Information security

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Proper information security involves all of the following considerations:


Information security in Star Trek


The Federation has repeatedly demonstrated unreliable information security protocols.

  • In the Voyager episode, "Investigations", Neelix is able to unlock someone else's workstation with just a voice command.


Many of the Federation's neighbors have similarly shown incompetent security measures.

Information security in Star Wars

Officers in the Imperial armed forces all carry on their person one to four code cylinders (the more carried the higher the access level) that they seem to use to access systems from any work station on the network, indicating that Imperial information security is token-based. In many of the Star Wars computer games, these cylinders take on the function of keys, opening locked doors once they are acquired. They also have electronic combination locks that are used to secure high-level systems, vaults, and areas.



Taken together, these incidents indicate that Imperial networks have "guest" accounts that provide unnecessary access to some systems, and a proficient hacker can exploit these accounts. It also suggests that some confidential information is handled carelessly, indicating poor enforcement of security procedures. Some of that information, such as a prisoner register showing Leia arriving on board the Death Star, could have been logged by that control room, resulting in R2 doing further searches in order to locate her cell.

R2-D2's interface equipment resembles the end of the Imperial Code cylinders, hinting that his hacking process may involve mimicking the information on one of those devices, which he could have obtained by reading a cylinder from one of the dead officers in the hangar control room. It may not be his only way of gaining access, but it does help explain how he could get into some systems but not others. If access was tightened after the station was alerted, the level he'd already gained might be insufficient for further hacking. This would also explain why moving to a different access point didn't hamper his efforts.





  1. Star Wars: A New Hope
  2. Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
  3. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
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