[penllawen]

It is what it is.  I like to imagine it as your "matrix discipline".  Do you reflexively dismiss notifications from your commlink warning you that your software has updates available and perpetually leave your commlink open to exploits? That's a game manifestation of low Willpower, imo.

I've seen cases where writers in missions (5e, for context) said that an unattended car or a stolen commlink still gets to roll its owner's Willpower because the owner was the one who configured its matrix permissions.

Both are reasonably headcanon, although I feel the second one is a bit of a stretch...

Either way, I'm a fan of the concept of the GM rolling the defense test if it's a PC getting hacked.  I'm an old school GM though... the player not needing to know anything the character doesn't notice is the right and natural state of things by my sensibilities   You wouldn't ask a player to roll Perception to see if they notice a Secret Door, would you?

Ah, I see you, too, are a man of culture Yes, this is exactly my approach, to both of those things. No way should either PCs or NPCs be getting a headsup that a hostile decker is sniffing around, just because there's an Attribute in the check.

Unless I want the foreboding, of course. "Roll Perception. Oh, 1 hit? You don't notice anything. <snicker>"

An alternate approach I've considered is the PC only gets to roll Willpower if they're actively doing stuff and defending the device. Until they're alerted, the device is on its own, and rolling some pitiful number of dice.

You could of course instead say that rolling a defense test does cause AROs to start blaring warnings to the owner, and the Willpower represents how focused they are in engaging in a game of popup whackamole with the hacker... but this is directly contradictory to the sneaky sorts of hacking actions that aren't supposed to alert the owner to what's going on.

Yeah, agreed. That's not what I want at all.

[BeCareful]

So, a sort of a workaround relating to cars, from what I gather from this discussion:

If you figure, "Why would anyone want to cyberattack me?" you can just keep your Jackrabbit wireless on at all times, trusting in security through not-being-flashy/expensive-enough-to steal (which may not always work, go-gangs being what they are).

You can, if your appointment/dinner date is expected to last only so long, program the Pilot with something like, "Park, give an update on location, then go Wireless Off for an hour." When your car re-connects, you can send it instructions to go Wireless Off for another length of time.

Or you can set up the setting so that, even with Wireless Off, buying a car gives you a commlink app that can lock/unlock/change device mode with a push of a button from within 10 meters or so. It prevents PCs from just stealing random parked cars, but it also gives them relief from the GM jumping them with, "You return to your spot to find that your car, with the Weapon Focus in the trunk, is now gone."

I'm fine with either.

[penllawen]

If you figure, "Why would anyone want to cyberattack me?" you can just keep your Jackrabbit wireless on at all times, trusting in security through not-being-flashy/expensive-enough-to steal (which may not always work, go-gangs being what they are).

Cars have utility to devious players well beyond their scrap value. Maybe my players are evil, but if I assume this is the default, they're gonna be hacking dozens of cars to create traffic / crashes / distractions / become mobile self-driving battering rams twice a session. Maybe more often.

[hulka]

Still I dont understand. You told about commanding, but its about protecting. Each devices has device rating that say how defend itself. When i want defend this better I have to connect it to my PAN. After this i can Full defense in Matrix. So, Data procesing is how much devices i can connect to my PAN for protecting. D/F are switchable. D/F 3/1, I can have one device in PAN and use 3 Firewall in defense, or 3 devices and 1 Firewall in defence.
And now, I have some pieces of cyberware, car, weapons with smartgun, clothing, socks, underwear, Everything has Matrix connected. OK, small thing are filtrated, all have ikon, all make my persona. What my home? Trideo, refridgerator, cooker and so on. I dont want to hack to my home open my door and set traps.
And i linked this thing to my PAN my persona is scary, big silver guy with refridgerator on back. But i want protect them.
I am in my place and somebody engage me. I have to used pistols, reflexs, and cover behind microwaves. what when microwaves blowup with sparks and distarct me. I have to protect everything.
Maybe some home workstation or home host with better protection not only cooker DR1 did this protection and cannt be linked in my PAN.