Live data from Hacker News

Why can't films and TV accurately portray hackers?

bbc.com

1–10 of 45 posts

Re: Why can't films and TV accurately portray hackers?

#2
Shouldn't the illustrious Beeb be asking themselves why the news media is incapable of the same thing? Maybe the reason is the same as why they and practically every other news organization fail to accurately portray technology in general, including encryption. These inaccuracies tend to bubble up to policy discussions where the media’s misrepresentations are turned into (bad) policy.

Re: Why can't films and TV accurately portray hackers?

#3
post #2

Shouldn't the illustrious Beeb be asking themselves why the news media is incapable of the same thing? Maybe the reason is the same as why they and practically every other news organization fail to accurately portray technology in general, including encryption. These inaccuracies tend to bubble up to policy discussions where the media’s misrepresentations are turned into (bad) policy.

Cue the "man in balaclava using a macbook to edit HTML" stock photo

EDIT: wow they even use "man in black hoodie with hood concealing face with green characters flying around like The Matrix" as the story hero image

Re: Why can't films and TV accurately portray hackers?

#5
post #4

Because they're in the business of providing entertainment and most of "hacking" is mindnumbingly boring.

I'm not even sure if films/tv portray hacking more innacurately than they do the average job they portray such as police, lawyers, doctors, etc.

Re: Why can't films and TV accurately portray hackers?

#9
post #2

Shouldn't the illustrious Beeb be asking themselves why the news media is incapable of the same thing? Maybe the reason is the same as why they and practically every other news organization fail to accurately portray technology in general, including encryption. These inaccuracies tend to bubble up to policy discussions where the media’s misrepresentations are turned into (bad) policy.

Cue the "man in balaclava using a macbook to edit HTML" stock photo EDIT: wow they even use "man in black hoodie with hood concealing face with green characters flying around like The Matrix" as the story hero image

Sounds like an upgrade to the balaclava.

Re: Why can't films and TV accurately portray hackers?

#10
> Jurassic Park – In the midst of a velociraptor attack, Ariana Richards sits down at a computer and says, “It’s a Unix system. I know this.” Then she somehow hacks the entire Jurassic Park security system in a matter of seconds and takes control of the automatic doors. This scene is filled with tension, but what she does is analogous to someone loading a browser on a Macbook and then saying, “It’s Safari. I know this,” and then going on to compromise someone’s Gmail account in a couple seconds.

Well if you put it like that it actually sounds somewhat plausible, since she was on that someone's computer. Most people I know leave their Gmail logged in.

Post reply on HN