When Hollywood tells hacker stories

Well, in this case, it’s the BBC from an episode of “Spooks,” a TV drama which follows the complicated lives of MI5 agents. Seems the Russians are trying to launch a DDoS attack on Britain’s computers in order to collapse their economy. The Ruskies are using a submarine that can intercept transatlantic Internet cables. Interesting concept.

Anyway, MI5 has a “zero day virus” and 30 seconds in which to launch a counter-attack against the sub. Now, this is completely over the top, but it makes for a good story.

Most TV and movie depictions of hackers and malware are off the mark because they are trying to dramatize something that isn’t very dramatic in real life. Most malware is pretty humdrum when you get down to it and hackers are rarely spotted in real time. See what you think about this clip:

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