Media, Popular Misconceptions, and the CSI Effect – What Does It Mean for InfoSec and Tech Policy?

No ratings

Presented at HOPE 2014 by

Joshua Marpet

Sandy (mouse)

Forensics is tedious and occasionally mind numbing. Exploit discovery and development is extremely detail oriented, and requires strong coding skills. Good Blue Team defensive strategy and implementation is team based, precise, and careful. But put a white lab coat on and, apparently, it’s all magic! From Abby’s “It’s commercial encryption, so it’s Cracked!” to CSI’s famous, “Enhance! Magnify! Enhance!,” the tropes of the popular entertainment world follow Arthur C. Clarke’s famous saying” “Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” So let’s make all techs wizards! How does this popular view of tech wizardry help our hacker world? How does it hurt us, when we have to enter the courtroom, either as an expert witness, or as a defendant? How can you, when put into one of these situations, defuse these tropes and make them work for you, or at least not hurt you? Does this distorted world view hurt or help technical people, companies, organizations, and agencies, in the world of tech policy, governmental regulations, and National Security Letters? Let’s talk.