2077: Heist

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Heist

Title text: But he has a hat AND a toolbox! Where could someone planning a heist get THOSE?

Explanation

Heist films are a type of crime film, generally built around an elaborately planned and executed robbery. Because the drama of such films is based around defeating security measures, the thieves in such a film will often engage in a number of tricks, ploys, and strategies to get around those measures.

Once such measure involves one of the criminals posing as a repairman or something similar in order to gain access to a secure area. This is a form of social engineering which has been used by real life criminals, and is a very common trope in heist films. It takes advantage of the fact that lower-level workers frequently come and go in most facilities, and people tend to assume that someone who looks like such a worker and acts like they belong is exactly who they appear to be. In addition, most people aren't particularly vigilant about security, and demanding identification or verification before allowing access might seem inconvenient or impolite.

Due to the prevalence of this trope, Cueball is concerned whenever somebody asks him "to open any door", because that's exactly the kind of thing someone in a heist movie would do. In such movies, the person who opens the door is usually a "minor character", often having no purpose in the film other than opening the door. These causes concern, because in a heist film, that character will generally facilitate a robbery (or other attack), and possibly be disciplined for it. If the thieves are more violent and remorseless, they might kill the character afterward to eliminate them as a witness.

In this case, he is asked to open the server room - ostensibly to allow the fire alarm to be checked. However, gaining physical access to the server allows the criminal to bypass most security features that should prevent unauthorized access to the data (a scenario known as an evil maid attack). If the hard disks are not encrypted it is trivial to copy all files or even remove and abscond with the disk drives - allowing the theft of sensitive information stored on the network. Even if the files are encrypted physical access to the server will allow the attacker to corrupt the system either by installing malware or adding malicious hardware components, which will then allow them to retrieve passwords and/or encryption keys.

Being aware of these dangers Cueball immediately assumes that he (or his employers) are the target of a heist.

The title text offers sarcastic reassurance, asking how a thief could have acquired a hat (possibly with a company logo) and a toolbox full of tools. This plays on the fact that, when people match our expectations of a particular role, such as having appropriate clothing and equipment, we tend to assume that's who they are, even when such clothing or equipment would be quite easy for an imposter to acquire.

This is the second comic in a row to reference a specific movie genre, this one heist movies. The previous comic, 2076: Horror Movies 2, referenced horror movies.

Transcript

[A man in a cap with a toolbox approaches Cueball, who is shown to be thinking with a cloud like bubble above his head with his thoughts.]

Man: Do you have the key to the server room? I'm from the building and I'm here to check the fire alarm.

Cueball [thinking]: Oh no oh no

[Caption below the panel:]

Thanks to movies, whenever anyone asks me to open any door, I immediately assume I'm a minor character in a heist.

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Discussion

You know, this isn't just a movie trope, this is an actual technique that is used ALL the time: https://youtu.be/rnmcRTnTNC8?t=2000 Is this worth mentioning in the explanation? Cgrimes85 (talk) 16:42, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

Probably because it works, and it probably works because real service people are really this bad authenticated. It's even worse in emergency: there is rarely time for proper authentication during emergency ... which is why the criminals would create or fake an emergency to get in. -- Hkmaly (talk) 00:22, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

Last place I worked letting a guy in without a current visitor's pass *and* an escort was a termination offense, and they ran drills regularly, and everyone knew someone who knew someone who'd gotten canned for it, or said they knew someone anyway. -- Resuna (talk) 20:36, 28 November 2018 (UTC)

The movie Dope does a reverse cryptocurrency heist. That counts, right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dope_%282015_film%29

There are no movies about cryptocurrency heists yet (to the best of my knowledge), but this is probably how one would look like.

Tweaked the grammar in the early, short explanation. Didn't fundamentally change the text, but I'm not sure that worrying about being "a minor character" is quite correct as the text of the comic quantifies that as being _in a heist_. Cueball's worries may not just be about his life being nothing more than a minor character in a movie, but possibly also of potential legal / professional liability as an accessory or accomplice. By knowing or supposing that the one asking for access is a criminal and/or should not have access -- and granting it anyway -- that may be enough to charge him with facilitation of the crime as it is (in some jurisdictions) a crime to "provide" a person with "means or opportunity" to commit a crime, "believing it probable that he is rendering aid to a person who intends to commit a crime."

But he has a white hat! We don't have to worry if they wear a white hat, right? On the other hand, he's "from the building"? What the heck does that mean? Cueball best knock the white hat off to eliminate any cognitive dissonance and then call his supervisor. 172.68.90.112 19:28, 26 November 2018 (UTC) SiliconWolf

I interpreted “from the building” as meaning that (he claims) he’s with the people who own the building, while the people who Cueball’s affiliated with (presumably some corporation) just rent it from them. The building owners stand to lose a lot more than the renters if the building burns down, so they presumably want to deal with smoke detectors themselves.

From |"The Building" might _also_ refer to the TV series about people trapped in skyscaper which is actually an alternate reality. .. But I seriously doubt it. ..or do I? Iggynelix (talk) 21:40, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

I thought "from the building" was a clue, like a badly worded phishing msg. I also thought the mouse-over was the typical clueless/naive, not sarcastic Afbach (talk)

Minor characters in movies like this tend to suffer unpleasant consequences ... I figured Cueball was worried about being gunned down, or fed into a wood chipper. Cosmogoblin (talk) 13:01, 29 November 2018 (UTC)

Is it just me or is that cap really nicely drawn? 162.158.114.40 14:46, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

I was thinking the exact same thing! Randall has really been upping his game over the years! 108.162.245.244 15:17, 27 November 2018 (UTC)
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