Social Implication Topics

Networked Communications

Intellectual Property

Information Privacy

Privacy and the Government

Computer and Network Security

Computer Reliability

Work and Wealth

Computer and Network Security

Concepts from the computer and network security chapter are mainly present in Erudite's attempt to take over the government in Divergent. Their system of control over Dauntless was enacted through a serum injected into the neck that would influence the individual to comply with directions from a computer which was controlled by Euirdite. The system was compromised when Tris and Four used the serum on Erudite’s leader, exploiting an overlook in the system. Once the serum was injected into the Erudite's leader's neck, Four was able to send directions through the computer to shut down the system. His ability to operate the system demonstrates a lack of security regarding the operation of the computer system. That lack of security allowed them to access the information needed to stop the network system. Through their use of the serum, they were able to permanently terminate the system. Exploiting weaknesses in existing systems is a common issue of computer and network security in reality.

The aptitude test in Divergent also presented a case of computer and network security. When Tris’s results came back Divergent the test administrator was able to overwrite the test results and manually input Abnegation, which eliminates the government's knowledge of her Divergent results. The administrator exploited a property of the program in order to stop one of the intended services of the exam. The severity and frequency of denial-of-service attacks have increased significantly in reality. Denial-of-service attacks' volume size has increased from about 10 gigabytes per second in 2007 to about 800 gigabytes per second in 2016 [1]. Although denial-of-service attacks are generally executed through the internet rather than through manual inputs, the film showcases how systems are subject to purposeful attacks that prevent them from completing their intended actions.

References:

Mahjabin, T., Xiao, Y., Sun, G., & Jiang, W. (2017). A survey of distributed denial-of-service attack, prevention, and Mitigation Techniques. International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks, 13(12). https://doi.org/10.1177/1550147717741463