The Dark Knight and SentinelOne: When Cybersecurity doesn’t save the day
Cybersecurity threats today can feel like something straight from the silver screen; they are stealthy, unpredictable, and potentially catastrophic to those they impact. In movies, there is so often a ‘guy in the chair’ on hand to help the superhero break into any location, bypass any security system and hack into the most secure databases with only a few taps on a keyboard. Whilst Hollywood brushes over these, they are all examples of cybersecurity breaches, with one of the greatest superhero movies of all time showcasing one of the most dangerous applications of these skills.
In Christopher Nolan’s dramatic sequel, ‘The Dark Knight,’ Batman confronts more than just villains; he faces the ethical dilemma of surveillance and unchecked power while trying to prevent Gotham’s descent into moral anarchy. He has grown from the naive, young man introduced in the first film, desperately searching for a purpose, to a hero beginning to recognise that his self-assigned war on crime may not have the happy ending he wants.
At the height of the tension, whilst two boats of hostages hover the line between life and death, Batman reveals a powerful piece of technology: a city-wide sonar system that taps into every mobile phone in Gotham to locate The Joker.
It’s “beautiful, unethical, dangerous,” says Lucius Fox, Batman’s genius inventor and ‘guy in the chair’ for this iteration. While the system helps to save hundreds of hostages and track down two of Gotham’s most unpredictable and maniacal criminals, it also reveals the terrifying potential of a technology with no restrictions.
The Scene:
Total Surveillance in the Name of Justice
this is too much power for one person
As Gotham teeters on the brink of chaos, Batman unveils an advanced surveillance system that utilises echolocation signals from every phone in the city, transforming Gotham citizens’ personal devices into a mass tracking network. The purpose was to locate The Joker before any more damage to the city or loss of life could occur.
Knowing how dangerous this unchecked power could be, Fox warns Batman that ‘this is too much power for one person.” Luckily, Batman had already considered this ethical dilemma and created a system that was only accessible to Fox, with a fail-safe button allowing the entire technology to self-destruct once its goal of finding the Joker had been fulfilled.
Thanks to cinematic endings, morals prevail, and Lucius destroys the technology before anyone else could access it; however, in the real world, morals don’t always take priority.
The Rewrite:
How SentinelOne Would Rewrite Gotham’s Script
SentinelOne would have recognised Batman’s surveillance system as the high-risk threat
In reality, a technology like Batman’s would set off every alarm in a modern security operations centre. Cybanetix partners with SentinelOne, a world-leading AI-powered EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) software, providing vital protection and valuable insights.
If Sentinel One had been deployed across Gotham’s endpoints, the phones, devices, and infrastructure Batman tapped into, the entire sonar network would have been identified, flagged and shut down before it could even launch.
An autonomous threat detection and response system means that ****SentinelOne’s AI doesn’t wait for permission. It continuously hunts for suspicious behaviour, like mass device access, unauthorised microphone activation, or irregular IP addresses.
As soon as the sonar system started scanning and transmitting, SentinelOne would detect the abnormal behaviour, isolate the affected endpoints, and cut off the signal. This real-time quarantine and killing of malicious signals stop them in their tracks, preventing further damage while a SOC analyst investigates.
The SOC analyst would then review the flagged activity and confirm the threat; they could also rectify any damage that had been caused. This added human layer ensures context and interpretation, allowing for additional investigation to determine if this was a one-off threat or part of a larger operation.
In short, SentinelOne would have recognised Batman’s surveillance system as the high-risk threat it is and neutralised it before the system could have activated. In the film, this likely would have resulted in Batman failing his mission, with Two-Face and The Joker left unchecked, descending Gotham into anarchy.
The Takeaway:
Real Cybersecurity Has No Superheroes
just systems, people, and consequences
In The Dark Knight, the surveillance system is destroyed the moment its mission ends. Unfortunately, in the real world, there are no noble self-destructions, just systems, people, and consequences.
At Cybanetix, our partnership with SentinelOne ensures that organisations are protected not just from known threats, but also from the kinds of powerful, unpredictable technologies that pose a genuine threat in the hands of bad actors.