Plaintext: Truth Stranger Than Fiction
Art (Movies) Imitates Real Life
As humans, we crave stories. We know, for the most part, that the forces for good will prevail at the end and the villains will be thwarted. The enjoyable part is the journey, seeing the dramatic twists and turns the story can take. Movies also act as a mirror to real life. We can draw parallels to what we see on the screen with our daily lives. For instance, Die Hard has “uncanny, familiar parallels” between the villain's attempted mission and the kinds of cyber threats we see today. McClane had to outthink and outmaneuver the main villain in the movie, just as IT security teams do against cyber threats. Security pros have to consider how attackers move around the environment and what they would do with that stolen information, before they come up with a plan of defense. What McClane did in the movie? Sounds very much like risk assessments, doesn’t it?
The Matrix is very much a tech movie, but would you buy that it’s also about advanced persistent threats? The movie’s “Agents” behave similarly to how APT groups utilize stolen credentials to access the organization’s network and move around, as if they are legitimate users. And with the current wave of interest in the metaverse, the movies may have just have been prescient.
Movie Hacking vs Real Hacking. We know that security in real life is very different from movie hacking. It isn’t a digital world where you are fighting off tanks. Typing faster doesn’t mean hacking faster, but it is still fun to watch on the big screen.?
May The Force With You. No, today isn’t May 4, but we can appreciate the magic of the Star Wars universe every day of the year. Star Wars (or Star Wars: A New Hope, for those of you who want to be specific) is a tutorial in threat modeling. “How does R2-D2 know who Obi-Wan Kenobi is? How can he decide to play the recording of Princess Leia for Obi-Wan, but not Luke?” Adam Shostack asks. That isn’t the only one. Can you envision C-3PO as a CSO in The Empire Strikes Back? And Star?Wars: The Rise of Skywalker?is full of lessons about biometrics, secure data management, and human error with passwords.
Room for Horrow. Even cybercriminals like incorporating movies into their work. Victims of the JIGSAW ransomware saw the image of Billy the puppet from Saw on their screens as part of the ransom. Ransomware attacks are scary enough – there is no need to use horror movies to spread the message.
Gather Round for Movie Night. Ask a bunch of folks about the best hacker movies, and War Games and Sneakers inevitably makes the cut. But maybe it’s time to broaden your horizons for documentaries and movies that don’t seem like infosec movies at first, but should be considered security stories. Think titles like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Imitation Game, and Inception.
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On That Note
Enjoy this cartoon from way back in 2014. And if you feel inspired, send in your wittiest security-themed caption for this month’s second cartoon contest. The winner gets a $25 Amazon gift card!