Things you can learn about computer viruses from famous 90’s movies
Films and media leave a strong impression on our lifestyle, way of thinking, mentality, and overall personality also. As the films and entertainment industry shows us the reality of life, technology, economy and so many other critical aspects of our society. However, cyber-attacks and cyber security are also a concern of many companies from the past few years, and the result of it many of them seeks a certified ethical hacker in order to protect their information system from data breaches.
Computer viruses and cyber security movies
Now coming back to the topic, computer viruses are one of the most common weapons or paths used by hackers for barging into a system or a network. So today we will talk about some computer viruses and some useful tricks we can learn from the old 90’’s films.
Worms
earlier, the most known computer virus was a worm, which can cause huge devastation by infecting thousands of computers within a blink. Basically, the worm is a malicious program that replicates itself across many computers, which can cause a network to slow down. Once the worm gets into the system, it leaves a duplicate file and moves on. A few years back, 90s movies started obsessing over viruses and hacking. Yes, you are right I am talking about the mother of all hacking movies named Hackers (1995).
The movie tells the story of a child hacker, who is convicted of the most devastating hack of all time and banned from using any computer or a touch mobile phone until he turns at the age of 18. In the movie, the villain uses a worm to steal money discreetly using salami-slicing, which is a technique where small incremental actions result in a bigger, unseen action at the end. The worm replicated itself to make it seem like no money had gone missing and then moved on, only to eventually reveal what it had done once it had left. At that point, the main character meets Angelina Jolie and a team of hackers who help him to reveal the cyber machinations of a crime and the culprit who uses a worm to steal money.
Ransomware
Ransomware is a virus that can restrict you to access your data by locking your screen or encrypting your files. This is then used to elicit something, usually money, from you to free your data. The Net is a movie that is entirely based on this computer virus. In the movie, Sandra Bullock’s entire life is stolen and a new identity cast on her, with the demand that she gives up the valuable program and stumbled upon to get her old life back.
So this is how ransomware would work, even hackers would take your information, which in Bullock’s case was her identity, and to get it back you need to pay a ransom. In the movie, it was the secret program for Bullock, but for you, it is likely to be money in the form of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
Trojan
Another well know computer virus called trojan, which was named after the giant wooden horse that was used by the Greeks to enter the city of Troy. similarly, it is a method by which a hacker can use social engineering to gain access to your computer and or account details. This creates a backdoor to infiltrate the target system.
The movie Independence Day plays this out very well, in fact nearly all these films had no way to dramatize what is essentially streams of code, so they went for the next best thing: Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum inside a stolen alien ship. Think of the alien space ship just like the wooden horse, entering the mother ship (Troy) while pretending to be aliens in order to upload the virus.
Top 5 Cyber Security Movies that you should watch
1. Sneakers (1992)
2. The Net (1995)
3. Hackers (1995)
4. WarGames (1983)
5. Enemy of the State (1998)
The above five movies are must watch for those who want to understand the concept or thought process behind a cyber-attack. So, I would suggest you to watch the above five movies, as it also helps cyber security professionals to brush up their skills in the world of hacking. For training purposes, you can check out the website of ProICT Training and also read more blogs and articles related to cyber security.
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