n the current season of the television drama Homeland, the char-
acter played by Claire Danes is hot on the trail of a mysterious
woman who may be involved in the poisoning death of a treason-
ous military general — at the request of a chief of staff serving
under an authoritarian president.
However, the former top CIA agent Danes plays on the show
is temporarily derailed in her investigation and her life put in danger
by a very sloppy mistake. She clicks on a link sent to her anonymously
by a person in an online forum, which she believes contains crucial
evidence. Instead, it immediately freezes her laptop and the hacker
demands money and sexual favours or he will make public data on the
computer that could bring down the United States government.
The online security breach in this case was a plot device in the long-
running and popular fictional television program. But in the real world
of American politics, the result of the 2016 presidential election may
have been impacted by the careless information technology practices of
the campaign team of Hillary Clinton. Thousands of emails related to
the Gmail account of campaign chairman John Podesta were ultimately
made public as a result of a "phishing" attack. Podesta was sent an email
that appeared to be from Google that indicated he need-
ed to change his password. Instead, it was actually sent
by Russian-linked hackers. According to subsequent
media reports in the United States, while the email
was flagged, there was confusion over the response
from the Clinton IT team, the fake link was
clicked and the hackers obtained his password.
The constant threat of
cyberattack and data
breaches means it's
critical to have a plan
in place to respond
immediately.
BY SHANNON KARI
I
29
CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE MAY/JUNE 2018
