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!!!
