Sunday, Feb 1, 2009
Now first let me say I'm a big fan of 24, and the new season is very exciting, BUT either the FBI is full of computer illiterates (and they do like spouting their IT-banble) or they have the least credible threat of all time.
So, for those of you not watching it, the main threat is someone has a device that can hack the government firewall. Whoopy Do! All that means is that they can route packets of data past the firewall and into the private network behind. It does NOT mean they can log on to any of the systems behind it, they would need valid userids and passwords (no mention of those having been acquired) and even if they did, it is work of minutes to suspend the compromised userIDs, which in the days of Sarbaines Oxley auditing requirements they'd be able to spot from the audit.
But to me the real kicker is, it will take them hours to rewrite the firewall, yep probably true, but it takes one second to unplug the network cable that connnects the private network to the outside world. All critical systems will be designed to be able to run on their own network without any external data feeds for a while, and the sort of systems they are talking about are classic cases. Air Traffic control would have it's own private resilient network for critical data since it is too vital to rely on internet. The external connection will only be for things like feeds to civilian services (such as real time flight info on the web), all critical communication would be via a private network.
So for that sake of my sanity just pull the plugs and go after the terrorists without this unrealistic threat!!!
I have to say the latest 24 is rather typical of "Hollywood IT". They like to drop in mysterious terms like Ports, Packets and Servers, and even Mainframe (and then show you a Unix box). But then when they show you displays they have BIG FLASHING GRAPHICS for unauthorised access and user interface things that have NEVER existed in the real world. Do they think the whole world is full of IT morons. IT on TV today is a bit like driving a car in a movie in the 50s, you know perpetual swinging of the wheel from left to right. Anyone that's ever been in a car knows that's not right, so why the hell did directors, who presumably have driven, put it in movies - the same goes for IT - just stop it!!!
So, for those of you not watching it, the main threat is someone has a device that can hack the government firewall. Whoopy Do! All that means is that they can route packets of data past the firewall and into the private network behind. It does NOT mean they can log on to any of the systems behind it, they would need valid userids and passwords (no mention of those having been acquired) and even if they did, it is work of minutes to suspend the compromised userIDs, which in the days of Sarbaines Oxley auditing requirements they'd be able to spot from the audit.
But to me the real kicker is, it will take them hours to rewrite the firewall, yep probably true, but it takes one second to unplug the network cable that connnects the private network to the outside world. All critical systems will be designed to be able to run on their own network without any external data feeds for a while, and the sort of systems they are talking about are classic cases. Air Traffic control would have it's own private resilient network for critical data since it is too vital to rely on internet. The external connection will only be for things like feeds to civilian services (such as real time flight info on the web), all critical communication would be via a private network.
So for that sake of my sanity just pull the plugs and go after the terrorists without this unrealistic threat!!!
I have to say the latest 24 is rather typical of "Hollywood IT". They like to drop in mysterious terms like Ports, Packets and Servers, and even Mainframe (and then show you a Unix box). But then when they show you displays they have BIG FLASHING GRAPHICS for unauthorised access and user interface things that have NEVER existed in the real world. Do they think the whole world is full of IT morons. IT on TV today is a bit like driving a car in a movie in the 50s, you know perpetual swinging of the wheel from left to right. Anyone that's ever been in a car knows that's not right, so why the hell did directors, who presumably have driven, put it in movies - the same goes for IT - just stop it!!!
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Posted Feb 1, 2009 1:04 pm PT
You're totally right, but I made myself feel better saying that this 24 is happening in the near future as they avoid saying dates, and thus the morons in charge made fatal errors when making new systems that rely to heavilly on each other - but that dosent explain the inconsistancies in IT. But, seeing as how I stopped watching 24 after Season 3 ended, it must be doing something right because it got me hooked for the first time in four years.
But they killed off Peter Wingfield already... nooooooo!
But they killed off Peter Wingfield already... nooooooo!
Posted Feb 1, 2009 5:10 pm PT
Its got nothing to do with morons in the future, just morons writing the script. Regardless of whether they are heavily dependent on each other, TCP/IP protocol sends data in packets, for a packet to find its way back it has the source address embedded within it, you can't mask or encrypt it, otherwise the hubs, routers and switches along the way would either dump it, or send it to the wrong place. Either way you wouldn't be able to create a remote session. Which of course means any intrusion is instantly trackable to its point of entry, which you can then pull the plug in the comms room it came in on. Its not hard, its really not hard. Low security "Retail companies" with no national security at stake have Internal Networks, a DMZ (where any public facing servers sit) and an External Network connection, all designed at the first hint of hacking to have a "pull point" to drop the connection to the outside world. If there's no wire, it doesn't matter how good or bad your firewall is, nobody can attack you remotely.
Now they've destroyed the CIP device I thought, OK that's probably a huge raise in believability and then I thought, hang on a minute, why is a high security government firewall protecting a civilian Chemical Factory? By all means protect it, but you would NOT put the lynchpin of your Top Secret communication protection in a public comms room - arrggghh
Still this is all fairly typical of IT in the movies, but in the days of home media networks Hollywood needs to wise up that the general public will soon be more tech savvy than them.
Now they've destroyed the CIP device I thought, OK that's probably a huge raise in believability and then I thought, hang on a minute, why is a high security government firewall protecting a civilian Chemical Factory? By all means protect it, but you would NOT put the lynchpin of your Top Secret communication protection in a public comms room - arrggghh
Still this is all fairly typical of IT in the movies, but in the days of home media networks Hollywood needs to wise up that the general public will soon be more tech savvy than them.
Posted Feb 10, 2009 8:15 am PT
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