Great movie, shows you what being a hacker is all about, with heart and the will and power to change the world for good, together, with that really nice hacker vibe.
The visual style of the movie is pretty good, too!
Taken from my linkedin post, a modern take on this movie:
First of all I’ll say it’s a banger and you should watch it if you haven’t yet. I won’t spoil anything.
The heroes of this movie are kids, and it’s inspired by real hacks. It reminded me of my university cyber courses. About a time when cybersecurity laws and rules were immature or inexistant.
When the new generation - those who adapt tje fastest - was born in the age of the internet and thought to use the systems differently than intended, it worked. They got in, because the systems were designed in a naive way. Thankfully the kids mostly weren’t malicious, and the world did not depend on the web as it does today. Still, they crashed the early internet with the Morris worm.
The same thing happened again already; a teenager hacked into 6 million accounts. In cyber we learn that the least protected is what hackers will target. For a while that was fishing attacks, now exploitation is becoming much easier and more common.
So what can we learn from what we did back then? We came up with measures, laws, trainings, designed systems differently, used encryption, and tried our security ourselves. Banks are very much ahead in this, but what about most companies?
Please, don’t be alarmed. Be aware. The time has come to invest into security again. This time, it’s all about AI. Funnily enough, I’m using the same techniques attackers are reported doing: using AI to speed up breaking into systems (except I take the money upfront, with consent, and much less).
The issue is that companies often only worry about security when it’s too late and they’ve been breached already. There is the technical debt, but there is also the security debt, and hackers will be sure to come collect it one day!
Everything is faster and cheaper with AI. We should use this power to make better products than ever. Those who do are and will be those who come out on top.