Module 8 Journal

How does media influence our understanding about cybersecurity?

This week’s journal prompt was to review a hacker’s thoughts and opinions after they watched and commented on curated scenes from film and television. However, before I even watched the YouTube video, I had a feeling that they were going to tear Hollywood’s sensationalism of hacking/cybersecurity. I was not disappointed.

As an impressionable young mind, I grew up believing the things I had consumed both on TV and word of mouth. I was ten years old when I first watched the movie Hackers and I believed every word that was being said; I truly believed that that movie was non-fiction. To push my gullibility even further, when the matrix was released, I truly believed that the characters were able to read the green scrawling on the screen as if it were an actual language hackers used. Swordfish was another film that gave me the false impression of what hacking was like. I am ashamed of how many would pass before the truth had set in: “It is all smoke and mirrors.”

For an uncomfortable amount of time in my life, I believed what was presented to me because I did not know any better. The closest person in my life that had any real knowledge about computers was my father and he didn’t get past the enthusiast stage and into the weeds of it all until I conveniently learned about the “truth.” As I blazed my own understanding of computers, I began to learn how wrong things were represented. This extended to commercials, but I digress. This could be summed up with “what I don’t know, I don’t know.” If my only reference for how something worked was based on a single movie/clip/trusted source that is now my sole understanding of it until further experience or learning are had.

Going back to the YouTube video, I am reminded of a quote from the book Wizard’s First Rule, “People are stupid” The TV adaptation, Legend of the Seeker, had a more eloquent version, “People will believe a lie because they want it to be true or because it might be true.” Essentially, if you have never learned what was correct you assume what was provided as truth. Watching Keren Elazari comment on the words, methods, and technology used to present hacking to the audience is comical. I understand the logic as to why Hollywood uses intensity, complexity, and visual graphics to spice up the storytelling. It is near impossible to make hacking sexy or interesting on the big screen as much if it is text on a screen and the story being constrained to fit within a TV episode or film. From a cybersecurity student’s prospective I understand that it is impractical to allocate resources to generate “cool graphics” when said resources could be used to make the hacking processes more effective. The Mr. Robot, The Matrix Reloaded, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Social Network, The Fate of the Furious, and Silicon Valley were the best illustration of hacking.

Hollywood is not the only signal booster for what constitutes as a hacker. Mainstream new media is just as guilty of misconstruing who or what qualifies as hacker. They use their bias and lack of understanding to paint a picture for their viewers for what I assume is mostly for the views. I believe they were the founders of click-bait for their use of “Could your neighborhood be the center of a crime ring? The truth will shock you. Find out more at 11.”