Timeline for Why do the Star Wars computers have no security protocols?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
21 events
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| Jun 16, 2020 at 9:31 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Dec 22, 2019 at 10:23 | comment | added | Gnudiff | @Harabeck while I agree with you in principle, it could be argued that the are generally no random people on a battleship -- only crew. And crew should have options for fulfilling duties if other crew members go down. It would be pretty stupid, if nobody could activate a simple trash compactor, just because the petty officer is in infirmary with a concussion. | |
| Dec 16, 2019 at 14:45 | comment | added | Harabeck | @O.R.Mapper That's arguing for Imperial Incompetence. In no reasonable universe could any Joe-smoe on the space station remotely shutdown literally every trash compactor on the station. And arguing that those same Joe-smoes could locate high value prisoners? How is that not outlandish? I agree that they probably didn't consider active sabotage from infiltrators, but come on, that's just absurd. You're telling me the Imperials weren't worried about improper use of systems from their own people? If so, that's the more fantastical than the hyper drives. | |
| Dec 16, 2019 at 8:11 | comment | added | O. R. Mapper | @Harabeck: Yep. Doesn't seem too outlandish to me. The former may count as general operational status information all crewmembers may need to fulfil their duties, the latter as a public control option akin to switching on and off the lights that is not expected to cause any major trouble even if unintentionally used incorrectly once or twice. Add to that a dose of imperial overconfidence that no-one who would remotely consider active sabotage could possibly roam freely on the station, let alone get an opportunity for accessing its computer systems. | |
| Dec 15, 2019 at 22:31 | comment | added | Harabeck | @O.R.Mapper All personnel can look up prisoner locations and shut down waste processing? | |
| Dec 14, 2019 at 21:28 | comment | added | O. R. Mapper | @Harabeck: "Secret clubs might literally require a password. Police badges authenticate that a person is authorized to do policey things. Keys authenticate that we have the right to open a door, etc." - maybe unrestricted presence on a guarded space station authenticates that a user is allowed to access at least some systems available to all personnel. | |
| Dec 13, 2019 at 22:06 | answer | added | jeroen_de_schutter | timeline score: 5 | |
| Dec 13, 2019 at 15:52 | comment | added | Jörg W Mittag | Note that in our galaxy and time, the Internet was invented right around the same time that the original trilogy came out, and we are still to this day paying the price for the almost complete lack of cybersecurity considerations in its design. At the time the trilogy was written, cybersecurity was not really a thing. On the largest network that humanity had ever created up to that point, still every single person on the Internet personally knew and trusted each other. Why would anyone have thought about network security? | |
| Dec 13, 2019 at 15:39 | comment | added | divibisan | There’s a large difference between the floor-plans for the Deathstar, which would likely have to be publicly available to allow people to navigate a station the size of a small moon, and the full technical plans for the station which would have revealed the exhaust port. It’s likely that the map that R2 was able to access was a combination of a floor-plan and directory, which identified areas of interest like the detention blocks and tractor beam control | |
| Dec 13, 2019 at 10:18 | comment | added | delinear | What systems does R2 actually access? He doesn't have access to, for instance, disable the tractor beams (as Obi-Wan has to do that manually). As far as I recall, he basically gets the princess' location and shuts down the trash compactor, both systems which are likely to be available to low-level maintenance droids behind minimal security protocols, but am I misremembering? | |
| Dec 13, 2019 at 3:01 | comment | added | elemtilas | As a counter example, when Rogue One passed through the shield gate, they had to send some kind access code about which the rebel crew were concerned that it might be out of date. Of course, Luke and company also have the same issue when landing on the Planet of the Monchichis. So security codes are a thing in the SW universe. | |
| Dec 12, 2019 at 18:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackSciFi/status/1205185731683127301 | ||
| Dec 12, 2019 at 17:35 | comment | added | Harabeck | @tbrookside Note that authentication is not even unique to cybersecurity. Secret clubs might literally require a password. Police badges authenticate that a person is authorized to do policey things. Keys authenticate that we have the right to open a door, etc. So I don't quite buy that they would not see the problem with leaving computer system simply open just because automation is ubiquitous. I think there must be some security in place, but that R2 is capable of beating it once he has physical access. | |
| Dec 12, 2019 at 17:01 | comment | added | tbrookside | Galactic society in the Star Wars universe has apparently also had ubiquitous computing and robotics for much longer than ours - to the point where security may no longer be "a thing" the way it is to us. Most people interact with droids simply by speaking to them; there's no authentication at all. If your society is built around having computers and autonomous robots everywhere, at some point imposing security on that might seem as outlandish as having to enter a password for a human being to speak to another human in person would be to us. | |
| Dec 12, 2019 at 13:43 | comment | added | JavaMikeMoore | Not an in universe answer. As a security professional from this distant future, I can tell you that once you have your hands on a machine you can pretty much do what you want with it. Change the bios password, change the OS, etc. I think we can assume that Artoo can do what he wants. | |
| Dec 12, 2019 at 13:10 | comment | added | Philip Klöcking | I do not have a proper canon answer, that's why it's a comment. But, for example, in the game Fallen Order, the Scomp-Link (that's actually its name, see the canon Millenium Falcon Manual) is a slicing tool you can get in order to hack other droids. | |
| Dec 12, 2019 at 12:39 | comment | added | shufly | Other things to note are R2 had the death star plans, other information stolen by the rebels, and was the droid used by Anakin/Vader for years. This leaves the possibilities of the plans or other rebel information contained codes and such for the death star. Also the possibility that Vader uses the same password for everything from when he was anakin, so R2 just logged in as Vader. | |
| Dec 12, 2019 at 12:32 | history | edited | TheAsh | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 11 characters in body
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| Dec 12, 2019 at 12:32 | comment | added | TheAsh | @PhilipKlöcking "On a more serious note, you can see on Endor that this turning thing is actually hacking and does take some time at times." If you have a source that says it's hacking and not merely processing data, that's a great answer. | |
| Dec 12, 2019 at 12:30 | comment | added | Philip Klöcking | R2 is a pro hacker, as you can clearly see by the frantic turning of his access tool. Without difficulty, pah. On a more serious note, you can see on Endor that this turning thing is actually hacking and does take some time at times. But why bother securing a heavily secured terminal in a heavily secured space station with as heavy a security as an easily accessible door panel? | |
| Dec 12, 2019 at 12:25 | history | asked | TheAsh | CC BY-SA 4.0 |