Security Mavens' Reviews of Firewall

We invited some of our friends in the security field to review the new movie about a heroic CISO of a midmarket Seattle bank. Stars Harrison Ford. What could be wrong?

In the real world, $100,000,000, sent to five specific accounts in a 4 minute time frame, would be easily tracked and retrieved. The bad guys left tracks all over the place, including in peoples memory, but make it seem trivial to delete them. The reality is that organized criminals regularly steal millions of dollars from banks and get away with it. They dont have to resort to exposing themselves to charges of murder, extortion and blackmail.

However the most unbelievable aspect of the whole movie, that approaches science fiction standards, is that all of the techies in the Seattle area wear suits to work. Harrison Ford doesnt even take his tie off throughout the entire movie, despite chasing the bad guys all over Washington state.

I could pick this movie apart point by point from a technical perspective. However, the movie is a movie and should be seen as intended, for entertainment. There is a slight mention about a firewall at the beginning of the movie, but it is really just a movie title. The film was originally titled, The Wrong Element, but I guess that didnt sound cool enough. Overall, this is a really good movie.

Despite the lack of reality, its easy to buy into the suspense and the action. Hey, if you can believe that Indiana Jones is a real archeologist, you can believe that Harrison Fords character is a real bank security manager. If you are a fan of the TV show "24," you might think, from time to time, that you are actually watching that showMary Lynn Rajskub, who plays Chloe, CTUs most gifted geek, co-stars as Fords executive assistant.

At the very least, your friends who see "Firewall" might start to think youre cool!

BIO: Ira Winkler is an information security consultant and author (most recently of the book Spies Among Us, a call to action over the alarming vulnerabilities in security and intelligence systems). He often speaks and writes on infosecurity topics, but still finds time to go to movies.

PAMELA FUSCO:

All in all, Firewall isnt bad. Come on, Harrison Ford was it in, so it couldn't be a bomb.

But is it a reality? Well, if you take out the made-for-movie drama (exploding car, guns and ammo, and a fabulous house that a VP of Information Security could never afford), yes it could happen. But not easily.

To pull off a caper such as this, the majority of the security OSI stack has to be violated: 1.) physical; 2.) personal; 3.) logical (hackers, identity theft, etc.); 4.) social engineering; 5.) friends and family; 6.) the human-habit element (ordering pizza every X night of the week); and 7.) surveillance.