From appleinsider.com:

The director took multiple precautions to keep the screenplay out of eager fans of the movie series, advising of the use of a MacBook Air in the Wall Street Journal's My Tech Essentials column. According to [Rian] Johnson [writer and director of Star Wars: the Last Jedi], the MacBook Air was the only device used for the initial production of the script, with considerable efforts made to keep it a secret.

For security it was 'air-gapped,' never connected to the Internet, said Johnson. In security circles, air-gapping a device prevents any software updates or other unwanted items from being installed onto the computer, effectively blocking any data from leaving the device, as well as stopping the installation of any software or malware that could force open a connection and allowing any data to leak out to third parties.

It's really that easy, folks. Hey, Equifax, Office of Personnel Management, and, um, any freaking hospital --

You know how you keep private information private? You take it off of the internet.

Firewalls don't count. OFF of the internet. If you have sensitive, proprietary data, "air gap" that portion of your company's network.

If you have to shoeleather data you don't mind getting out from one network to another, you essentially completely eliminate the possibility of a non-geographically confined attack against the data you want to keep safe. That is to say, people in Russia can't steal your data unless your network extends to Russia. Pro tip: The internet extends to Russia.

There's this bad joke in the preamble to the Dead Milkmen's song, Bitchin' Camaro (lyrics here, but they're not safe for polite consumption) that goes something like this...

  • Oh, how you gettin' down to the shore?
  • Funny you should ask; I've got a car now.
  • Ah wow, how'd ya get a car?
  • Oh, my folks drove it up here from the Bahamas.
  • You're kidding!
  • I must be, the Bahamas are islands.

YOU CAN'T STEAL A CAR FROM THE BAHAMAS AND DRIVE IT TO THE US. Get my drift? You want a car to be reasonably safe from US car thieves, put it in the Bahamas. Geography still matters. You want to keep your data safe from data thieves? Don't put it on a network that extends to their apartment.

More to the point, why is my personal credit data on the same network as Playboy? Doesn't that strike anyone else as a little odd?

It drives me absolutely mad how much we pay every year in breaches for the convenience of not having to separate networks. I can wait 48 hours to know if I qualify for a car loan, okay? Or, crazy thought, how about have the dealership call in the request?

Now all that said, please heavens tell me this dude knew to make periodic backups onto at least two jump drives. Or to at least print it out every so often.

Right?

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