Lessons from 'Star Trek: Picard' – a cybersecurity expert explains how a sci-fi series illuminates today's threats

• Society’s understanding of technology and cybersecurity often is based on simple stereotypes and sensational portrayals in the entertainment media.
• Or think of counterintelligence specialists repositioning a satellite from the back of a surveillance van via a phone call.
• And that’s important, because whether it’s a large company, government or your personal information, we all share many of the same cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities.

The nature of the threat

• Starfleet is the military wing of the United Federation of Planets, of which Earth is a member.
• In Season 3, the final season, Picard’s ultimate enemy, the Borg, returns to try conquering humanity again.
• The Borg is a cybernetic collective of half-human, half-machine “drones” led by a cyborg queen.
• Equally important, “Star Trek: Picard” presents the very real and insidious nature of the insider threat faced by today’s organizations.

Humans remain the weakest link

• The ultimate safeguard.” With these words, humanity’s military defenders activated a feature that linked every Starfleet vessel together under one unified automated command system.
• In essence, Starfleet created a Borg-like defense system that the Borg itself used to attack the federation.
• But even then, technology alone can’t protect humans from ourselves – after all, it’s people who develop, design, select, administer and use technology, which means human flaws are present in these systems, too.

Resiliency is not futile

• To counter the Borg’s final assault on Earth, Picard’s crew borrows its old starship, Enterprise-D, from a fleet museum.
• Offline from the others.” From a cybersecurity perspective, ensuring the availability of information resources is one of the industry’s guiding principles.
• Here, the Enterprise-D represents defenders in response to a cyber incident using assets that are outside of an adversary’s reach.

Prepare for the unknown

• The “Star Trek” universe explores the unknown in both the universe and contemporary society.
• Often, such solutions are derived from characters’ interests in music, painting, archaeology, history, sports and other nontechnical areas of study, recreation or expertise.
• Season 3, in particular, offers viewers both entertainment and education – indeed, the best of both worlds.