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“Independence-Day” Malware and Managing the (Beach) Risks of Jaws

In the spirit of our previous Holiday film blogs, we present for your viewing pleasure (and background research) the following Independence Day films for your (re)viewing pleasure.  Both deserve renewed attention in light of:

  • The SEC’s recent Solar Winds-Cybersecurity-related events, regarding disclosure of material weaknesses or material cyber security risks related to the Solar Winds compromise;
  • The re-opening of offices and recent announcements of certain businesses explaining employees should be back in the office or else.

We offer the following Independence Day Weekend themed film streaming recommendations that relate to each of the above and therefore count as background research.

In Independence Day, one of Will Smith’s very first action films in which Aliens arrive on a mother ship with a series of smaller ships that proceed to destroy D.C., New York, and various other cities, the good guys use malware implanted into the alien’s mother shop to block alien communications and defense networks.  Without ruining the fireworks, the good guys win. There is a rousing speech by Bill Pullman (as the President) rallying the rag-tag group of Americans left to fight and Will Smith saves the day, as he does again and again in many movies thereafter.  But the malware and implantation of same on the alien ship, while used for good in this movie, presents what appears to be a material cyber security risk to the alien mother ship’s communications.  When they get back to their home planet, they are going to have some serious disclosure issues to their board of directors after being greeted at their spaceship door by their alien enforcement regulators with “voluntary” requests for information.

In Jaws, Steven Spielberg’s 1975 summer special, is set around a small beach community that relies upon tourism entering the holiday weekend.  A series of shark attacks that start with the legs and arms of a skinny dipper turning up on the beach alarms Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) but despite warnings of the impending danger, the town’s Mayor ignores Chief Brody’s advice to keep the beach closed because it would harm the tourist business. Over Chief Brody’s warning to the contrary (which speaks to every in-house counsel and compliance person), the Mayor orders the beaches open.  Mayhem ensues, people are eaten by the shark and the Chief hires a grizzled old pirate / shark hunter (Quint – Robert Shaw) and a shark expert (Hooper – Richard Dreyfuss) to hunt down the shark.  As much as this is a monster flick, with the oversized Great White, the parallax view is that the true “monster” is the Mayor, ever the politician, who bows to the tourist industry and opens the beach for sharky-snack time.  The shark is simply being itself.

Happy viewing and 4th of July!

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July 2, 2021
Written by: David W. Porteous
Category: Compliance and Supervision, Futures and Derivatives, Hedge Funds and Private Equity, Insider and Manipulative Trading, Investment Advisers and Broker Dealers, Public Companies, Accounting, and Auditing

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