Originally intended as a chance for fans to revisit a much loved character from the Star Trek franchise, the stories in Picard have also given the writers a chance to bring back several noted and memorable foes. And while one might think that a sci-fi series set far in the future wouldn’t provide much in the way of insights into the current challenges facing cybersecurity, the inclusion of the Borg in the final season, a half-human, half-machine collective, has given a powerful example of how easily a hacker can hide their actions when no one is looking for them, according to an article in The Conversation written by Richard Forno, Principal Lecturer in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at The University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
In the series, the Borg demonstrate the effectiveness of stealthy attacks via infiltration, injecting code into systems in a manner similar to modern day supply chain attacks, where a vendor may have their software compromised by a third party in a way designed to be activated at a later date only once it’s been loaded on a target’s systems. Similarly, the activation of these compromised systems shows the dangers of insider attacks, where a trusted individual is able to use their access to compromise or otherwise evade an employer’s security or defenses, often for extended periods of time, writes Forno. Even once these attacks come to light, there’s also still the issue as to how to restore these internally compromised systems to a safe state.
While science fiction is, as it says, fiction, there’s still a lot that can be learned from the speculations within.
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