The combined voice of the masses make for a lot of interesting behavior. We even have recently coded features to police those effects and balance it out. I think we should add to this but also create modded gear and chip behavior. Here's some proposed changes for your consideration.
* New Cyberware: SIC Hawt-Swappe Interface. An external and visible modification that allows the host to hot swap SIC chips. Installed by your local Cyberdoc. A skilled cracker with this tech can access encryption keys on the implanted SIC chip (which would now be protected by a layer of security). Highly illegal. Requires no SIC chip and host clones out without chip at Genetek. Installed chip would be kept at temperature by cyberware - anything else needs to be carried in a cooler as always.
* New Chip Modification: Mouthpiece .07b Firmware exploit. A chip modification for the SIC chip that adds a small amount of ram and modifies the firmware of the chip itself. SIC Chip is modified by your local Electro technician and installed by your local CyberDoc. The chip features auto alias-hopping that pulls from two different lists to make a SIC alias (it will not hop if it hits an identical alias and tag auto-clears when enabled) and limits efforts to track the host to there sector (chip heats up on trace alerting host). More difficult to crack encryptions than standard SIC Chip. A 1.0 release with an automatic (and themely) insult generator would be pretty great too.
* New Chip Modification: Overseer 2.0 Firmware exploit. Same as above but all SIC aliases become only visible by SIC ID. Host can manually assign Aliases to each SIC ID. More difficult to install than Mouthpiece .07b and more expensive. Considerably more difficult to crack encryptions than standard SIC Chip. Chip self-terminates upon detected tampering.
* New Chip Update: NLM Good Joe 1.0 Firmware upgrade. A basic NLM and typically corporate sponsored upgrade package. Makes encryption more difficult to crack than standard chip. Includes 7500 SIC Credit upon install. Has optional features to alert WJF and next clone of kin of your whereabouts at time of death if you are in SIC range upon termination. Sterilizes chip upon install. Installed using disposable one time use uploader by Electro Technician. Non-invasive but requires @trust. Chip self-terminates upon detected tampering.
* New Chip Modification: Snitch 6.6 spyware. A hidden firmware mod that reports the hosts location, current alias, and SIC ID every 30 minutes to a pre-programmed encryption key. Does not work if host is not in signal range. SIC Chip is modified by your local Electro technician and installed by your local CyberDoc. Highly illegal.
* New Chip Update: Rainbow ICE 7.0. A security scanner that identifies and destroys instances of malware such Snitch. Installed using disposable one time use uploader by Electro Technician. Expensive. Non-invasive but requires @trust.
* New Chip Behavior: Upon trauma to the head or neck, a SIC chip would maybe glitch out (ala overdose but way less spammy) and chatter would be mildly to extremely distorted to the host until they saw a medical professional who performed a medical maneuver with a fancy name.
Chips would be able to factory reset to vanilla firmware at any licensed medical clinic with the proper hardware. This would not remove any malware though. Any scan or sanitation vs Snitch would contest skills/stats accordingly so a skilled decker could fly under the radar.
The idea of this is to create a more viable platform for SIC ripping, encryption cracking, and overall electro_tech work in a pre-grid 3.0 world.