Hollywood Portrayal of Hackers Bogus or Not?

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For reasons unknown, some guy wrote an academic paper that examined the way hackers are portrayed in the movies. The guy looked at fifty movies from the last fifty years and the results were published in the International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions.

Gordon, a lecturer at the Dublin Institute of Technology, studied 50 movies, produced over five decades. The results amazed him. In the movies, most hackers aren't teenaged whiz-kids. They're professionals, over 30 years old, who work in IT. "Generally they're presented as good guys, not bad guys," he said.
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yeah..
The pool on the roof must have a leak
 
JokerCPoC said:
Hackers? Good guys? Since when? :mad:
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Watch the movies it is true.
bad hackers acting on the side of good: Live Free or Die Hard , Hackers

Good guys forced to use skills for bad while still doing good: Firewall, Swordfish
 
What they forgot to mention is that much of what you see in film and TV regarding computers is total BS and complete fiction.
 
Dan_D said:
What they forgot to mention is that much of what you see in film and TV regarding computers is total BS and complete fiction.
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the most "accurate" i'd say, was in Matrix Reloaded, where Trinity hacks the power plant
 
Wow no mention of that POS movie called hackers, Although Tron is a big favourite of mine (Tron 2 is just a blatant mirror copy of the storyline Monolith created with Tron 2.0 back in '04).
 
Dan_D said:
What they forgot to mention is that much of what you see in film and TV is total BS and complete fiction.
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Fixed. :)

Basing a 'scientific' study on entertainment is worse than using surveys--in addition to being inaccurate, films don't even necessarily portray what the public at large believes. Liberties are consciously taken for the sake of storytelling.

Parmenides said:
Mass Effect... now that's what hacking looks like. :p
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Hacking, like all things Internet-related, clearly involves a series of tubes, a la Bioshock.
 
Funny, the image of a hacker that I get from movies is normally a fat guy living in his mom's basement...
 
Hugh Jackman in Swordfish...AWESOME hacker. The whole hacking-a-3D-security-interface-while-doing-cool-things-like-spinning-around-in-his-chair-while-montage-music-plays-in-the-background approach.

Totally realistic.
 
alg7_munif said:
Funny, the image of a hacker that I get from movies is normally a fat guy living in his mom's basement...
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Most of the time, hackers portrayed in movies are pretty fit. In some cases, maybe too fit for what they do (Hugh Jackman in "Swordfish" comes to mind).

What you said proves to be true in only 1 case -that I know of-:

diehard4+trovata.jpg

"Why did you bring a cop to my command center?"

:p
 
The term "Hacker" is so abused these days, it's a worthless term now.

We should use a word that has been around for centuries for the truly bad guys.

Criminals.

The virus writers. The spyware writers. The rogue-antispyware criminals that take people computer hostage and via extortion, try to get them to pay ransom and get their computer back, only to find the software is useless and the criminals now have their credit card numbers.

But, the Government and it's fancy Security Initiatives don't seem to give a shit about these problems. They are more interested on spending billions elsewhere it's not needed.
 
I watched War Games the other day and they never used the term "hacker" I guess the term hacker wasn't coined yet for some one who breaks into computer systems.
 
Outamyhead said:
Wow no mention of that POS movie called hackers, Although Tron is a big favourite of mine (Tron 2 is just a blatant mirror copy of the storyline Monolith created with Tron 2.0 back in '04).
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Dude Hackers was awesome, you definitely have to turn your brain off while watching it like most hollywood movies but it a great one and I know I am proud to have it in my collection:)

ARF ARF ARF!
Mess with the best! Die like the rest!

or ...

"Thats MR. The Plague to you! "
 
First mental images that came across my mind when reading the title, Angelina Jolie (Acid Burn) and quickly followed by Newman from Sienfield (aka the fat hacker in Jurassic Park.) If you use Defcon atendee's as the measure, Hugh Jackman doesn't really fit the hacker profile (too charismatic)... in the hollywood "charisma" sort of way. Hackers can be nice guys, but generally are not "studs."
 
Pretiacruento said:
Most of the time, hackers portrayed in movies are pretty fit. In some cases, maybe too fit for what they do (Hugh Jackman in "Swordfish" comes to mind).

What you said proves to be true in only 1 case -that I know of-:

diehard4+trovata.jpg

"Why did you bring a cop to my command center?"

:p
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Not exactly in a basement but still, wanna see something classified? ;)
 
The sad part is, because of WAR GAMES, they held Kevin Mitnik without trial and in solitary. His court papers even have a transcript of the judge saying something to the tune of:

He can whistle into a telephone and cause a nuclear war, so he has to remain in solitary away from any phones.

Oh sure, mitnik raped the system, was guilty as hell, but... seriously? By whistling? ROFL
 
Dan_D said:
Accurate and any Matrix movie title should NEVER be used together. That's just wrong. :confused:
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Might be wrong, but its all done on a terminal and she even used Nmap for actual recon instead of some fancy 3d point and hack interface like most movies use.

Almost all hacking is command line based. I always get a real laugh out of how it is shown in most movies.
 
TechLarry said:
The term "Hacker" is so abused these days, it's a worthless term now.
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Totally. We hear "my brother hacked my facebook when I left it logged in" WAY too much.

I almost just want to laugh at people when use it wrong.
 
illuminate said:
Totally. We hear "my brother hacked my facebook when I left it logged in" WAY too much.

I almost just want to laugh at people when use it wrong.
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yep,
i wonder what is the correct verb to express the REAL hacking
is it |-|4><0r ?? :confused:
 
KleeziE said:
Dude Hackers was awesome, you definitely have to turn your brain off while watching it like most hollywood movies but it a great one and I know I am proud to have it in my collection:)
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And the soundtrack. Oh god, that soundtrack... Voodoo People during the streetlight scene. One of the best uses of soundtracks I can point to.

Paid $48 just to import a copy of the soundtrack CD because they wouldn't release it domestically for two years.
 
Steve said:
For reasons unknown, some guy wrote an academic paper that examined the way hackers are portrayed in the movies. The guy looked at fifty movies from the last fifty years and the results were published in the International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions.
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The reason I wrote the paper was simply to identify some good movie clips to show in my lectures to engage my students (and to let other computer science professors/lecturers which movies are good for starting class discussions), so I wanted to identify what factors are accurate in movies (not much really) and what bits are just funny.:cool:
 
srangara said:
Fixed. :)
Basing a 'scientific' study on entertainment is worse than using surveys--in addition to being inaccurate, films don't even necessarily portray what the public at large believes. Liberties are consciously taken for the sake of storytelling.
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I know what you are saying, but as mentioned above, the idea of the paper was to show computer science students how hollywood portrays hackers as fodder for good discussion in my teaching and to pass this onto other professors, I was in no way claiming anything as grandiose as a "scientific study" but unfortunately I can't control the accuracy of how this is being reported:eek::eek::eek:
 
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