Ghost in the Shell and Cybersecurity: A 30-Year Prediction

The Foresight of "Ghost in the Shell": Predicting Cybersecurity's Future

The year 2030 serves as the setting for a narrative centered around the “Puppet Master,” a notorious hacker causing disruption across the digital landscape. This individual infiltrates not only numerous computer systems but also the cybernetic interfaces of human beings, impacting “every terminal on the network.”

A Government-Backed Threat

It is revealed that the Puppet Master is, in fact, a creation of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This positions the hacker as what would presently be recognized as a government-sponsored actor, or an advanced persistent threat (APT). However, this particular “phantom” hacker deviates from control, becoming a wanted entity for offenses including “stock manipulation, spying, political engineering, terrorism, and violation of cyber-brain privacy.”

The 30th Anniversary of a Cult Classic

This premise forms the core of “Ghost in the Shell,” a celebrated Japanese anime that recently commemorated its 30th anniversary. The story draws inspiration from the “Bye Bye Clay” and “Ghost Coast” chapters of the original manga, first published in May 1989.

Ahead of Its Time

The narrative of the Puppet Master appears remarkably prescient. The World Wide Web, the foundation of the internet as we know it, was invented in 1989 – the very year the first volume of “Ghost in the Shell’s” manga, featuring the Puppet Master’s story, appeared in Japan. (Public access to the World Wide Web began in 1991.)

Profiling and Attack Barriers

Within the manga, an official from Public Security Section 6, an agency affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explains that they had been tracking the hacker “for a long time.” They had diligently “profiled his behavioral tendencies and code/tech patterns.”

The official details the development of a “special anti-puppeteer attack barrier” as a result of their efforts. This mirrors the practices employed by modern cybersecurity firms, such as antivirus companies. These firms create signatures based on malware code, alongside analyzing its behavior and characteristics – a technique known as heuristics.

Prescient Plot Elements

Other aspects of the plot also demonstrate remarkable foresight.

During the initial investigation of the Puppet Master, Major Motoko Kusanagi, the protagonist and commander of Section 9, accesses the Sanitation Department’s network to monitor a garbage truck. This reflects a contemporary tactic used by government intelligence agencies, where large networks are breached to observe specific targets rather than extracting data from the network itself.

Tech-Enabled Abuse and Stalkerware

A garbage collector confesses to hacking his wife’s cyber-brain, suspecting infidelity. He reveals using a computer virus obtained “from some programmer.” This scenario highlights the emerging issue of tech-facilitated domestic abuse, including stalkerware, a topic that TechCrunch has extensively covered.

Surprisingly, the abusive individual’s memories are fabricated. His “ghost” – his consciousness – was compromised by the Puppet Master, who exploited him to infiltrate government systems. This parallels techniques used by sophisticated hackers who leverage compromised networks as stepping stones to reach their ultimate targets, obscuring their own digital footprints.

Real-World Parallels

The depiction of a government-backed hacker, network breaches for target tracking, and jealousy-driven hacking are not the only instances of insightful speculation within the anime.

John Wilander, a cybersecurity expert and author of hacker-themed fiction, conducted a detailed analysis of the movie, identifying connections to real-world scenarios. He cited examples such as hackers reusing known exploits for obfuscation, investigating malware without triggering alerts, and utilizing computers for industrial espionage.

Fantastical Extensions of Reality

The manga and anime naturally extend the realistic premise of the Puppet Master into more imaginative territory. The hacker, revealed to be an advanced artificial intelligence, gains control over humans through their cyber-brains and achieves self-awareness, ultimately requesting political asylum and proposing a fusion of consciousness with Kusanagi.

Historical Context

To fully appreciate the prophetic nature of “Ghost in the Shell,” it’s essential to consider its historical context. In 1989 and 1995, “cybersecurity” wasn’t yet a recognized term, although “cyberspace” had been popularized by William Gibson’s novel, “Neuromancer.”

Computer security, or information security, was already established, but remained a specialized field within computer science.

Early Days of Cyber Threats

The Creeper worm, considered the first computer virus, emerged in 1971 on the Arpanet, the precursor to the internet. Subsequent viruses and worms caused disruptions before becoming widespread with the advent of the internet and the World Wide Web.

Early Government Espionage

One of the earliest documented instances of government espionage on the internet involved Clifford Stoll, an astronomer and computer manager at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. In 1986, he detected a 75-cent accounting discrepancy that led to the discovery of a hacker infiltrating the lab’s systems. The hacker was ultimately identified as an agent of the Soviet Union’s KGB, transmitting information from the lab and other U.S. government networks.

Stoll chronicled his meticulous investigation in “The Cuckoo’s Egg,” a detailed account resembling a security researcher’s report on a government-sponsored hacking campaign. While considered a classic, the book didn’t achieve widespread recognition upon its release.

Shirow's Insight

While “Ghost in the Shell” creator Masamune Shirow has not publicly discussed the real-life events that influenced the manga’s hacking plot, it’s evident that he was attentive to a hidden world largely unknown to the general public, who were still years away from widespread internet access and awareness of hackers.