This is a huge one in movies and TV shows especially, but part of the problem is that IT security, or counter-security, is not a great spectator event. It’s very dry, does not involve a lot of flashing lights or even really anything on screen except in many cases a command prompt or progress bar, and is in most cases not a quick process.
That said, Mr. Robot, while not perfect, did a really good job of being a more realistic portrayal.
We had the opposite problem. Mandatory training by an external company. They sent an email to everyone urging us to click here and do the training, otherwise our company might not be certified!
Even ignoring the pushy text, the entire mail looked sketchy as fuck, generic company name, low res logo of our company badly photoshopped into a banner.
So everyone ignored this obvious spam and our company lost the certification.
The company I work for keeps harassing us about nobody reading the company newsletter (email) but every time I read it I see that is contains external assets and since I can’t stand being tracked I refuse to load them. We’re a tech company so it amuses me that they’re this naive.
I’m not actually in IT in my org but I remember one they sent out was “FWD: Your Medicare Benefits Package is Maturing” followed a few days later by an actual company wide shame email from the CIO about the click rate.
I love the notion that you get notified for being hacked, and that you have anti-hacking counter measures that need to be manually activated to take effect.
There’s a scene in the first season that I remember thinking “this is so obviously fake” but it turned out to actually be real software. It was when they find the malware on server C1 (or something like that) and it had the diagram of the servers on some screen at the datacenter.
This is a huge one in movies and TV shows especially, but part of the problem is that IT security, or counter-security, is not a great spectator event. It’s very dry, does not involve a lot of flashing lights or even really anything on screen except in many cases a command prompt or progress bar, and is in most cases not a quick process.
That said, Mr. Robot, while not perfect, did a really good job of being a more realistic portrayal.
Expectation: “Oh my God. They’re hacking the system! Deploy counter measures!!! furious typing”
Reality: “So, we sent out a phishing test email and had a 61% click rate…”
We had the opposite problem. Mandatory training by an external company. They sent an email to everyone urging us to click here and do the training, otherwise our company might not be certified!
Even ignoring the pushy text, the entire mail looked sketchy as fuck, generic company name, low res logo of our company badly photoshopped into a banner.
So everyone ignored this obvious spam and our company lost the certification.
Task failed successfully!The company I work for keeps harassing us about nobody reading the company newsletter (email) but every time I read it I see that is contains external assets and since I can’t stand being tracked I refuse to load them. We’re a tech company so it amuses me that they’re this naive.
61%!? What subject line are you using!?
I’m not actually in IT in my org but I remember one they sent out was “FWD: Your Medicare Benefits Package is Maturing” followed a few days later by an actual company wide shame email from the CIO about the click rate.
Yeah… boomer companies.
Probably “Your Microsoft account password needs reset” sadly
I love the notion that you get notified for being hacked, and that you have anti-hacking counter measures that need to be manually activated to take effect.
IT-Sec can be pretty interesting if you know what someone is doing. I agree with you.
There’s a scene in the first season that I remember thinking “this is so obviously fake” but it turned out to actually be real software. It was when they find the malware on server C1 (or something like that) and it had the diagram of the servers on some screen at the datacenter.
I never understood why it was called Mr. Robot but he was a human?
It’s explained later in the story
spoiler
It`s his dad’s computer repair store’ name. Or the one Elliot wants to see it as (in case of classic unreliable narrator moment).
Did you watch the show?
Mr Robot was his dad’s electronic store.