A Filmmakers Guide To Being Hacked

It always happens to me in one of two situations: on a shoot at the end of a tortuously long day, Or, on a day like today.  We’re in the frantic run up to the film festival when the entire team is multitasking their tits off. And the pressure starts to tell when wear and tear on nerves, muscles and manners starts to show; we was hacked, or a hard drive goes down.

There are lots of services out there that can help when disaster strikes, but they are costly and time-consuming. Following a few basic rules could save you heaps when the chips are down.

Before we start, I need to ask you a few questions:

When was the last time you backed up your computer and website?

Are you like some of my mates who never back anything up? A lesson I’ve learned the hard way is to ALWAYS back up. You just sleep better. remember that in today’s modern world there are dozens of ways you can get hacked or have a hard drive fail.

If all your hard drives failed, could you get your movies back?

Here’s a horror movie for you: You wake up, start work and plug in the hard drive you were losing last night. It fails. And so does every other hard drive you possess. You take your computer and drives to your local computer store and they tell you that there is nothing you can do. Could you get your showreel back? Your movies?

Suppose your blog and social media accounts were hacked?

This happens every few months it seems at Raindance. We get service denial attacks which crashes our website and emails. It’s because of some of the programming choices we make at the festival, and of some of the controversial filmmakers we support.

Suppose you notice that your website is under attack. Sometimes it’s quite harmless – here’s what’s happened to Raindance: they jsut replace your homepage, or redirect your website to Disney. Other times the hacker gets inside your website and starts deleting files maliciously as quickly as they can. If this happened to you, would you know what to do?

Did any of these questions make you scratch your head and go “don’t Know!” Chances are you are going to be pretty damaged by a hack or hard drive failure.

Filmmakers Guide To Being Hacked

Preventing hacking involves a combination of proactive measures to protect your devices, accounts, and personal information. Here’s a list of steps you can take:

• Beware of Phishing Attempts:

I used to fall for this one all the time! I’d click on an email that looked exactly like it was from my bank, and enter my password. Dah. Be very cautious of emails, messages, or websites that ask for your personal information or credentials. Verify the sender’s identity by looking at the senders email to make sure its legit. Remember that criminals can spoof an email like your banks. Basically, avoid clicking on suspicious links or downloading attachments from unknown sources.

• Strong and Unique Passwords:

• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA):

• Update Software Regularly:

• Use Secure Wi-Fi Networks:

• Secure Your Devices:

• Be Mindful of Social Media:

• Backup Your Data:

• Stay Informed:

• Use Strong Encryption:

By following these practices, you can significantly reduce the risk of being hacked and protect your digital identity and assets.

Fade Out

The good news is that there are some exciting open source developments of identification assets which rely on facial recognition, and not on numerals and passwords. This will eliminate the need for many of the tools described above, and also identify robts and AI created content.