I’ve been known to mix a bit of pop culture with my information security (InfoSec) in the past. I truly believe that people get more interested in subjects, and learn better, if you make it fun for them—and almost everyone likes pop culture, right?
In my latest InfoSec/TV mashup, I decided to tackle what a popular Breaking Bad TV spin-off, called Better Call Saul, can teach you about computer security. Want to join along in the fun, and see what I learned? Then check out my latest blog post at Dark Reading.
- 5 Reasons You Better Call Saul to Protect Corporate Data – Dark Reading
If you liked that article, and missed my previous attempts, you can check out The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and Destiny themed versions of these mashup security articles too. Also, don’t be afraid to get in on the fun yourself by sharing a few of your own pop culture inspired security tips in the comments below.
Finally, let me let you in on a little secret. My original piece had a sixth tip that got dropped due to word count. I recommend you read the above article first, but you can find my last, outtake Better Caul Saul security tip below, if you’re interested. — Corey Nachreiner, CISSP (@SecAdept)
Scenario 6: Watch out for electrical emissions – This last tip might be a stretch, but I think it’s funny. Better Call Saul literally has a tinfoil hat. Jimmy’s brother, Chuck, suffers from something called electromagnetic hypersensitivity. Basically, he thinks the EMF emissions from electrical devices cause him pain and are ultimately killing him. He doesn’t allow anyone to bring electric devices near him, and even wears a space blanket (tinfoil blanket) when he has to go near electric devices.
Let’s face it, Chuck is crazy and has a mental illness, not a physical one. However, our most fantastic delusions are often based on kernels of truth. Our computing devices do emanate many things—from vibrations and heat, to electromagnetic fields and radio waves—and these emanations can and do have security implications. Recently, researchers showed how you might use heat emanations as a backchannel communication medium. Even more famously, the TEMPEST project showed how attackers might use electromagnetic emanations from a CRT monitor to intercept and view the contents of that monitor wirelessly, way back in the 80s. So perhaps Chuck isn’t totally crazy for wearing a tinfoil hat. As threat actors get more advanced, perhaps we should think more about protecting our electrical devices’ inadvertent emissions.
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