10 Things Movies Always Get Wrong About Hacking

Over time, hackers and hacking have been featured more prominently in movies, but Holloywood often gets hacking wrong. Hacking is a relatively new phenomenon, at least as far as the word has grown to mean people who hack into computers. Due to the popularity and availability of personal computers only spiking in the last three decades, along with the introduction of the internet, the idea of using computers to dig up information or access private records has evolved alongside films that portray it.

However, when Hollywood presents hacking and the people behind it in movies, there are several stereotypes and outright falsehoods that are commonly used. Hackers in movies almost always have several traits in common, from being unsociable, with genius-level intellect, to being able to hack into anything from anywhere. But the reality of hacking is neither as glamourous, or as undignified as Hollywood makes it out to be.

10

Hacking Like Defusing A Bomb

One of the most common tropes that appears in any movie with hackers is about how hacking is represented on screen. Often, the movie may require hackers to be able to get access to important files or government controls, and they frequently have a tight deadline in order to do it. A hacker is called in to try and crack the code and get important access to do and change whatever is needed.

However, hacking does not resemble defusing a bomb, no matter what Hollywood makes it out to be. There will almost never be a timer with a hacker racing against a clock to crack a code, and if there was, it would likely be in the hours or days range, rather than minutes. Movies need to make their scenes exciting, and so they will often add elements like this to make the moment more dramatic, but it is not an accurate representation of what hacking looks like in real life.

9

It’s Often Simpler Than It Looks

When a character is hacking in a movie, they will often pull up multiple windows, mashing buttons on the keyboard and accessing the most complex looking windows on a computer. However, the reality is far less intimidating, and often includes more thinking than pressing buttons. Hacking is generally not something that requires accessing all of the most complicated looking screens, but usually the opposite is true.

The goal of hacking is to find the simplest and easiest means of getting into a file, computer, website, or account. This could be as simple as trying the most commonly used passwords and seeing if they work. Beyond this, hacking looks to find the weakest and easiest method of entry to a secure area, and exploit it. Which rarely ever requires opening a dozen different windows and typing at lightning speed.

8

Reckless Fast Typing

On the point of typing at lightning speed, hackers in movies are notoriously skilled typists. Now, while this is likely true for seasoned hackers who know their way around a keyboard with their eyes closed, it’s not a sensible way to approach hacking. Hacking is precise, and smashing keys on a keyboard as fast as you can is unlikely to be the best approach.

As mentioned above, hacking requires finding and exploiting the weakest points on a site, so it’s rare that it requires entering a whole book’s worth of commands to do whatever is needed. Hacking requires a lot of thought and planning, which means that rather than blindly and mindlessly hitting keys, it requires attention and focus. Typing fast looks impressive, but it’s hardly a smart way to approach hacking.

7

Hackers Are Lonely Nerds

Another stereotype that frequently pops up in Hollywood movies is how hackers generally look and behave. Many are loners, in their parents’ basement, with ill-fitting clothes stained by various snacks. Some movies choose to approach hackers in a very different way, as an introverted genius, but in reality, neither one is necessarily true or accurate.

Hackers can look just the same as anybody else. Often, they have some degree of experience and interest in computers, which means they often have tech jobs, but they also often have families and interests that don’t include a computer. By simply reducing hackers to being lonely men with no other interests in life, it creates a false idea about what and who hackers actually are.

6

Hackers Work Alone

Extending out of this same stereotype, hackers are portrayed as being incredibly lonely. They rely on their own intelligence and expertise to crack and solve any problem, and appear to have some innate gift when it comes to talking to a computer. However, once again, Hollywood has it wrong, and the stereotype is often the complete opposite to reality.

Hacking is usually a team sport. In order to crack any sort of security and defense, hackers rely on sharing tips, advice, and working together on a project to successfully hack in. Every hacker has to start somewhere in their journey, and learn by seeing how other people are able to manipulate programs, and from there, they can start to understand and replicate results themselves.

5

Hacking Can Be Done On Any Device

One of the most outrageous ways that movies and other media misrepresent hacking has to be the equipment that is used. While some movies do have hackers set up in a basement with a huge specialist computer, there are many more that have hackers pick up a laptop, phone, or anything else with a screen and simply hack the system. These hackers are seen to be so skilled that they can basically hack anything with nothing but their bare hands and a few taps and swipes on the screen.

The truth is, most specialist hacking requires equipment that is fit for purpose. A construction worker likely couldn’t get very far building an entire house with just their hands, and the same is true for a hacker. Computers with adequate specs are required to run certain tasks, and when hacking into machinery elsewhere, it helps to have devices like a USB drive that is preloaded with software that can effectively communicate and work with the intended device. There is no one size fits all when it comes to computers.

4

Hacking Anything In Minutes

As touched on briefly above, most hacking in movies is done in minutes or even seconds. A hacker will pick up a keyboard, input a few commands, and suddenly have access to everything. Once again, the reality is much less glamorous and exciting than what appears on the big screen.

Hackers will often work on projects for a lengthy period. Depending on what it is that they want to crack, it could take hours, days, or even longer. Fortunately, not all of this time is spent sitting in front of the computer, as some steps in the process are automated, and will simply run for a set duration before taking the next step. But it is rare that things can be done in seconds, as Hollywood would have audiences believe.

3

Writing Intricate Code

Another aspect of hacking in films is how much coding and computer language goes into it. A hacker will sit at their computer, typing lengthy lines of code and commands to get the computer to respond with equally long scripts of code. The truth is that most of the hacking is actually done in plain old text.

Whether that means typing in a forum to see if anyone else has an idea how to approach something, inputting simple commands on a device, or some other work around, coding is not as big of a part of hacking as movies would have you think. A lot of programs already exist with pre-existing methods of hacking, so it’s a simple process of looking for the right instructions, rather than building a new program from scratch.

2

Hackers Are Computer Geniuses

Movies also only attribute the ability to hack to people with genius-level IQs. Often, these people are brilliant and incredibly adept at using a computer. However, once again, this is not always the case, and instead, it is a fictional idea drummed up in movies to make hacking like like some form of superpower that is only accessible to a rare few.

This is simply not the case. While learning to hack does take time and effort, it is something that can be effectively done by absolutely anyone. With a little bit of digging around online, finding a supportive community and a talent to google things when there is a knowledge gap, anyone can learn how to hack. It isn’t always a nefarious or dangerous thing done by criminals, but for many people, it’s a way to boost security and improve a skill.

1

Using The Deep Web

The deep web is a term that many people may be familiar with, and could be easily confused with the idea of the dark web. However, these two things are not the same. Movies rarely see the difference, and may use the terms interchangeably, but that is incorrect. The deep web exists as a part of the more secure unindexed part of the internet. This is where things like personal email accounts exist, and the reason that a Google search will not return results from individual people’s accounts, despite being accessed on the internet.

The dark web is where many illegal activities take place, and can only be accessed by special browsers. These two areas sometimes overlap, but they do not mean the same thing, as the deep web does not include the kind of illicit and illegal things found on the dark web. Hackers may have methods they use to break into parts of the deep web in order to hack a protected system, but the dark web is not required to hack general websites.