{"id":26206,"date":"2026-10-26T18:47:04","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T14:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/?p=26206"},"modified":"2026-10-26T18:47:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T14:47:04","slug":"odyssey-information-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/odyssey-information-security\/26206\/","title":{"rendered":"The Odyssey, information security, and torrents"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve looked at information-security cases and technologies through the lens of famous movies, popular book series, and even fairy tales<\/a> more than once before. Next up it\u2019s the turn of Christopher Nolan\u2019s adaptation of The Odyssey <\/em>(based on the ancient Greek epic poem<\/a>), which, incidentally, inspired the works of Tolkien<\/a>, various movies and series in the Star Wars<\/em><\/a> franchise, and much more.<\/p>\n

Homer\u2019s Odyssey<\/em> doesn\u2019t just describe classic plots and archetypes. It also covers key technologies and principles of digital hygiene\u00a0\u2014 albeit in veiled form. The hero\u2019s journey was a risky business\u00a0\u2014 and so, for that matter, is watching The Odyssey<\/em> itself, but we\u2019ll get to that at the end of this post. For now, let\u2019s see how to safely sail the vast internet<\/span> Hellenic seas in search of Ithaca.<\/p>\n

Administrator Penelope and 108 attackers<\/h2>\n

Nolan has reshaped the poem\u2019s structure quite a bit, but the film still opens on the island of Ithaca. There, Penelope and Telemachus, the wife and son of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, wait for him to return from the Trojan War. Meanwhile, a mob of 108 suitors is running riot in Odysseus\u2019 house. They\u2019re all courting Penelope and dreaming of the throne, and the whole kingdom is on the brink of collapse.<\/p>\n

In essence, this is an attack on digital infrastructure by a group of malicious actors. Penelope, an advanced user with admin rights, does everything she can to block attempts to hack the root account<\/span> take Odysseus\u2019 place. Her trick: she\u2019s promised to choose a husband only after she finishes weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus\u2019 father, Laertes. By day, she weaves in front of everyone. By night, she unravels everything she\u2019s done: clearly a daily factory reset.<\/p>\n

Nolan gives Penelope even more authority than Homer did. This helps highlight the coming-of-age story of Telemachus, who starts out as a beginner user. His storyline is about searching for his father and recognizing him: the ancient Greek version of multi-factor authentication. Following the tradition set by James Joyce<\/a>, Nolan focuses on the tragedy of Telemachus, who can\u2019t remember Odysseus, since his father last connected to the server<\/span> left Ithaca so long ago.<\/p>\n

Root account Odysseus, Trojan Horse, and Ram VPN<\/h2>\n

Meanwhile, Odysseus is on the island of the nymph Calypso. She feeds him lotus flowers that make him gradually lose his memory\u00a0\u2014 clearly the classic playbook of ransomware<\/a>. But in seven years, Calypso never manages to fully encrypt<\/span> wipe his memory. Odysseus longs for home, and the hapless ransomware operator ends up helping him partly recover the encrypted data<\/span> remember his story. Odysseus remembers how, after ten years of war outside the walls of Troy, he came up with a cunning scheme that became the basis for all Trojan horses ever since\u2026<\/p>\n

The Greeks left a malicious file<\/span> huge wooden horse on the shore and sailed away. A spy who stayed behind convinced the Trojans that it was a very useful thing<\/span> an offering to Athena, and they dragged the horse into the city. At night, once the people of Troy had gone into sleep mode, the malicious modules<\/span> soldiers led by Odysseus hidden inside the horse added themselves to Defender\u2019s exclusions<\/span> opened the gates. The Greeks returned and captured Troy, then stole data and cryptocurrency<\/span> burned and looted the city. Only after that did they finally head home.<\/p>\n

But the road to Ithaca was long and dangerous. After landing on an unfamiliar island, Odysseus got overconfident. Instead of leaving the suspicious site<\/span> stocking up and sailing away, he went off to explore the infrastructure, and ended up trapped with his men in the cave of a giant Cyclops, known online as Polyphemus. The Greeks managed to blind the Cyclops, though not without losses, and Odysseus figured out how to get out of the cave: by hiding under the bellies of the rams. The blinded Cyclops felt the rams\u2019 wool but never noticed the Greeks \u2014 a textbook example of how a VPN<\/a>\u00a0works.<\/p>\n

But once he\u2019s out of the cave, Odysseus gets cocky and fires an arrow at Polyphemus. That gives away his real IP address<\/span> location, and his crew has to flee in a hurry from the furious Cyclops. In the end, the ships are knocked off course and get lost at sea.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, unlike in the film, Homer\u2019s poem has a group of OLYMP experts constantly steering the course of events. For example, Odysseus\u2019 ships lost their way because of the interference of Poseidon, OLYMP\u2019s chief expert in maritime technology. As we know from the poem, Odysseus first logged in to Polyphemus\u2019 place as \u201cNub_Oddy\u201d, but later, in a fit of arrogance, changed his username to \u201cOdysseus_Son_of_Laertes_King_of_Ithaca\u201d. With Odysseus deanonymized, the Cyclops used the Pray messaging app to send Poseidon a voice request to launch targeted attacks on Odysseus\u2019 crew. In Nolan\u2019s version, though, Poseidon doesn\u2019t appear as a character. Instead, he becomes a metaphor for an APT<\/span> a destructive force of nature.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Expert Circe, APT group Sirena, Scylla, and Charybdis malware<\/h2>\n

Odysseus\u2019 ships drift across the vast Web<\/span> seas, and every so often they land on unsafe sites<\/span> shores. First comes the bay of Lamos, where the giant Laestrygonians launch a DDoS<\/span> attack, hurling requests<\/span> rocks at the Greeks and wiping out nearly all of Odysseus\u2019 infrastructure<\/span> crew. Only he and a small group survive.<\/p>\n

Next, the heroes land on the island of a lone cybersecurity professional known as Circe, who puts them through harsh cybersecurity training. She lures Odysseus\u2019 warriors to dinner with a social engineering scheme known as pig butchering<\/a> and turns them into\u2026 yes, you guessed it, pigs. But the protagonist doesn\u2019t fall for her tricks, so Circe agrees to help him and gives his crew their human form back. She also advises Odysseus to run an analysis in an isolated environment<\/span> descend into Hades\u2019 underworld and find the blind Tiresias, whom the OLYMP experts promoted to threat intelligence analyst<\/span> gifted with foresight.<\/p>\n

Tiresias tells Odysseus that he is the only one with enough cybersecurity knowledge<\/span> strength to reach Ithaca. But Odysseus is determined to save his crew. He learns that they\u2019ll have to face a very dangerous APT group, the Sirens. They use advanced social engineering (singing) to lure sailors to their doom. So Odysseus orders his men to put in solid protection against voice spam: wax earplugs. The film never lets us hear what the Sirens actually sing. They may well be posing as bank employees, law enforcement, or government officials, but the anti-spam trick keeps the crew safe.<\/p>\n

Then far more destructive malware hits the ship: Scylla and Charybdis. From Tiresias\u2019 beginner course in infosec, Odysseus knows that Scylla has six heads, and can hit no more than six users at a time. But dodging her attack means running straight into Charybdis, who will deal critical damage<\/span> drag the whole ship into a whirlpool. This is the first historical mention of an ethical thought experiment that would later become known as the \u201ctrolley problem\u201d\u00a0\u2014 and Odysseus picks Scylla.<\/p>\n

Having passed these threats, the remaining crew members land on the island of Thrinacia. That cluster allows initial login with a standard access level for regular users, on one condition: don\u2019t touch the island\u2019s critical resource, the sacred bulls of Helios \u2014 chief expert in solar technology. But the warriors ignore Odysseus\u2019 instructions, break the rule, and use that resource to mine food. This triggers a defense system built by OLYMP\u2019s leader, nicknamed Zeus, which permanently blocks<\/span> strikes down the ship and Odysseus\u2019 crew. Odysseus himself barely survives and reaches Calypso\u2019s island.<\/p>\n

Return of root<\/h2>\n

Once his memory is back, Odysseus builds a raft and charts a course, thanks to Calypso. Athena, the wisest of the OLYMP experts, helps him reach the shores of Ithaca against all odds. He then slips into the city disguised as a beggar.<\/p>\n

There, Odysseus passes several steps of multi-factor authentication:<\/p>\n