Mr. Robot Episode 3 Review

Mr. Robot Episode 3 Review



[ NOTE: There are spoilers below, not just for this episode but for the show in general. ]

Enough people have asked me to start doing reviews of Mr. Robot episodes that I’m going to have a go at it. The deciding factor was the fact that I had such a strong desire to write during the third episode.

I’m going to start here with thoughts on the show in general, not just on episode 3.

Mr. Robot in general

The character

The main protagonist is an interesting character. He is what the writer evidently wants to capture, or actually believes to be, the template for a true hacker, which is highly damaged.

I am quite struck with the focus that is placed on how truly messed up he is. He has major drama with the way his father was killed. He largely hates society. He has deep personal depression. And he’s a user of narcotics.

I’m left thinking along the lines of a Hemingway type of artist, where the best creativity (in this case hacking) comes from those wo are the most tortured internally. Painters, musicians, etc. We’re familiar with the template.

This redeeming qualities, which the writers take equal efforts to highlight, are the desire to protect people, his love for the blonde girl, and a general but understated willingness to fight back against the soul-crushing force of our modern, consumerist society.

I really enjoy how he is only actually going to see his psychiatrist because he’s trying to help her, and if she’s actually going to help him it’ll kind of be on accident.

He deeply analyzes people and sees if they’re good, or weak, or in need of help, and then if they are he kind of hates them less because of this. And he is willing to use his superpowers to help them as a result, like when he pushed that guy out of his psychiatrist’s life.

The tech

Before going into the various problems, it must be said that the information security writing has been exemplary. I’d say definitely the best we’ve seen in either movies or “television” (whatever that is).

That said, there are a number of missing links in the armor.

On one of the first episodes, possibly the first, I noticed an IP address with a final octet in the 300’s. That’s just an editing miss, but it did take me out of the fantasy.

In Episode 2, which I generally didn’t like, I was quite bothered by the destruction scene. Here’s what I think happened there. They wanted to do a destruction scene, they had it all rigged up, and they wrote the story so that he’d do a quick hack and then get spooked enough to do it.

Then they show the infosec writer(s) the story component and they’re like,


Um, no. There’s no way anyone of this skill level would be hacking from his actual IP address.


And they’re like,


Well, we need to do this scene. Most people will miss that, and the scene will be cool enough to make up for it.


So the writer stomps out of the room mumbling about how they shouldn’t have hired him for authenticity if they were going to make such obvious mistakes, and they go with it.

Who knows if that really happened, but that’s how I imagine it.

Comments on modern society

I also find the comments on modern society to be quite interesting. I think it’s a big part of the whole hacker feel.

Hackers have always had this component to their mystique. Being counter-culture. Being underground. Fighting against the man. So the idea that everything is a conspiracy with the rich exploiting the poor, the strong exploiting the weak, and everything being about selling advertising and the dominance o...

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Episoder(531)

Take 1 Security Podcast: Episode 3

Take 1 Security Podcast: Episode 3

START CONTENT * There was an issue with the Marriott website that exposed reservations and payment information. It’s now been fixed * Police are now using a new radar to see into peoples’ homes without a warrant * Security budgets are reportedly going up due to the mega-breaches in 2014 * Also leading to higher pay for CIOs * Anecdotally, I’d say it’s a pretty good time to be in infosec * A new security startup, PFP Cybersecurity, uses power consumption to detect malware * Meant initially to be used for SCADA type systems * The US hacked North Korean computers back in 2010 * This is reportedly the reasons we were so sure they hacked Sony * Recently leaked documents from Snowden show heavy offense * Snowden recently talked to Schneier at Harvard about a number of things * The NSA is becoming increasingly offensively oriented vs. defensive * The NSA supposedly uses compromised systems as jump points * Snowden said most NSA hackers are junior enlisted with limited skills * Russia reportedly hacking for geopolitical gain, not just money * Millions of gas stations could be at risk of shutdown * The Automated Tank Gauges can be remotely accessed by attackers * Could be manipulated to cause alerts * Potentially could be used to stop the flow of fuel * Microsoft gave Charlie Hebdo data to FBI in 45 minutes * Starwood hack based on bad passwords * Bad passwords, password re-use, and a brute forcing tool * Account harvesting is rough: user enumeration, weak passwords, and lack of account lockout * Flash has another major exploit. Update your stuff. * People continue to be worried that the President’s crackdown on hackers could hurt security professionals * Congress is meeting on the 27th of January to discuss breach notification * The wireless in around 2 million cars is highly vulnerable to attack * A polish company has created Mouse-Box, which is an entire computer inside of a mouse enclosure END CONTENT Play Podcast Notes * Sorry about the noise part way through. My girl walked in and started unpacking groceries. But when I say one take, I mean one take. Become a Member: https://danielmiessler.com/upgradeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

25 Jan 201510min

Take 1 Security Podcast: Episode 2

Take 1 Security Podcast: Episode 2

START CONTENT * UK police arrest 18-year-old in connection to Playstation and XBox attack * Major ASUS router bug * Local users can take full control without a password * Biggest issue there seems to be DNS hijacking * Legislative attacks on infosec profession and encryption * Anti-hacking law language ambiguous “according to owner” * Obama is said to agree with Cameron, but it’s complicated * Evidence of a plot is different than outlawing encryption * There’s other talk about it being illegal to see hack data * French reporting 19,000 DoS attacks since the shootings * Anonymous is going after ISIS and others * An attack on free speech is an attack on Anonymous * Google releases another Windows flaw that they didn’t fix * Verizon API vulnerability exposes customer email addresses * Issue was with a mobile API used by Android devices * Allowed him to retrieve peoples’ emails and send emails as them * On whether we should trust the FBI regarding the Sony attack * We now find out the attribution came from a previous NSA hack * It’s hard to criticize without data * This doesn’t mean they did it, or that the FBI is always right, or that they should always be trusted * It means be cautious when you don’t have any information, and the person you’re criticizing has all of it * Free speech and the Paris attacks * Where is the line for free speech? * I think it comes down to safety and taste * You can’t yell fire, and art matters * Quote of the week * No one is as happy as they seem on Facebook, as depressed as they seem on Twitter, or as employed as they seem on LinkedIn. END CONTENT Play Podcast Notes * I have a consolidated InfoSec news feed (here) that I use as a source for headlines. Become a Member: https://danielmiessler.com/upgradeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

19 Jan 201515min

Take 1 Security Podcast: Episode 1

Take 1 Security Podcast: Episode 1

Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Android | RSS START HEADLINES * Google drops security updates for Android 4.3 and below * This is a problem since that’s most of the install-base * Only .1% of users are on Android 5 * Microsoft and Adobe Push Critical Security Fixes * Seems like Google’s been messing up recently, with their attack on Whitehat for the Aviator stuff, their dropping security updates for Android, and now this early release of a bug before there was a fix. * Obama is asking for the removal of a number of state laws that make it harder to get good broadband in the US. * Obama is asking for quicker laws around the disclosure of hacks * One potential law is the Personal Data Notification and Protection Act, which would require companies to notify within 30 days if they get hacked. * The CENTCOM Twitter account got hacked a couple of days ago by some pro-ISIS folks * Obama is looking to improve the sharing of cybersecurity information as a response to the hack * Sammy Kamkar has released a keylogger for Microsoft wireless keyboards, called Keysweeper * David Cameron wants to make encrypted messaging apps illegal * 1) I’m not sure how he thinks this is possible Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes | Android | RSSBecome a Member: https://danielmiessler.com/upgradeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

14 Jan 20153min

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