The Death Star is the easiest-to-hack infrastructure in the entire universe.
The Death Star's security measures and stormtrooper action protocols are so bad that a single hacker with rudimentary computing expertise would have been enough to destroy Darth Vader's army and the Emperor instead of sending out a bunch of Jedi Knights with lightsabres.
We'll concentrate on the first instalment of the original trilogy, Star Wars: A New Hope, because the Star Wars narrative is too large to be covered in a single post.
Wrong network segmentation
Our heroes sneak inside a control centre with an access point to the battle station's core computer as soon as they arrive at the Death Star and get past the stormtroopers guarding the landing bay where the Millennium Falcon is situated.
Obi-Wan tells the droids to connect to the computer without hesitation since they will be able to "access the entire Imperial network." But, of course, if the evil guys had properly segmented their network, none of this would have happened.
Access by 'malicious dongles' allowed
Although the term "dongle" is unfamiliar to the general public, we are all familiar with the small pieces of hardware that we attach to our smartphones or PC to add functionality. For example, a dongle is a small antenna that you connect to your computer's USB port to receive the wireless mouse's signal. They're also common with Apple devices, such as when using an HDMI cable to connect a Mac to a TV.
R2-D2 connects to the Imperial network aboard the Death Star using his little gyroscopic arm as a dongle. The good guys obtain all the necessary knowledge to attack the system and locate Princess Leia. However, Darth Vader could have prevented his daughter from being rescued with a security system that blocked unauthorised devices from connecting to the network.
Lack of document security and password protection
We see another massive cyber-security blunder while Luke Skywalker and his comrades hide in the Death Star control centre. Once R2-D2 has gained access to the Galactic Empire's computer network, he can quickly obtain the schematics for the space station.
Given the importance of this information to the security of all inhabitants of this massive artificial planet, you'd think that access to those files would be password-protected at the very least.
It would also have been prudent to encrypt those documents to keep them safe from prying eyes.
Need for better disaster recovery processes in the event of a security incident
Fortunately for Luke, Han, and Chewie, the stormtroopers lack a proper disaster recovery plan in the event of a security breach. Any corporation that holds valuable information or resources (we're not aware of any company that has a galactic princess imprisoned in its basement) would have reacted far more quickly to the Death Star's dungeons attack.
Incredibly, so much time passes between Han and Chewbacca destroying all of the detention centre's monitoring cameras and someone eventually realising something is awry and dispatching troops to bring the situation under control!
Top management is not very receptive to the IT team's advice.
Admiral Wilhuff Tarkin, who is in charge of overseeing the operation of the battle station, would be the General Manager if the Death Star were a real company. Yet, despite understanding all of the ship's complexity and possibilities, it's astonishing that he pays no attention to any security alerts.
When the Rebel Alliance's X-wing squadron attacks the Death Star at the end of the film, a battle station's staff – similar to a member of a real-world IT team — advises Tarkin of potential vulnerabilities. The Admiral would have evacuated all employees from the space station if he had been more amenable to these cyber-security recommendations.
No patch management policies
However, the most severe security flaw impacting the Death Star is the weakness discovered and exploited by rebel troops to destroy it. Luke Skywalker fires at this tiny space, about 2 metres wide, blowing up the Death Star.
However, just minutes before the young Jedi fires his proton torpedoes, the Death Star's one fatal defect discovered by the Death Star's engineers. The Galactic Empire would likely still be controlling the Galaxy if they had implemented a security patch.
Reality vs fiction
The real world's dark side's efficiency, efficacy, and profitability have been consistently demonstrated. As a result, we must be careful in putting in place the necessary modifications and strategies to attain the highest levels of security.
