2. Connecting Silva’s Virus To MI6 – Skyfall
One of the most significant plot developments in 2012’s Skyfall comes after Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) is captured and brought to MI6 headquarters in London. His laptop is decrypted by Q, who inadvertently gives it access to MI6’s servers, allowing it to spread a virus through the intelligence agency’s network. It turns out that Silva’s plan was to get captured all along so that he could cripple MI6 from within – a shocking twist that’s probably NEVER been done before.
Falling into the villain’s trap isn’t always necessarily dumb, especially in Skyfall‘s case. Silva is a former MI6 agent who knows the agency’s protocol, so it’s not too much of a stretch to believe that he could exploit his knowledge. However, it’s Q’s actions specifically that are distinctly stupid, because it flies in the face of all logic, and makes his role within an “intelligence” agency particularly questionable.
As MI6’s whole business is, y’know, security, it seems incredibly unlikely that protocol would be to immediately connect an unknown device belonging to an international cyberterrorist to your main server. In fact, this decision is so incredibly stupid that even those not versed in cybersecurity understand how stupid it is. Here we are wondering if we should connect to that public WiFi, and MI6 are apparently just connecting any old criminal’s computer to their system. Absolutely baffling.
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