I was delivering the mail today--yes, I am a postal worker--and I was thinking about this game because, well, there's not much thought behind getting the mail packs into the right box after you've done it a million times even though a lot of my fellow carriers can't seem to get it right half the time
and I was wondering, "if information is the most valuable commodity in the HP world then why is there so little of it?" There's an abundance of programs on all these servers but no actual information. (Yes, technically programs are information, but I'm talking about practical, real-world information.)
To a businessman/woman, the tools of hacking, the log deleters, virii, password breakers are simply distracting details better left for tech teams and information facilitators in their employ, nothing worth their time. What's important to them would be "what is the competition up to?" I'm talking about schedules, employee rosters, inventories, office memos, etc. Certainly the fact that Hakuza is working on production of a new beverage which will compete on the global market with their own will be of great value to Omnicron. It is of little value to a hacker, however, unless he/she wishes to liberate this information, stored in a file on a secret Hakuza server and upload it to a secure Omnicron FTP server for a bounty.
My suggestion then is to create a new file type, a data file. The contents of these data files a pretty much inconsequential to us players but they could contain valuable and sensitive information which would cause problems for a MegaCorp if this information were leaked to the public (True Light) or appropriated by competitors (other MegaCorps). The only real distinction which may be needed is who originated it: True Light Data File, Hakuza Data File, Icarus Data File, or Omnicron Data File. Since these NPC servers exist somewhere in the HP world "physically," they may well contain such sensitive data which is necessary for the day-to-day operation of their local and regional offices, stored there simply for convenience or out of negligence. We all know how some business people are: "I really don't feel like going through all this security stuff, remembering all these passwords hurts my head, so I'll just download it and work on it here then upload it when I'm done. No one will notice because I'll delete it afterward."
So, we've populated the NPC servers with data files, now what? Well, someone must be interested in it! We've created a new mission type, haven't we? This is "Data Theft" or "Data Liberation" depending on how you look at it. Basically industrial sabotage in real-world terms.
What we do is we list the Data Theft mission complete with IP address and file number (or maybe no IP but a file number and an owner for more a more advanced and more profitable version) and list it on a server. Hakuza wants file #xxx998 True Light Data File on 128.x.x.x uploaded to their secure FTP server at 129.y.y.y for example. To complete this, one would break into 128.x.x.x and download the file. Once it is acquired, we upload it to 129.y.y.y. When one clicks Task Complete on the upload, the mission is complete and the cash reward is received.
To expedite the mission we could make the upload to the FTP receiver instantaneous (download was mirrored to a movable media like a disc and physically handed off to an anonymous drop) or use a reduced upload time (FTP server uses a specialized hardware connection provided by the employer). The theory behind the secure FTP server upload is that the hardware accepts any upload but will not accept remote log ons (for whatever reason) so the hacker connects, then goes to their files/programs list and clicks upload, hopefully simplifying things for all involved in implementing and using this suggestion.
So as not to make this process too laborious, we could have a wide range of file sizes. This will, of course, put a great deal of importance on HDD capacity and bandwidth in terms of completing these missions but it will also create competition between hackers for the acquisition of this data in order to complete the missions. It becomes a PvP kinda thing as people may think to encrypt these files, delete them, or hide them in order to prevent others from obtaining them first. They may even start out encrypted or hidden for added bonuses. This may also create a need to remove virii to free up bandwidth to obtain the data faster. Evil, I know, but someone's going to try and remove or capture virii for cash so another motive do to it for cash isn't going to change things much and will definitely create more situations where people weigh the value of a good hack against upsetting others, creating more opportunities for competition and PvP scenarios--more conflict = more plot.
Well, this is all well and good for those who have decryptors, unhiders, and lots of bandwidth, but what about all those poor noobies with only 5 bandwidth who are just starting out and see all those juicy data files laying about?
These data files could also be delete missions. Data gets in the wrong place, someone gets canned for it, the higher ups have already deleted it from the insecure server, but someone's copied it to another server! Oh, nos! We should hire a hacker to go destroy it. That's what they're good for.
So, in theory, this creates a new mission type and some added flavor to the game. It fleshes it out a little, making it more tangible and hopefully tantalizing the imagination a bit. It may even give True Light something to do other than research the infamous Revelation virus. It's all about the information, after all. It's out there somewhere waiting to be liberated.
Now, shoot holes in it.