I'm newish to Shadowrun, I've run a bit of 4e and a little 5e many years ago and I've retained very little when it comes to the more confusing and involved rules.
The first run the players are on is meant to be a simple "pick up package > hide contents of datachip on contents of package so a basic "has this been tampered with" scan doesn't ping > deliver package to destination" job. The job being more than it seemed to the players aside, the most frustrating part of the run so far has been me, the GM, trying to find any rules or even close enough so I can alter them for my needs, that even remotely go into "hiding/hidden files" or even "files directly on the physical device".
I've got access to the books in the shadowrun 4e humble bundle that was available a few months ago as well as the SR4A and 5e core book both physical. I've scoured the SR4A and unwired over and over for anything even remotely explaining what a "file" is after the actions and program lists only go as far as encryption (means the file is found but can't be accessed), edit (editing a file doesn't help) and stealth program (which would be a running program on a device that is turned on to put the files on and then turned back off for delivery).
I am so lost. I've checked through the reddit trying to find anything that could help me GM fiat something and best I've been able to find is someone sharing that in Data Trails, a 5e splatbook, that "files are generally stored in cloud storage and what is a file is only explained in a vague and undefined way".
So I'm lost. My sessions are fortnightly so I have some time to scour more books and resources to figured something out. One of my players, the non matrix of the 3 (got an Android AI hacker (think QC comic for those that know), a Night one rigger and a yakuza street samurai), suggested to do the shadowrun/cyberpunk/matrix equivalent of just placing the datachip contents on the device and then scrubbing the registry of any and all existence of said contents. And that sounds like a thing that would totally happen in the shadowrun universe and yet nothing even remotely about that either.
So I'm very lost and quite frustrated at the rules and sadly what feels so limiting for how complicated and involved matrix rules and interactions are for 4e.
If anyone has any information (directing to where that information is from would be greatly appreciated) on how to hide a file not using an agent using stealth, how to detect hidden files not hidden by an agent using stealth (so I can reverse engineer it) or even just "what actually is a file" in a quantifiable state especially on a physical device not the matrix/cloud.
Tl;dr - I'm newish to GMing 4e and "what actually is a file on a device" is impossible to find anything about and it's frustrating.