According to rhicans topic, I want to collect information hackers in movies. What is the movies name? What did the hacker? is it perhaps possible to do something like that?

Now lets begin:
Movie: Die Hard 4.0
What the hackers did: They got controll of all computer networks in the whole usa. they controlled infrastructure (they controlled traffic lights, got control of the communication and energy)
possibility: wiki: "Traffic lights are sometimes centrally controlled by monitors or by computers to allow them to be coordinated in real time to deal with changing traffic patterns."
"Some regions have signals that are interruptible, giving priority to special traffic. Such traffic light preemption is usually reserved for emergency vehicles such as fire apparatus, ambulances, and police squad cars, though sometimes mass transit vehicles including buses and light rail trains can interrupt lights."

I think that sounds like its possible to controll _some_ traffic lights (if these central-controlled traffic lights are connected to the internet), but its not possible to controll every traffic light without going to them (physically)

hey spoiler warning next time

Movie: Hackers (1995)
What the hackers did: Attack a mainframe with malware. mainframe explodes
possibility:
-typing "cookie" is unlikely to stop a virus
-mainframes don't usually concist of tesla coils, nor to they tend to explode when they aren't using sony batteries .
Unlightly that this happens due to system comprimise anyways.

you might want to submit stuff like this moviemistakes.com

movie: Bad Boys II
What the hackers did: a man was able to listen a telephon-call instantly
posibility: I don't know ... the time he needed isn't realistic, but if its generally possible? I can't say...

@ moose: most traffic lights around my area (I'm near LA a very large city with usually up to date technology) the interruptions of the signals is usually due to the lights on top of police cars and emergency vehicle. Basically there is a sensor on top of the light that looks for flashes of light at a certain rate, hence an emergency vehicle. I can flash my headlights as i approach a signal and get the same effect. I'm not saying ALL lights are controlled like that, but a large number. Weather or not they are also accessible through a remote connection I cannot say but it would make sense to me that to control then you would need to physically be at the light.

As kind of an afterthought on this topic. I propose that someone actually make a movie about hacking that has a storyline and is somewhat entertaining to watch. As I am sure most of you know, much of the time i spend "hacking" basically consists of lots of munchies (chips and soda and such) and me staring at thousands of lines of code while occasionally making a phone call or two and referencing a book. This is often times accompanied by random shouting matches with me computer "SON OF A B***H PIECE OF S**T" or sudden cheers of WHOOP I DID it, which now that I sit back and think of it, is much like what happens when I play video games. I really don't see how you can explain to the public this concept of "hacking" and still make it somewhat if at all interesting to anyone not already involved with it. Personally I would consider most Security professions to be hackers, they just get paid better than I do =P.

I agree that a realistic hacking movie should be made. The only problem with the idea is that only "hackers" would understand it, and only a fairly specific piece of the spectrum at that. Of course this means that when the critics are giving it a rating out of 5 stars, it would likely get about -2.

Isn't Operation Swordfish an itsy bitsy close to the real world? At least the cracking part in te movie looks real

are you talking about the movie where compiling a worm concist of fitting 9 cubes together to form a larger cube?

while using 6 monitors.

I was talking about the part where the cracker gets a gun against his head and a woman against his dick and has to crack some serial within one minut.

ah yes, that happens all the time.

all that dialog about x bit ciphers too