Tech Time Warp: The impetus for U.S. national security policy was… a teen movie?

“Is this a game, or is it real?” Eighties movie buffs will recognize this famous line from 1983’s WarGames, where Matthew Broderick plays a teenager who hacks into a defense department computer system. After Broderick’s character guesses an insecure password (“Joshua”—only slightly better than “password”), the consequences nearly bring about nuclear war. Let’s dive into this edition of Tech Time Warp.

How film influenced U.S. cybersecurity

The hit film made an impression on none other than President Ronald Reagan, who—after screening WarGames at Camp David—began asking his advisors some hard questions. Essentially, Reagan asked, “Is this a game, or is it real?” The advisors told the president the plot of WarGames wasn’t outside the realm of reason.

Fast forward to Sept. 17, 1984, and the presidential issuing of “National Security Decision Directive No. 145” (NSDD 145). The boring-sounding document established the first centralized federal approach to cybersecurity, correctly identifying the potential for bad actors, including nation-states, terrorist groups, and criminal organizations, to exploit technology to access proprietary government information. NSDD 145 gave the National Security Administration purview over all government computers that contained “sensitive but unclassified information,” as well as established multiple steering groups and committees to coordinate the government’s security efforts.

In the years to come, the consensus was that NSDD 145 was a good first step but didn’t go far enough. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified congressional recommendations the directive didn’t address, including recommendations related to training and reporting. The GAO also said NSDD 145 needed to better define the information it covered, and that the federal government also needed to take action to protect the information NSDD 145 didn’t cover.

Still, one must start somewhere, and a teen movie isn’t a bad place to start.

Did you enjoy this installation of SmarterMSP’s Tech Time Warp? Check out others here.

Photo: Pixabay / Shutterstock