Ah, the movies
Shenanigans to do with online data have provided the fodder for many entertaining movies since way back. From WarGames to Sneakers to The Net to the Lisbeth Salander movies, these movies have told the stories of clever – sometimes too-clever – computer-obsessed characters getting into data networks they shouldn’t and the troubles that ensue. In opposition to large, powerful, and often-shadowy organizations, our heroes rely on smarts and daring to avoid capture, clear their names, take down the bad guys, and even save the world from havoc and destruction. So, yeah, not exactly realistic.
What really happens
Shenanigans to do with online data, though, have also provided the fodder for gripping, engaging, and sometimes terrifying documentaries. Here are nine that we liked. They run the gamut from telling stories about the smart, driven, flawed, inspiring people we call “hackers” to examining how online data breaches, geopolitics, individual behaviors, and social media profit margins all intersect to create the internet horrors we live with and largely ignore every day. Some are free, others require subscriptions to streaming services, and others must be bought; directions for where to find them are offered in each case.
First, the hackers
These documentaries most closely resemble the movies, as individual characters and their exploits and adventures make up the narratives. Endings are not always happy, though.
In the Realm of Hackers (2003; 56 min.; free)
In the late 1980’s, a group of teenage Australian hackers broke into the networks of organizations all over the world, including Citibank, NASA, and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. They did it so expertly and so quickly that nobody could figure who did it or how. Until one of them bragged about their exploits to The New York Times. The investigation led to the first computer crime case to be tried in Australia as well as new laws addressing crimes committed online. The movie also tells the up-close-and-personal story of how the kids became the hackers they did.
The Most Dangerous Town on the Internet (2015; 44 min; Part 1, Part 2; free)
A two-part story about hackers and the lawless data havens that allow them to do much of what they do. Part 1 examines Ramnicu Valcea, a small town in Romania that came to be known as “Hackerville” because of its robust fiber-optic network and dense community of libertarian, often-law-breaking hackers. Most famous was Guccifer, who hacked many high-level political and corporate figures in the mid-2010’s, most famously Hillary Clinton and her campaign for president in 2016. Part 2 takes a tour of data havens set up to avoid national and international laws governing internet access and commerce. One such data haven operated on Sealand in the early 2000’s, an offshore platform used as a British fort during World War 2. Wacky events resulted in Sealand becoming a principality in the 1960’s, outside all international jurisdiction, and well, things got weirder from there.
Zero Days (2015; 49 min.; free)
Not to be confused with another documentary called “Zero Days” – about the Stuxnet virus – this documentary features hackers in search of “zero days,” vulnerabilities in software and networks susceptible to immediate attack. It looks at “white hat,” “gray hat,” and “black hat” hackers, and the different approaches they take to handling zero days when they find them.
Second, the data
As these documentaries indicate, privacy online simply does not exist. Under any terms. We do get something in exchange for giving up privacy, but nowhere near enough, is the conclusion.
In Google We Trust (2016; 41 min; Amazon, YouTube)
A day in the life of an Australian family’s online data. The filmmakers followed a family of five through a day of internet use, tracking their data online circulating among myriad companies and websites all over the world. As you’d imagine, the destinations and uses of their data went far beyond what any of them were remotely aware of or comfortable with. Ugh.
Terms and Conditions May Apply (2013; 1 hr. 19 min.; Amazon, YouTube, AppleTV)
You have no idea what you’re agreeing to when you click “Accept” on the terms and conditions page of a website. You just don’t. If you did, according to this documentary, you would never click the button so quickly and thoughtlessly. The message here is that online privacy long ago disappeared, to the ever-increasing benefit of the largest online data companies. In 2013, an individual Google user’s data was worth $500 a year to the company. By now, it is easily four or five times that much. In other words, if you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product.
HAK_MTL (2019; 1 hr. 7 min.; Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube)
Montreal hackers detail and decry the loss of internet data safeguards. Earnestly and at length, they explain why privacy is vital to individual growth and dignity as well as the cohesiveness, even survival, of community. And they describe ways to combat the constant, pervasive surveillance that shadows us all online.
Third, the big, scary world
These are the terrifying movies. If you didn’t want to get off the grid altogether by now, you will after watching these. Space out your viewings so you don’t get too demoralized.
The Great Hack (2019; 1 hr. 54 min.; Netflix)
“These platforms that were created to connect us have now been weaponized. It’s impossible to know what is what, because nothing is what it seems.” The 2016 presidential election and Brexit vote brought to light the wickedly amoral, surgically precise work of Cambridge Analytica to analyze and manipulate voters in the U.S. and Great Britain. Boasting over 5,000 pieces of discrete data about every individual voter, Cambridge Analytica helped operatives deploy social media disinformation to destroy any shared sense of what was real and what was not in the two campaigns. We’re almost certainly never going back to what life was like in 2015 and before.
Code 2600 (2012; 1 hr. 22 min.; Amazon)
Rich in history, this movie goes back to Sputnik to explore broadly how technology, and the surveillance it enables, has informed how Americans and the U.S. as a whole relate to and fit into a shrinking globe. The loss of privacy and the prevalence of cyber crime are two sides of a coin in this treatment, as hackers across the “hat” spectrum describe how they function and react to an ever-changing technological and regulatory environment.
Cyber Crime (2019; 1 hr. 15 min.; Amazon)
“What happens when you get hacked? What happens when you have thousands of dollars just siphoned out of your bank account? Where do you go from there?” Ten cyber security experts discuss the unavoidable, pervasive risks of cyber crime to everyone online but also how to understand and mitigate them. It’s not quite a good-news story, as their general assumption is that everyone is always already a victim of data theft just by virtue of going online. But they do offer guidance and insights beyond just the level of “manage your passwords better.”
And, finally
The realities described in these films have been significant factors in the pivot we have made in our own work towards promoting cybersecurity careers and exploring larger lessons in data care that we should all be learning. Besides CyberCAP, our career awareness program for high school students, we will soon be publishing a book for middle school students about online safety and careers in the field. A partnership with the National Cryptologic Foundation, we are looking forward to a publication date later this summer. Watch this space for more news!
Meanwhile, please share this list of movies with interested colleagues and friends. And if you have any comments to share after watching them, or other titles to share, please be in touch.
Eric Iversen is VP for Learning and Communications at Start Engineering. He has written and spoken widely on STEM education and related careers. You can write to him about this topic, especially when he gets stuff wrong, at eiversen@start-engineering.com.
You can also follow along on Twitter @StartEnginNow.
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