Hey Dave, gimme a break...
Guys I've had it with all these movie-hackers. Lately the wiz kid is necessarily the trustful and loyal companion to the movie hero who is out to get the bad guys. Whenever the hero faces any kind of difficulty he or she just calls the wiz kid and asks for the next hack, which is implemented in minutes. The only flavor I haven't seen yet is the psycho hacker... "Wait boss, let me retrieve his location from the satellite so that I get the pass code. I just wrote a new piece of software that reads minds..."
The whole thing, apart from being silly, I believe has started being dangerous. Why? Because it brainwashes the masses into believing that in the online world hackers wreak havoc, and almost anyone, anytime they like, in no time at all, can get full access to anyone's computers, be it government, be it industry, be it press, be it yours. Couple this with the publicity that any serious hack gets and soon you'll get people scared to use their credit cards or even worse people that are willing to sacrifice their privacy and freedom so as to be "safe".
May be something like this exists already, but I think a site for ridiculing the techno bubble in all these movies would be a good idea.
You write:
"Because it brainwashes the masses into believing that in the online world hackers wreak havoc, and almost anyone, anytime they like, in no time at all, can get full access to anyone's computers, be it [anything]"
It is also dangerous for one more reason: A crimelord can easily assume that since "you are into computers", then "you are the man for the job". With any implication that this might carry on what people think of the magical powers of experienced computer users and possible threats.
Posted by: adamo | May 08, 2007 at 08:20 PM