Computer Crime Research Center

Cyberterrorism: fear factor

Date: July 20, 2004
Source: The Age
By: Ben Wyld

... or virus writer looking to cause mischief.

"We will always have some outlaw activity," Perry says. "It's the nature of human society."

Hollywood hackers

Though computer experts such as Perry and Weafer say the reality is almost the opposite, Hollywood certainly does its best to glamorise the underground world of hacking.

Remember War Games, where a young Matthew Broderick, playing David, accidentally gained "backdoor" access to military computers?

The 1983 movie depicted how global warfare could be initiated by an innocent search for video games to impress a girl.

Also doing his best to break the computer nerd image was hunky Australian Hugh Jackman in 2001's Swordfish.

Not only could his character, Stanley Jobson, a former prisoner who was serving time for hacking, break into a system in 60 seconds, he could do it with the added challenge (some would say distraction) of having Halle Berry's character, Ginger, tamper with his, ahem, equipment.

And then there's every computer hacker's poster girl, Angelina Jolie. Alongside former husband Jonny Lee Miller in 1995's Hackers, Jolie combined nightclubbing, in-line skating, hanging with the "in" crowd and computer hacking.infofileComputer security experts and members of the Australian hacking scene converged on Sydney last weekend for the RUXCON computer security conference.

International speakers presented talks on everything from defeating forensic analysis on UNIX file systems, to Bluetooth security and virus and malware analysis.

Brian Diplock, an agent of the High Tech Crimes unit, also discussed investigations.

Conference attendees also took part in the "capture the flag" hacking competition, involving both offensive and defensive skills.
Original article



Add comment  Email to a Friend

Discussion is closed - view comments archieve
2004-10-07 23:18:37 - My novel, The Shadow Warriors, tells of an... Jcopek
Total 1 comments
Copyright © 2001-2013 Computer Crime Research Center
CCRC logo