3 Cyber Security Lessons Ryan Reynolds teaches us in Red Notice
With a reported $200 million budget, Red Notice is the most expensive Netflix original to date. With a star studded cast and a lot of hype around the Netflix release of Red Notice on 12 November, audiences are expecting an action comedy film filled with typical Ryan Reynolds humour. What they’re not expecting is to learn some very valuable cyber security lessons along the way!
Without giving away any spoilers, the general plot of the film involves an FBI profiler working with Interpol to catch the world’s most notorious art thieves. While the film plot has received mixed reviews, we wanted to review the 3 cyber security lessons which are shared as the action unfolds and most importantly provide advice on how organisations should be addressing these warnings.
Lesson 1: “No one ever expects the attack to come from inside the house”
“Did you know that 99% of all tracking protocols focus on 3rd parties”, Gal Gadot tells a bound and gagged Interpol agent as she uses his computer to send an internal call as part of an elaborate ploy to hack Interpol’s systems.
Full disclosure – we haven’t fact checked this stat but we certainly see the truth in the sentiment. Whether it’s a disgruntled employee deliberately conducting a malicious threat or smuggling trade secrets, or a staff member falling prey to an attack – or even on the off chance you have art thieves visiting your offices on occasion – an internal security breach could prove disastrous for your company if allowed to infiltrate your network.
“They should really work on patching the security vulnerability, it’s embarrassing” exclaims Gal, as if she took the CISSP certification just yesterday. And she’s not wrong!
Penetration Testing is by far the most effective way to identify potential gaps and weaknesses in your cyber security and help you to safeguard your business against threats from malicious insiders. Armed with detailed knowledge you can take the necessary steps to stop security breaches before they happen and prevent attacks, including from within the company itself.
Lesson 2: Biometric passwords are not infallible
It’s widely reported that biometric passwords are more secure than standard passwords and more difficult to hack.
While most of us won’t have (potential spoiler alert!) art thieves taking our fingerprints from glasses being handed around at masquerade balls, nothing can claim to be completely immune from attack. With the advancements in deepfake technology and such methods, which can be exploited to hack biometric passwords, organisations must make sure they have the right tools and countermeasures in place to stay a step ahead of the criminals.
Organisations must also harness the power of technology to protect their businesses from hackers and reduce the magnitude of an attack. An Intrusion Detection System (IDS), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system, malware detection, email filtering and scrubbing and end-point detection tools are just some of the solutions available that can increase your visibility and manage threats in real-time to protect and improve your network. “That sounds expensive” we hear you say – and you’re right, it is. Given the vast, sometimes overwhelming choice of cybersecurity solutions, it can be difficult for organisations to know the best route to take and most effective investment to make.
By partnering with a security services provider, you can make cyber security a priority and take advantage of years of expertise and the best of breed solutions, without having to spend a fortune on in-house tools and teams. A fully managed 24/7 Security Operations Centre could save you over £500,000, identify and neutralise an attack in less than 6 minutes, all without burdening your in-house IT and Security teams, or your budget.
Lesson 3: Cyber criminals don’t give up
Again, without sharing any film plot spoilers, one very clear truth that Red Notice highlights is that criminals never give up (you didn’t expect them to kill off the main characters before Red Notice 2, did you?). They also never sleep, constantly looking for new ways to bypass your security. In order for organisations to ensure complete protection from cyber threats, 24/7/365 real-time monitoring must be put in place. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t sleep either.
A Security Operations Centre is a centralised facility which is designed to analyse and assess every aspect of an organisation’s security, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. However, as we’ve already highlighted, implementing a Security Operations Centre can be a huge undertaking and very costly if state of the art tools and teams are to be employed in-house.
A Managed Security Service can protect your organisation from almost every type of exploit and attack and provides complete protection from all types of cyber attacks. With fully managed 24/7 monitoring and ongoing support you will strengthen your digital infrastructure and streamline your internal processes for advanced threat detection and response. All without distracting your in-house team with false alarms and other labour intensive work which pulls them away from business growth projects.
With Red Notice being ranked as the most successful film release in Netflix’s history, there will be a huge audience seeing firsthand the effects that threat actors – in this case literally – can have on an organisation. Businesses must take on the lessons that Red Notice teaches us and put protection in place. This is the only way to ensure that you don’t end up spending the equivalent of the film’s budget to survive the damage an attack can cause.
