Hackers and Computer Security

The popular conception of a hacker as a teenage boy hunched over his computer threatening information security and cracking firewalls was both reflected in and popularized by the 1983 movie War Games. Source: Cranky Critic Matthew Broderick played a juvenile computer genius who could break into his school´s computer system, book free flights to Paris, and push the world to the brink of global thermonuclear war, all while sitting in his room. Most importantly, his exploits won him the praise of a young Ally Sheedy. Some of the most notorious hackers cite this movie as their original inspiration.