For those unfamiliar the Dune series, the Butlerian Jihad was a crusade against “thinking machines”. Ultimately computers, and intelligent or thinking machines, even down to calculators are destroyed and banned. Humans who are trained in complex mental maths become known as Mentats, a sort of human computer. Just, uhh, leave all that shit on IX, with their Axalotl Tanks out of it.
Easier said than done. Security and risk mitigation is one of the first (if not the very first) concern of any IT company in this day and age.
I’ve been a system engineer. Digital assets are locked down, meaning that I couldn’t access anything outside of my scope (which was small and midsize banking websites). Physical assets (servers) sat in three remote locations, highly secure and staffed by a different team. Everything is backed up 5 different ways in 5 different places. Every keystroke is logged. Every door uses a passcard.
It’s built to be a trustless system of sorts, where no single person holds the keys to anything too important. Regular audits and individual accountability for every outage are the norm. About the only way to fuck it up would be to somehow incite a mass exodus of seasoned engineers.
I think what people often miss about these systems (not just IT, but all of our systems from finance to healthcare) is that they are supported by very intelligent, motivated individuals. These people are fighting hard to make sure that nobody can fuck up their work. They aren’t sitting ducks - they are nigh impenetrable sentries.
Good information, something to think about definitely, but I would say it shows that the best placed people to undermine these systems and companies are people with the professional and inside knowledge.
You didn’t understand the assignment. It’s all about small things. Accidentally cancel a important meeting between higher ups. Put some gunk in the administrators keyboard, which requires a wasteful support ticket to IT. If everyone does there job at 98% competence, the company loses 2% production as a whole.