
'WarGames' and Cybersecurity's Debt to a Hollywood Hack - thucydides
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/movies/wargames-and-cybersecuritys-debt-to-a-hollywood-hack.html
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molecule
Another case involving a movie influencing Reagan, US policy and related to
nuclear weapons is The Day After:

 _> President Ronald Reagan watched the film several days before its
screening, on November 5, 1983. He wrote in his diary that the film was "very
effective and left me greatly depressed," and that it changed his mind on the
prevailing policy on a "nuclear war". The film was also screened for the Joint
Chiefs of Staff. A government advisor who attended the screening, a friend of
Meyer's, told him "If you wanted to draw blood, you did it. Those guys sat
there like they were turned to stone." Four years later, the Intermediate-
Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed and in Reagan's memoirs he drew a
direct line from the film to the signing._

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After#Effects_on_polic...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After#Effects_on_policymakers)

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PhasmaFelis
It is so terrifying that the guy with his finger on the nuclear button had
given so little thought to nuclear policy that a movie could change his mind.
He should have known everything The Day After had to teach before even taking
office.

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PakG1
You could say that about so many subjects for which heads of state are
responsible. It's not possible for candidates to be knowledgeable about
everything. In this case, it's not possible for people without military or
scientific backgrounds to really have a grasp on the magnitude of stuff. Heck,
even those with military backgrounds couldn't fathom a lot of things, judging
from the parent's quote on the reaction from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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PhasmaFelis
> _You could say that about so many subjects for which heads of state are
> responsible. It 's not possible for candidates to be knowledgeable about
> everything._

Certainly one man can't be well-versed on every little thing. But global
thermonuclear war is not a little thing. It is, arguably, the _biggest_ thing,
especially for a man who effectively had the ability to end human civilization
by his decisions.

> _In this case, it 's not possible for people without military or scientific
> backgrounds to really have a grasp on the magnitude of stuff._

This isn't about the physics and tactics of nuclear weapons, though. This is
about the basic idea that nuclear war would be the greatest disaster in human
history and should be avoided at any cost, which by Reagan's own admission is
something he hadn't entirely grasped until he watched a movie about it.

> _Heck, even those with military backgrounds couldn 't fathom a lot of
> things, judging from the parent's quote on the reaction from the Joint
> Chiefs of Staff._

If the nation's top military personnel also hadn't previously grasped that
nuclear war would be really bad, that makes the whole thing _more_ terrifying,
not less.

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PakG1
I wasn't commenting on whether the idea of an ignorant candidate is
terrifying. I was commenting on whether a fully knowledgeable candidate is
feasible. Admittedly, it seems that you're talking about wisdom and capacity
for empathy, while I was talking about knowledge of facts.

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alanfalcon
Recently re-watched this movie thanks to Ready Player One: so great to see
plausible hacking in a movie (as much as I enjoy Hackers for the entertainment
value) - I love this behind the scenes snippet about the movie and its real
world impact!

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bitwize
I love how David researched Stephen Falken in his search for plausible
backdoors -- by going to the library, looking through the card catalog, and
checking books and magazine and newspaper articles about him.

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TheBlight
Yeah that part wasn't super realistic. A good dictionary file would've cracked
that bad boy in less than an hour.

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DanBC
Rate limiting would have killed that dictionary. Just the connection speed:
300 baud means roughly 300 bits per second, or roughly 2250 characters per
minute.

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loeg
1983? He'd get in after his first try, with "password".

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bitwize
But what kind of credentials would he have? Would he even gain access to the
games he was after?

The whole _point_ of hunting for the Falken backdoor was to gain the highest
access he could, so he could get his hands on what he thought were games in
development to be released soon.

Also, 'nother WarGames fun fact: Stephen Falken is, of course, a play on
Stephen Hawking. At the time of the movie's creation, Professor Hawking had
only recently been diagnosed with ALS and was thought to not be long for the
world. The original script/treatment was about a relationship between Falken
and a teenager, to whom the terminally ill Falken would pass as much knowledge
as he could before he died, so his work could live on. When the PC debuted,
the script was reworked to incorporate the role computing had in young
people's lives, and the nascent "hacker" phenomenon.

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harel
This movie launched my love to computers and I owe my career to it. I was in
awe how broderick got to hack all computers, have the adventure and get the
girl. Perfect, I'll have some of that please. I still want to thank him one
day.

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TheBlight
If it weren't for this film I don't think I would've really bothered much with
computers.

~~~
dankohn1
If you haven't seen it recently, I really can't recommend this movie enough. I
showed it to my then 6 and 8 year old boys, and they totally got it and loved
it. It just holds up incredibly well.

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duskwuff
In a similar vein, the same producers also made _Sneakers_ , which also holds
up quite well.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakers_(1992_film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakers_\(1992_film\))

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jamespitts
The screenwriters meeting with Willis Ware at RAND reminds me of how Steve
Jobs would call up various S.V. legends in his youth.

It pays off to make that call!

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sjclemmy
"Do you want to play a game?"

Me and my friends used to quote that to each other back in the 80s.

I loved that movie.

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Esau
I know how you feel. It was the first movie I ever took a girl to see.

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harel
This seems quite relevant again now: The story of the IMSAI - the War Games
computer:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10033325](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10033325)

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ChrisArchitect
"I'm starting to think a major motion picture has lied to me about the
capabilities of home computers!"
[https://twitter.com/chrisarchitect/status/701794179613995008](https://twitter.com/chrisarchitect/status/701794179613995008)

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NiftyFifty
et al Sony.

