Netwatch

Established in the early days of the NET, Netwatch is a policing organization founded as part of a U.S./ EuroTheatre treaty. Although technically a non-governmental agency that came out of a security company based in London, England, in reality Netwatch worked in tandem with, and received most of its funding from, governments, Megacorporations, and other large semi-governmental organizations.

Before the War, Netwatch's job was to patrol the NET looking for illegal activity, covering various "territories" based on the regional maps established with the implementation of the Ihara-Grubb protocols. Equipped with the best cyberdecks, powerful hunter-killer software, and an almost unlimited source of funding, Netwatch attracted the best of the best Netrunners: players who loved taking on the top "black-hat hackers" in one-on-one NET combat. But as the War heated up, both sides unleashed terrifying new programs and Black ICE to devastate the other. In the end, it took the psychopathic brilliance of master Netrunner Rache Bartmoss to devise a way that not only destroyed the NET, but also made sure even Netwatch couldn't fix what he'd done.

So, for the past twenty-two years, Netwatch has been a police force without a beat. Their main job has been to act as lifeguards, finding renegade 'runners who've managed to find a backdoor into the now off-limits Old NET and are being torn to ribbons by the bad stuff that now inhabits "The Dungeon" (as Netwatch pros and 'runners now called the old NET Architecture). They bail the weefle runners out and then run for cover before the really awful Black ICE descends upon them like the hammer of Thor. But recently, with the help of Alt Cunningham and a mysterious cabal of Transcendental AIs, Netwatch head, Magnificent Curtis and his crack team have been able to write software that could tackle the Black ICE and R.A.B.I.D.s that have infested the Old NET. And behind the scenes, the Transcendentals, the Ghosts, and Netwatch have been working together on a project to get the NET under control; a project that exists on no books or official documents, known only by the ominous title of The Black Wall.