tamper open with no trouble, what do you want a sequencer for?). Not to mention, if the passkey fails it doesn’t necessarily trigger the security lockdown we all know and love. However, the good ones are pretty damn expensive. |
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| There is a technique to get around maglocks without actually touching them at all. This involves cutting the door, leaving the portion where the maglock is attached. Careful, though, some of the doors are triple locked and you’ll need to verify this first. Tapping a door is a good way to do this if its made out of synthwood, and you practice enough on doors you know so you can tell the sounds apart. This method is great if you’re inept with locks and have time. It’s not so great if there are people or devices that visually check the doors though, or if you’re looking to leave no evidence of your passing. This method is best for those doors that aren’t nearly as tough as their maglocks. Not so great against bank vault doors, though. |
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| Another technique you can use, if you’re looking to get through quick and you’re not too concerned with how loud or who knows is through the use of Det-cards. A number of specialty techies make them and sell them (check out shadowland and search for “Det-Cards”, you’ll find a listed seller hopefully in your local area). They’re basically shaped charged of C-12 of varying power that either clip into a passkey lock or over a keypad lock and sever the locking bolts. Great, and fast, for anything up to type II locks, but above that you’re getting into hardened bolts and casings, and the amount of explosive you need starts to get inefficient. Finally, the best technique if you have it available, is to use matrix overwatch. If the system isn’t too scary, a decker can open and close doors and turn off security systems as needed, and make sure the security guards don’t know about it. Deckers (good ones) are expensive though, often you have to cut the payoff with them. Cant beat them for effectiveness and versatility, though, since most security systems (especially in the larger office buildings and lower budget places) is linked to the matrix on an internal network. |