Doomsday: MyMagic+ Edition

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
OK, this is a hypothetical situation, but the Sony Pictures hack got me thinking. What if WDW's shiney new infrastructure were hacked, not only to steal info, but to disable the whole dang thing? FP+, Park Admission, hotel room doors, charging, dining credits, ADRs all gone. Poof, everything quits working.

Is this possible?
 

1023

Provocateur, Rancanteur, Plaisanter, du Jour
OK, this is a hypothetical situation, but the Sony Pictures hack got me thinking. What if WDW's shiney new infrastructure were hacked, not only to steal info, but to disable the whole dang thing? FP+, Park Admission, hotel room doors, charging, dining credits, ADRs all gone. Poof, everything quits working.

Is this possible?

There would have to be more information on network topography for me to answer this. If built properly, not easily. Why take it down from a software side? I would look to shift or destroy the DB. There are hardware mechanisms that could more easily be "disabled". If you had access to a core router..... hmmm... maybe I should stop typing now....

Why would anyone consider doing this?

*1023*
 

stevehousse

Well-Known Member
All I know is that when the system goes down there is no back up system to take its place! You can probably find threads on here bout it! But seriously, who builds a billion dollar system with no back up fail safe version to run on!?!
 

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
There would have to be more information on network topography for me to answer this. If built properly, not easily. Why take it down from a software side? I would look to shift or destroy the DB. There are hardware mechanisms that could more easily be "disabled". If you had access to a core router..... hmmm... maybe I should stop typing now....

Why would anyone consider doing this?

*1023*
Why would someone hack Sony Pictures and not only steal data but unleashed a destructive virus that killed almost all their windows based machines. They literally had to replace hundreds of PCs.
 

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
All I know is that when the system goes down there is no back up system to take its place! You can probably find threads on here bout it! But seriously, who builds a billion dollar system with no back up fail safe version to run on!?!
disaster-recovery5-300x278.jpg
 

networkpro

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
External attacks easily could be and probably are mitigated via isolation and limiting the interaction of the core system with the outside world. If the interaction of external and internal systems is limited to passing text strings (reservation request, acceptance, and identity) the risk is minimal.
 

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
OK, this is a hypothetical situation, but the Sony Pictures hack got me thinking. What if WDW's shiney new infrastructure were hacked, not only to steal info, but to disable the whole dang thing? FP+, Park Admission, hotel room doors, charging, dining credits, ADRs all gone. Poof, everything quits working.

Is this possible?

Anything is possible. The only truly secure system is one that is powered off.

All I know is that when the system goes down there is no back up system to take its place! You can probably find threads on here bout it! But seriously, who builds a billion dollar system with no back up fail safe version to run on!?!

Redundant systems are not the same as backups. I would be shocked if they weren't making daily (or more frequent) backups of the databases, so that none of the data is lost, even if it cannot be accessed any lost data would be minimal. Sadly when funding is being examined, redundant systems are one of the first things to go. Execs don't often grasp the concept of protecting against catastrophic failure, and would rather take the risk of inconveniencing the guests for a few hours than double the cost of the project.
 

WDWVolFan

Well-Known Member
If the Doom's Day Scenario takes place...they can go to Universal and borrow Terminator to eliminate the Rise of the Machines
 

rangerbob

Well-Known Member
I had a HP tech at the school that I work at before Thanksgiving. I've never seen him before so I was talking to him. He has been at WDW primarily for many years. He was telling me that they have equipment shoehorned into many holes around the park that they can find. He said that there are many servers and network equipment all scattered around every park.
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
I had a HP tech at the school that I work at before Thanksgiving. I've never seen him before so I was talking to him. He has been at WDW primarily for many years. He was telling me that they have equipment shoehorned into many holes around the park that they can find. He said that there are many servers and network equipment all scattered around every park.
Sorry about my technical ignorance, but, what does all that do or mean?
 

networkpro

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
I had a HP tech at the school that I work at before Thanksgiving. I've never seen him before so I was talking to him. He has been at WDW primarily for many years. He was telling me that they have equipment shoehorned into many holes around the park that they can find. He said that there are many servers and network equipment all scattered around every park.

They are in the process of consolidating all of those point solutions wherever possible. Computer systems are like roaches in a business, they multiply out of control until someone puts their foot down to say "stop the maddness". Then comes the joyful process of weeding out redundant applications, networks, and support staff. Thats when it turns political as you're disturbing someones personal empire.

It was just last year that they relocated the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom servers offsite to a data center in California.
 

flynnibus

Premium Member
OK, this is a hypothetical situation, but the Sony Pictures hack got me thinking. What if WDW's shiney new infrastructure were hacked, not only to steal info, but to disable the whole dang thing? FP+, Park Admission, hotel room doors, charging, dining credits, ADRs all gone. Poof, everything quits working.

Is this possible?

The biggest concern would be something that would take out communications or their payment systems.

MDE? Big deal, they would just let people in without checking tickets. They would turn off FP, and go all standby.
ADRs? Each location has a printout of the days reservations... you'd go with what you have.
Hotels would be an issue given the daily turnover - they need their data. Existing door locks do not need network to function.

But communications would impact their ability to operate safely. Payments would knock off their ability to collect revenue.

If there was an extended outtage that would be another challenge as the short term outtage fixes do not work over longer periods.

Shutting down is not viable for Disney given the number of people staying on property - so they most certainly have contingency plans for things like blackouts, network down, etc. The similar fallback methods pre-MM+ would probably still be viable.
 

rangerbob

Well-Known Member
Sorry about my technical ignorance, but, what does all that do or mean?

The servers and network is what makes MM--- work. If you want WiFi you need to have network equipment to service it. They need to have servers to house the software to make it work. Normally you only see the cash register at a store. What you don't see is all of the background equipment that is needed to make the cash grabbing equipment work. This is a picture of 1 of the rooms at the school that makes the computers and TVs work

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zezecol6f8pex2b/2014-12-04 11.11.47.jpg?dl=0
 

rangerbob

Well-Known Member
They are in the process of consolidating all of those point solutions wherever possible. Computer systems are like roaches in a business, they multiply out of control until someone puts their foot down to say "stop the maddness". Then comes the joyful process of weeding out redundant applications, networks, and support staff. Thats when it turns political as you're disturbing someones personal empire.

It was just last year that they relocated the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom servers offsite to a data center in California.

Why would they move the Sorcerers data to CA? They have a data center here. This game is only used at the MK and I would think they could/would keep it in the center that is under the MK.
 

Phonedave

Well-Known Member
Why would they move the Sorcerers data to CA? They have a data center here. This game is only used at the MK and I would think they could/would keep it in the center that is under the MK.

Could be for any number of reasons. It does not matter where it is located, it could be 10 feet away or 10,000 miles away. CA had to have some benefit over FL. Maybe available server/rack space, maybe an existing employee on site that had free hours in their scheduled, maybe extra power/space/cooling that could handle the new load (That is a HUGE factor). Could be any number of reasons.

-dave
 

Phonedave

Well-Known Member
They are in the process of consolidating all of those point solutions wherever possible. Computer systems are like roaches in a business, they multiply out of control until someone puts their foot down to say "stop the maddness". Then comes the joyful process of weeding out redundant applications, networks, and support staff. Thats when it turns political as you're disturbing someones personal empire.

It was just last year that they relocated the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom servers offsite to a data center in California.

"We don't follow your National Method of Procedure, we have a local process, we have a Lotus Notes database that works for us. We keep it on a server under the desk in the spare cubicle in back". Do you know how many times I have heard comments to that effect.

-dave
 

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