Data Security
Recently, I have been working with information having to do with data security. Not that I am any kind of expert, in fact for a change, I am not expert at all. I know very little about this one particular subject. However, it is interesting that some people give it a lot of thought. Interesting because others of us take it for granted. We shop on line and don't really think too much about the efforts and practices that went into making our transactions safe. We send our biggest secrets over chat and email with little thought to the security of it all. Wait, what? I am the only one sending secrets over chat and email. Crap. Well, anyways, you get my point. Not many of us think too much about the security of our data although we all probably should.
I was thinking about the imagery of protection. We all want protection from bad guys, but we don't like to think about what that might look like...it can be kind of frightening, or unwanted. Honestly, the first thing that I think of when I think of protection is condoms. Google image search thinks of that first too. Condoms keep us safe from viruses and other sorts of problematic issues. Also, condoms keep mules stomachs and large intestines safe from cocain, but those are bad guys. Or somewhere in the middle guys anyways.
I think of pad locks, chain link fence, razor wire, barking dogs... We are all taught to believe that police are our friends, yet we all instintively quit doing what we were doing when they show up, even if what we were doing wasn't bad. Don't lie, youre not fooling anyone, you know you do. Yes you, you do too. Everyone, even you.
Yes you do too, now stop before the cops get here.
As I was thinking through the different, fairly unattractive things, we depend on to keep us and our assests safe, I had a stunning and kind of sad realization. One of the worset fake events of the 70s happened because data wasn't protected well enough. I realize the evil empire being toppled was all in all probably a good thing, but R2D2 is a robot, and therefore amoral. Today he steals the plans to blow up the death star, tomorrow he could just as easily steal the plans to blow up city planet where all the jedis sit around doing cool jedi stuff. I don't know what would be worse than that, but whatever is worse, R2D2 is totally capable of it.
Too bad for the empire that they didn't practice better data security. Darth Vadar was a great evil empire leader, but sadly his big undoing was poor data security. All the lightsaber fighting, sneaking around, blowing up tractor beam generators, attacking empire outposts aside, the evil empire would have crushed the rebel resistance if they would have had and practiced better data security. That should be a lesson to what can happen if you let R2D2 around your data.
Everyone loved that droid for all his cutie whistling and brash rebelliousness. But he just lost a few notches in my mind. R2D2 isn't as cute as he used to be to me, he is a menace. If I ever meet up with him, I will slip a magnet in him, and every other droid who acts all cute. In fact, I am going to recommend that a data standard be set in place to make sure droids keep our of our business. I don't want anything of mine blown up on account of one.
Labels: commercial space travel, data loss, data security, data standards, death star, R2D2, star wars
posted by Peteicus_X @ 12:37 AM
7 Comments:
R2 didn't steal the data; a bunch of Bothans did, and they died for it. Many of them.
R2 was just the messenger. Don't hate the messenger.
Also, for what it's worth, the Empire should've encrypted that shit. And the Rebellion should've known better than to try and transport the data on a ship; a series of burst transmissions in random directions, with one of them actually going to the base on Yavin 4, also all encrypted would have been much safer. Hell, Alderaan would probably still be around if that were the case. Leia wouldn't have been captured because the darn data wasn't on her ship, and they wouldn't have needed to threaten her.
Encryption could have saved millions of lives in a galaxy far far away.
As I am not nerdy enough, I thought R2D2 stole the plans. He is always stealing other stuff. I had to read up on this fake history. Turns out a guy named Kyle Katarn stole the complete set of plans that were later given to Princess Leia. I don't think Kyle was a Bothan, whatever that is, but I also don't care.
The interesting thing here is that turns data (the death star plans) into a physical security issue. Everyone seemed so concerned with the safety of them, no one would transmit them. So, all the times portions of the plans were stolen up until this full set were stolen, it was physical data security that would have stopped this. Though, they should have been stored on encrypted media...
I wonder if they used to have encryption during these completely fake historic times?
Odd, canon's changed quite a bit since I followed it. The #1 for the whole thing is here:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Operation_Skyhook, but Mon Mothma specifically states in A New Hope that "many Bothans died to bring us this information." She gets this whole dramatic close-up and everything. It confused the shit out of a bunch of people because at no other time in the 3 movies do they mention the term Bothan. You can see one flying copilot for Lando in Return of the Jedi though.
Of course, I don't know why I'd expect things in Star Wars to make sense anymore. For what it's worth, the character of Kyle Katarn didn't exist until 1995 when Dark Forces came out.
Cough cough nerd cough
Hey, you started it. I was morally obligated to jump in.
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