Hacking in Film: Accuracy and Misrepresentation Analysis

Sammy Kamkar reveals Hollywood's inaccurate portrayal of hacking, often prioritizing flashy visuals over realistic techniques.

### The Realities of Hacking Depicted in Film and Television
* 💻 Sammy Kamkar, a privacy researcher and hacker, discusses the **often exaggerated portrayal of hacking** in movies and TV shows.
* 🎥 In the "Swordfish" hacking montage, a 3D visual interface is shown, which is **inefficient** compared to the more **realistic console or terminal interface** that hackers actually use.
* 🚦 The "Italian Job" depicts hacking traffic lights by using video feeds and algorithms, highlighting **vulnerabilities in SCADA systems** that control such infrastructure.
* 💻 In "Skyfall," the use of polymorphic code is mentioned, with some realistic elements like **hex code representation**, though the visual graphics are **not representative of actual hacking**.
* 📞 The 1980s film "WarGames" accurately portrays phone hacking, known as **"phreaking,"** where a hacker **dials directly into a computer network**.
* 🏥 "Mr. Robot" showcases realistic hacking scenarios in hospitals, revealing vulnerabilities due to **outdated technology and poor security measures**.
* 🔒 In "CSI Cyber," while the layering of codes is exaggerated, the concept of **hacking a web server to modify ad codes** is a common real-world practice.
* 🎬 Overall, Hollywood struggles to depict hacking accurately, but some films and shows manage to present **realistic elements**, making it **exciting for viewers**.

I need a rest easy all right hi I'm Sammy Kamkar. Sammy is a privacy researcher and computer hacker. Today we're gonna talk about hacking's depiction in film and television. Swordfish hacking montage. In this clip, we see a pretty recurring theme in a lot of movies that depict hacking, and that's a 3D visual interface. It's not my problem that really has nothing to do with hacking. What the is going on in this place or is really not an efficient interface to use at all. The more accurate interface would be a console or terminal. Yeah, and that's simply because it's the most efficient way to obtain a lot of data. You can look at a lot of code. You can look a look at a lot of text or a database and extract the information you want very quickly. Thank you Italian Job hacking traffic lights. They use video feeds from intersections and specifically design algorithms to predict traffic conditions and thereby control traffic lights. So all I did was come up with my own kick-ass algorithm to sneak in and now

we own the place. See red light, green light. Many of these traffic light systems are actually controlled through systems called SCADA systems, which are industrial controllers that allow things like traffic lights. Lights working fine, just an accident in Los Angeles. A number of street lights were actually hacked several years ago. Oops. And many of these traffic lights are actually controlled over the internet and often don't even have a password to connect to them. So, totally realistic. It's good Chuck hacking into the Federal Reserve. [Music] In this clip, we see a common theme, and that's pretty interfaces that really have nothing to do with hacking. Thanks for the help. There's too much information just coming up and down, and it's too quick for you to actually obtain any useful information. I'm sorry. We still talk to you pretty much never see pop-ups when you're doing any sort of programming or hacking like this. Laurie, in the middle of the clip, they also talk about optimizing their compilation. You know what you actually want to pick up there at the bottom of

your page compiler can optimize a value away like that. What they're talking about is actually optimizing something within code, and you're typically doing compiling when you're writing some source code and then you're compiling it into a program or binary that you can later run. It's kind of unrelated to what they're doing, so they did take some programming jargon and throw it in the middle. There was taken out in Skyfall. MI6 gets hacked. Who's using a polymorphic engine? Do you take the code? I never. I tried to gain access. It changes. It's like solving a Rubik's Cube that's fighting back. The 3D graphics here are similar to what you see in Swordfish. There are not really representative of anything you'd actually see. Unlike Swordfish, there are more realistic aspects in this clip. For one, they're talking about polymorphic code. He's using a polymorphic engine. Do you take the code's polymorphic code? Is a program that essentially changes itself to try to hide itself. Consider its our filters will no longer work, and it can

continue to spread. They talk a little bit about that in this clip. Never I tried to gain access. It changes. They show hex code, which could be of the virus. It's just another way to represent binary data or binary information, and that is pretty accurate. However, for the purpose of the plot, they do add the grand boro boro, which is not real hex code, as all hex characters are zero through nine or A through F. But they show that for the purpose of the plot. College if hackers competing with another hacker. Unbelievable. A hacker [Music]. This clip opens with a sequence that we would call social engineering. I don't play well with others, which is communicating with someone pretending to be someone else and trying to extract information that helps you break into a machine or target computer. Yeah, okay, besides the unrealistic visuals, this is actually something kind of common. Yeah, when you might hack into a machine and you find that someone else has already actually hacked in. At this point, you do something kind of funny. Revenge. Your goal is actually to patch the machine to

prevent any other hackers from breaking in, and you're actually helping the target, the sensitive type, but you'll often leave the back door so that you can come back in. What a back door is a piece of software that you can run on a machine that grants you access in the future without the authorized users ever knowing you're inside the machine. You're the that's been invading my turf. Yeah, wargames, 1980s hacking, those are great. Yeah, I don't think that I deserved it, do you? This is actually an accurate representation of hacking back in the 1980s. All right, back then it was called freaking, freaking with a pH, as in phone hacking. Yeah, in this case, he's actually dialing into a computer network over a telephone line, dying into the schools, except when you would dial in to dial up, you were dialing into an ISP or Internet service provider. Here, he's actually dialing directly into the computer that controls the grades. They changed the password every a couple of weeks, but I know where

they write it down, and this is exactly how bulletin board systems, or BBS's, worked back then, and a number of other systems as well. Okay, by accessing a server, Tron Legacy, we will be making our debut on Tokyo's Nikkei index. OS 12 is the most secure operating system ever released. Many films will depict hacking as accessing a machine and installing some malicious software. OS 12, a few bugs; however, I don't really consider that hacking. I'm just playing that. In this case, he's breaking into a place, physically accessing a computer that doesn't ask for a password, that has no encryption, or has no other authorization. So, he simply acts as a computer and uploads a virus. Well, gift hacking into a hospital, Mr. Robot. Hospitals, a heavily networked one like this, are almost too easy to hack. I can make my health records look like every other obedient zombie out there. Mr. Robot consistently demonstrates real hacking and pretty reasonable scenarios. Thank in this case, he's hacking into a hospital because they have pretty lack

security. This is William Highsmith. He is the IT department. He's also an idiot, and their technology is extremely old. He's useless security software that runs on Windows 98, which is pretty accurate when you're talking about most hospitals, and he's supposed to protect their network from people like me. Additionally, the interfaces in this clip are actually realistic. You don't have to worry. Recently, we've heard of actual hospitals getting hacked, having malware and ransomware installed, and even some parts shutting down simply due to the lack of security and old systems. They never stood a chance. NCIS stopping a hack? No way. I'm getting hats or ports key. It's moving too fast. Our connection with the intrastate abase separate. It's too much. I've never seen cold like this. Stop the pop-ups. This is not good. Defending against a hacker untraceable. Whoever is behind the site is local and wants attention. Shut him down. We are black. Holy nice eye piece. But every time we shut one down, a

new mirror pops up. The site's IP keeps changing constantly. Each new address is an exploited server. This clip is extremely accurate. Nice touch. A hacker has a domain name. Union. The U.S. keeps taking down the IP addresses of the domain name, and the IP address is essentially the physical address of that domain. However, the hacker has so many other IPS or machines on the internet hacked that he or she is able to replace them very quickly. It wasn't that wonderful. Now they state that the name server and registrar are hosted in Russia. Domain register and the name servers are all in Russian, which they have no jurisdiction over. No jurisdiction there. The registrar's where you get your domain names, such as wired.com, and the name server points the domain name, like wire com2, the IP address. There's a connection there. In this case, the one thing they got wrong is the U.S. does have jurisdiction over the dot-com. Good. So the U.S. would be able to take down any dot-com domain name. How patriotic. CSI cyber clickbait. The ads are.

Redirecting site users to what could be a fictitious pharmacy looks like a normal ad, right? And this is the code for the ad, but there's actually two codes written right on top of each other. Click-begging screen right part of this clip is someone accurately being able to hack into a web server and modify the code so that users who visit that site are then affected. The fake ad is masking the legitimate app. Is the real thing that happens quite common actually? However, the combination of codes being layered on top of each other, it's not really accurate. It could be a coincidence. If you're viewing the source code, you're pretty much viewing everything. Peekaboo, so not so realistic in this case. Yeah, the net disassembling a virus, not to worry, everything's under control. It's gonna be okay. You run into the same theme where the interfaces themselves are not very accurate. Yeah, however, everything that's actually happening here is quite accurate. I appreciate it. Essentially, she's taking a virus and she's disassembling it. Wipe out your own.

system what that means is she's taking the actual binary executable and turning it into machine code, which is the type of code that your computer or CPU actually executes. Then she's turning it into a format that she can read to see what it's actually doing. Well, why don't you just tell me what this is about so that she can help whomever gotten hacked, let them know what has happened, and how to resolve the issue. Thank you. This is something that actually there are dedicated teams and companies for today. What, you're kidding right? Breaching the firewall castle. Someone synched a rat to one of my servers. Remote access to a would-be hacked their own trying to track our IP address. Oh, can you stop it? No, but I can't slow him down. One thing we see in a lot of clips is people attempt to slow hackers down or slow something down, but really there's nothing to slow down. It's either happening or it's not. We have to stop him. However, there are some macros ease here. They do use a rat or no tax.

exception and there are actual tools called rats, which allow you access into machines that you otherwise shouldn't necessarily have access to. The interface is quite inaccurate, but then it also seems that TB likes to think that hackers send a lot of animal photos, as we've seen with the dog intron legacy low end, as we see here with lots and lots of cats. [Music] The Matrix Reloaded hacking into a power grid. [Music] In this, we see some realism. We see an actual UNIX terminal, and someone is actually using a fictitious tool called ssh nuke. What it pretty much does is it gives them access to the power grid. It drops them into a root shell on a UNIX machine, which actually is pretty realistic. Thanks. And then they use another tool, SSH, to log into another machine as root, which is the administrative privilege. It gives you pretty much full access to do whatever you want. Yeah, you can do that unrealistic. You have the SSH nuke tool, which is not a real tool. Additionally, most power grids aren't on the Internet.

but there's some pretty good foreshadowing going on here as more and more are becoming connected, as it simply makes them easier to maintain. There is nothing to stop hacking on a cellphone. Iron Man 2 and local intelligence on the ground indicating all of my second boy. I need him. If you'll direct your attention to shed screens, I believe that South Korea. In this clip, we see Tony Stark using his mobile device to actually hack into multiple TV screens and monitors, and it's actually kind of realistic. You're welcome. As you could easily break into, say, a Chromecast or Apple TV, and most Smart TVs are actually internet-connected now, so it's working. There's a big attack surface, a lot of ways to actually break into these TVs and cast something that otherwise you shouldn't. Weird science stealing processing power. Problem is your computer's a wimp, and we need a lot more power than this. That's why you see James [Music] [Applause] [Music]. We have another clip with some graphical interface that isn't very accurate. I

know that, but you know, we can use some fun 3D visuals. However, the act of breaking into a computer, especially one with more computing power and resources than your own, to try to crack something or decrypt something, is pretty accurate today. The clips we saw in wargames and weird science take place in the same time period. However, what we saw in wargames was a lot more accurate than what was depicted here. We also get another classic access denied screen. Yeah, yeah, live free or die hard. Executing a virus in this clip, they don't really show actually any hacking. They do show running a virus. However, to actually run a virus or upload a virus, you already must have access to the target system. Thanks for that. Essentially, you will need to have found a vulnerability that you can run the virus on, and only then can you actually execute that virus. Snowden surveillance, think of it as a Google search, except instead of searching only what people make public, we're also looking at everything they don't. So emails, chats.

SMS whatever yeah but which people the whole kingdoms no way this is real seriously there's actually a program called xkeyscore that the NSA uses execute scores under 702 Authority which means no warrants that we actually found out about from Snowden after he leaked a ton of documents to the press and her principal our government and other governments do have the capabilities to do this sort of thing the social network hackathon encryption and then intercept all traffic of work secure of course they're happy yes all behind a picture on you later here's the beauty if we can find a code written this is interesting because it's actually rumored to be true that Facebook would have these drinking programming hackathons yeah although I don't expect so many people and so much of a party atmosphere the type of system that he's talking about hacking into is pretty accurate this sort of thing is actually typical at Def Con a yearly hacking conference in Vegas people are hacking into each other systems defending against other hackers and again a lot of drinking transformers

alien hacking in this clip. They're trying to listen to a half team. However, you're not actually going to be able to do that for this type of hat. No way or hacking into a lot of computers. You will listen to sound. However, if you are trying to listen to certain types of radio frequencies and recognize what kind of sound or modulation it might be, the direct match to the signal in Qatar. There actually was a hack recently in Dallas where someone used radio frequency to set off every emergency siren in Dallas, breaking encryption under siege to see here. Access encoded gigabyte of RAM to do the trick in this clip. He's attempting to break some encryption by adding a gigabyte of RAM. You could buy two RAM to do this, but adding that gigabyte of RAM really is not relevant to breaking the encryption here. Oh, you might need some significant memory or storage space, but it's not something you'll do in the middle of your operation, really. So, not that realistic. Yeah, blackhat NSA hacking. You asked him to change his password. He

downloaded the PDF. What he downloaded was the key logger. That was a pretty long password for someone who can't actually differentiate the difference between a PDF file and an executable. What he downloaded was the key long because really he downloaded something that looked like a document, but because it was actually a key logger, that means it was a program that executed and ran an application. Who really had to steal the code? That key loggers are a pretty common way to access information from an individual. So if you want to record their keystrokes, see what they're typing, be honest, learn passwords, websites they visit, usernames, and other private information, key logger is the typical way that someone will install that on your machine and learn that information about you. Is in Jakarta Avengers 2 Age of Ultron Ultron hacking Jarvis your intentions to be hostile at the rate of progress with machine learning and artificial intelligence. Something like this where two different systems could actually begin to learn about each other, communicate with each other, and actually attack each other. This is rage the visualized 3D orbs in real space are not

so accurate as insane. In the future, machines will be able to think and will have access to physical components that they can actually move around. I am a programmer, so we could see something like this. However, the actual orbs of electricity, or balls of electricity, that is pretty much set in science fiction. We're out on my field to Criminal Minds hackers competing. First, we need you to look up the name Colby Baylor. This might be the coolest girl I've ever met, but her GUI is mind-blowing. That's weird. This is also kind of similar to hackers where two hackers were competing, taking over controller machine. It was a bit more accurate in hackers though, as they were essentially competing on the same target system, trying to prevent the other person from accessing it. In this, you see they're competing on a system, but then someone else's system actually gets hacked. What the hell? So in this case, there are multiple systems getting hacked, and it's just a little bit less realistic. This isn't good. We mentioned the Linux

operating systems completely Linux-based open source programming, and you don't see this in government systems. I mean, outside of like Switzerland, which actually is used in plenty of government series. There's lots of open source software used sort of across the world, including our government, right? I get it. The GUI comment is not too accurate. Her GUI is mind-blowing. Usually, when you're breaking into something, you're not actually going to run into any GUI, your graphical user interface. That's weird. And even if you do, it's usually not that exciting. Sneakers, freakin' I'm gonna bounce just call through nine different relay stations throughout the world and off two satellites. National Security Agency Director of Operations, please. It's my dime. I'll ask the questions. It started the trace. This is a cool demonstration of freakin' where they're actually jumping, not just to one other machine over the phone. Who are you and made the second leg, but actually relaying from phone to phone to phone. And you guarantee my safety. Freakin' is not as popular anymore as most machines.

are Internet-connected rather than dial-up or phone-connected. We make the call, but we make it our way. Algorithm hacking via email in or the weakest link in any security systems. It's you with your shitty passwords and how you share every part of your life online. And now I own Sam Novak's computer. In this clip, they're not showing too much of the actual hacking, but he does mention that he's exploiting the kernel. I'm just exploiting the vulnerability. Her kernel access was created. This is pretty difficult to do. However, there has been a recent vulnerability in antivirus software. It's always a way in where if you received an email with this very specific exploit, it could actually exploit the antivirus software running in your kernel, which is essentially your operating system, and give the attacker full control of your computer. Means they work for me. I think that's what they're implying here, even though they're not really showing the actual exploit. The difference does that make to me. Conclusion. Hollywood has the challenge of depicting hacking, which can

Actually, it can be quite a challenge because it's not that visually stimulating. However, it is always exciting when I do see a clip that actually is realistic.

Hacker Breaks Down 26 Hacking Scenes From Movies & TV | WIRED

WIRED

Hacking is often depicted with unrealistic 3D visual interfaces in movies, while the actual efficient method is using a console or terminal.

The Italian Job's use of video feeds and algorithms to control traffic lights is realistic, as many systems are vulnerable to hacking.

Common themes in hacking scenes include chaotic information overload, programming jargon, and social engineering, with some elements being accurate while others are exaggerated for dramatic effect.

Hacking has evolved from phone-based "freaking" in the 1980s to modern-day cyber intrusions, with back doors left for future access.

Robot" and "NCIS" depict hacking scenarios, showcasing the ease of breaching poorly secured systems, such as hospitals with outdated technology.

The challenge of shutting down hackers is highlighted by their ability to quickly change IP addresses and replace exploited servers, making them difficult to trace and stop.

Hacking and Cybersecurity Realities in Media

The clip illustrates a common hacking scenario, with a fake ad masking a legitimate app and layered codes.

The process of disassembling a virus and turning it into machine code for analysis is accurately portrayed.

While the media often exaggerates the effectiveness of slowing down hackers, the use of tools like RATs for remote access is a real tactic, and the depiction of a UNIX terminal and root access is somewhat realistic, despite the fictional tool and common misconception about power grids being online.

The increasing connectivity of devices, like smartphones and smart TVs, creates a larger attack surface for hackers.

Tony Stark's mobile device hacking into screens in Iron Man 2 is portrayed realistically, reflecting the ease of breaking into internet-connected devices.

The depiction of hacking and running viruses in movies like WarGames and Live Free or Die Hard varies in accuracy, with real-life hacking often requiring access to the target system first.

Alien hacking is depicted as trying to listen in on a team, but it's unrealistic for this type of operation.

A recent hack in Dallas used radio frequency to trigger emergency sirens, highlighting the potential of such methods.

Keyloggers are commonly used to steal personal information by recording keystrokes, while the portrayal of hackers competing for control of systems is less realistic than in real-life scenarios.

The Realities of Hacking and Open Source Software

Linux-based open source programming is not commonly seen in government systems, except for places like Switzerland.

The narrative of hacking often downplays the role of the graphical user interface, with real hacking typically involving complex relays and exploiting vulnerabilities.

Hollywood struggles to accurately depict hacking, but realistic portrayals are always exciting to see.