What iMr. Robot/i Can Teach Businesses About Security

By getting the underlying technology right, Mr. Robot producers understand they boost the shows credibility and give businesses and their customers a more realistic view of security, risk and the challenges of data protection.

Hollywood too often treats hackers like
deus ex machina
devices who get called in to fix a plot problem and essentially do something magical – and technologically impossible.
But Taniums Andre McGregor and Ryan Kazanciyan, both technical advisors to the hacker drama
Mr. Robot
, said their input is sought before, during, and after scenes are shot. By getting the underlying technology right, the shows producers understand they boost the credibility of the characters and the series, which has won general praise from the hacker community and earned six Emmy nominations in its first season. And they may be helping to give businesses and their customers a more realistic view of security, risk, and the challenges of data protection.
If youre just tuning in,
Mr. Robot
is the story of Elliot Alderon, a socially challenged infosec professional with a double life as a vigilante hacker. He gets recruited to join an underground group of hackers (Fight Club meets Anonymous/LulzSec, McGregor laughed during Tuesdays Q&A event about the technical aspects of the show), which wants his help bringing down the company he works for – and other evil corporations.
The FBI is usually one or two steps behind; McGregor used to work for the Bureau, which has a more prominent role in Season Two, and hes advised how the FBI agent characters should hold a gun, interview investigation subjects, and deal with surveillance. The set design also looks a lot like the FBIs real cybersquad office, McGregor said Tuesday.
Then theres all that plot material to be mined from todays headlines, since retailers, banks, media companies, and political organizations too often treat security as an afterthought, Kazanciyan said at Tuesdays online Q&A.
Id like to see customers change their behavior when they see their data is no longer safe, so that organizations dont treat security as an add-on -- something you dont need to bother with when youre in a hurry, Kazanciyan said. Most organizations, he added, are still struggling to handle security at a basic level, much less build it in from the inception.
Rogue devices (Elliot plants a
Raspberry Pi
behind a thermostat), rogue wireless networks, ransomware, and USB-borne malware all turn up in various plot lines. But frequently, Kazanciyan or McGregor will field a call from Kor Adana, technology producer for the show, with questions and clarifications about how hackers behave and speak. Sometime dialogue needs to be changed to make a scene more accurate or realistic, or just to be more true to the character, Kazanciyan said. I cant say anything more without giving it away.
Im afraid of spoiler alerts, McGregor added. My contract says $1 million per infraction! Just kidding.
McGregor and Kazanciyan were quick to note that all of Elliots coding tricks and social engineering are drawn from real cases. Were not showing anything thats magical or hasnt been thought of – its all been done in the private sector or already written, McGregor added. And theyre not worried about copycats since all the hacks are essentially in the public domain already.
The technical advisors are also careful to show that hacking requires long, sometimes tedious hours and that code doesnt always work right – or in the way it was intended.
Hacking, even when its well planned and executed, is not without repercussions, which is a core theme for this season, Kazanciyan said. Good offense informs good defense when its done properly. But even the best-laid plans have some blowback, he said, referring both to real life and the hacks on the show.
Related Content:
5 Mr. Robot Hacks That Could Happen In Real Life
Tools & Training To Hack Yourself Into Better Security
5 Ways To Think Like A Hacker

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What iMr. Robot/i Can Teach Businesses About Security