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There's a scene in the first Star Wars movie where an unauthorized R2D2 plugs itself in to the Death Star computer and knows everything whats going on - no passwords or security necessary.

To quote from this article on PandaSecurity.com:

While Luke Skywalker and his friends are still hiding in the Death Star control center, we see another major cyber-security mistake. Once R2-D2 manages to access the Galactic Empire’s computer network, he gets the space station’s blueprints without difficulty.

Given that this information is so critical for the security of all the inhabitants of this gigantic artificial planet, you would expect that, at least, access to those files would be password-protected.

The article gives a few more examples of how weak cybersecurity is in the Star Wars Universe.

However, it's possible that there is some cybersecurity, but the movies cut it out.

Is there any cybersecurity measures explicitly mentioned in the Star Wars universe in regards to computers?

And if not, is it ever explained why?

(I'm not looking for reasons why the Death Star security system was so weak. At the end of the movie, we see the General ignore the engineers' warning of a flaw. So it's possible the General is merely an idiot. I want to know in regards to all Star Wars computers in general.)

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    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?
    – Philip Klöcking
    Commented Dec 12, 2019 at 12:30
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    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.
    – shufly
    Commented Dec 12, 2019 at 12:39
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    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.
    – JavaMikeMoore
    Commented Dec 12, 2019 at 13:43
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    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.
    – tbrookside
    Commented Dec 12, 2019 at 17:01
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    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?
    – Jörg W Mittag
    Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 15:52

1 Answer 1

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R2D2 actually has limited access to the information on the Death Star.

C3PO says, in A New Hope

I said, all systems have been alerted to your presence, sir. The main entrance seems to be the only way in or out; all other information on your level is restricted.

Astromech droids probably had, as some have already mentioned in the comments, access to maintenance-related data. And in case of calamities, there is most likely a public broadcast about the security threat.

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