I think this is a little over-hyped, as this technology has been developing for maybe 7+ decades now. It’s just gotten a help from miniaturization technology that’s give us computers, digital cameras, piezoelectric microphones, and so on. If you’re ever in DC check out the “National” Spy Museum (it’s private I think, not part of the Smithsonian for example). They have a lot of early cameras, recording devices, bugs, etc. Or watch a Bond movie from the 60’s.
Maybe the movie provided some ideas, but a lot of them were there all along (and being developed covertly).
That bit about WarGames reminds me of a behind-the-scenes for Leverage.
“The Dam Job” has a plot point where the team makes it look like they’ve stuck a highly invasive mussel species into the system, forcing the shutdown of the dam and all downstream waterways for miles. The night the episode aired, the showrunner (John Rogers) got a call from Homeland Security. The caller was in an absolute state of horror. “That is an attack vector we never even considered. And it would work.”
It was so incredibly low tech, and used publicly available information. Even panopticons have blind spots. You just need to make like a Hollywood writer/stand-up comedian/PhD in physics and do your homework.
Yeah, but, then someone would go look for the mussels and find the gaps. I don’t know. All these gerrymandering, heist kind of plot points are either educating us about legit risks or they’re inuring us to them.
The point isn’t about using any particular technique from a movie, it’s to do what Rogers did constantly throughout the series. Get limited information from sources A, B, C and D, compile and cross-reference. None of the sources individually give you enough to work with, but unless all of them are perfectly coordinated, you’ll end up with a pretty full picture.
DHS was worried about people attacking a dam itself: placing a bomb or hacking the computers. Nobody looked at Fish and Wildlife regs.They thought of the dam as part of the power grid, not the interface with the waterways.
Part of it is knowing human nature. Human nature is a) to be lazy and b) to stay within one’s bubble and c) to rely on the established, especially in authoritarian regimes. If the Big Book of Rules says “shut things down”, most people will follow that rule because it’s a rule. Authoritarian regimes don’t tend to support people who question. So if you learn how all the systems interact, you can usually find something that seems minor but that can trigger a cascade effect.
The other trick is remembering that most things are not things in their own right, but merely components in something bigger, often with smaller components of its own. Oftentimes, they’re components in many things. Your shoelace doesn’t necessarily exist only to hold your shoe on. It can also be used to save your life, or take it. Your shoes are a component of your wardrobe that not only protect your feet, but serve a social function as well. There’s “no shoes, no shirt, no service,” but they also signify where you sit in the social stratification (a bank CEO is unlikely to be wearing a pair of beat up steel-toed workboots to a boardroom table, whereas if you show up to the worksite in dress-shoes, you clearly aren’t there to work).
As I said, even panopticons have blind spots. We just need to learn where they are.
The framing of this as a story has always puzzled me. Yes, China persecutes (and executes) Falun Gong members. No, China doesn’t give victims of execution any say in whether or not their organs are then donated for transplant.
Why are these two things always causally linked in western media coverage? Also, why does this story resurface whenever there’s a concerted escalation of the trade war between China and the West?
Those stories are always a little frightening since I got a vape pen. A few points they didn’t mention:
Vape batteries often have the contacts in close proximity on one end, so they could potentially easily short if left exposed and just tossed into a pocket or purse or something where they could come into contact with a conductive material. (Presumably a lot more powerful and explosive than a standard 9-volt.)
A culture developed around vape mods - modified or custom-built vapes or built from mixed parts that may not be compatible. Experimenting with explosives, electrical resistance, and high temperatures is always naturally going to be a bit dangerous.
Cell phones are also explosives that we hold near our face or in our pockets all the time. But one thing that might make vapes a bit more dangerous is that they frequently need to be disassembled and reassembled (to refill, change coils, switch batteries; depending on the model) and that probably increases wear and the chances of incorrect reassembly or wetness or something getting in.
Not to mention the fact that it can be pretty easy to accidentally override the settings on your vape if you’re forgetful about locking it before you put it in your pocket.
I am constantly reminding myself that I’m carrying round a 5,000 mAh battery of unknown providence, that can output 80w to heat a thin strip of metal to 350°c in a second or so, despite said piece of metal only being safely rated for 2/3 of that temperature or wattage. I am religious to the point of obsession about double-checking the settings before each use, if there is even the slightest chance that buttons have been pressed without my knowledge.
That said, I’ve fallen asleep with it in my hand a couple of times now and that would have been potentially fatal with a cigarette. Exploding mods (especially those that aren’t directly attributable to user error) seem to be rare enough that they’re still reported internationally, unlike deaths from accidental cigarette fires.
