Module 11- Hackers

The 1995 film Hackers is based on a group of high school students who hack into a computer of a major oil company.  While the movie was filmed during the being of the internet and personal computer era, some parts of the movie are realistic to modern day computer hacking issues and includes past hacker history.

                The film starts in 1988, where a 12 year old boy is charged with hacking and crashing over 1,500 computers that disrupted production on Wall Street. He is to have no contact with computers or phones until he is 18 years old. In 1995, this boy, Dade Murphy is now 18, and spends his birthday hacking into a television station. He starts going to a new school in New York City, and meets other computer hackers.  This group hacks into a computer for a large oil company and finds that the computer has a virus that is being used as a decoy to cover a worm that is transferring millions of dollars into foreign account. The group of teenagers enlists the help of other hackers world wide to destroy the virus and expose the worm and its creator.

                When I first saw this movie a few years ago, I thought it was entirely bogus and a horrible version of Hollywood’s take on the underground life of computer hackers. I chose to review this movie because I thought it would be easy to write multiple pages as I picked out all the untruths. To my surprise, after watching it few more times, it was actually the complete opposite.  From my research I have determined that you can hack into a computer if you have the modem information and that you can use “phreaking” to make phone calls, which I would then assume would allow for internet access. Some of the pranks that the teenage hackers pulled include: setting a timer on fire sprinkler system in a school, deleting credit card information, changing a persons driving record, and changing a persons status from living to deceased. All these are plausible, but with today’s’ advanced security systems these scenarios would be highly unlikely.  What originally made me think that this film was entirely make believe where the ridiculous graphics of the interworkings of a computer,  showing that memory for this major oil company was stored in an enormous room  with towers of visible information, and file containing the worm was just a weird computer graphic.  This may have been done to help the non-computer user to better visualize how computers work, but it caused an unrealistic feeling for this viewer.

                During this film, the villain explains that major companies are looking for hackers just like him to help run their IT departments and to protect their private information. After a quick Google search, I found numerous articles about how the government is recruiting hackers to aid in national security. It appears that hackers have increased their importance by moving from simple company IT departments to several U.S. Federal agencies.   

                Hackers, whether intentional or not, was released round the same time that a computer hacker named Kevin Mitnick was arrested. H e was charged with: hacking into the Los Angeles bus system to get free rides, hacking into the FBI, hacking into and gaining administrator privileges to the Computer Learning Center (this was done on a bet), and hacking various cellular companies such as Motorola, Nokia and Siemens. Mitnick started his hacking career at the age of 16. While Mitnick’s personal story was not depicted or mentioned during this film, it was a current issue within society.

                I have watched this film now three times. Each time I watch it, I see more of the reality of the story and less of the cheesy Hollywood graphics. As Roger Ebert stating in his review of Hackers, “The movie is smart and entertaining, then, as long as you don’t take the computer stuff very seriously. I didn’t. I took it approximately as seriously as the archeology in Indiana Jones.” This film was entertaining, and after doing a little research into the probability of the ideas presented, I actually learned a little about computer hacking, the demand for hackers, and past famous computer and phone hackers.

Module 10

            The short story, “A Logic Named Joe” was written in the late 1940’s, yet it closely depicts many modern computer and internet concepts. During the time that this story was written, there were no personal computers, no internet, and no social networking, but the author was able to imagine all these things and include them in this story.

            In this story, personal computers are called Logics and described as looking like an old tube television with a keyboard where the dials are typically located. The “vision screen” is like the compute monitor where information and video calling are displayed. The description of video calling reminds me of The Jetson’s, but the cartoon didn’t air until 1962. The Logic can display television shows, current weather, game scores, as well as computing math, bookkeeping, as well as few other profession career services. At the time, gadgets and concepts in The Jetson’s were considered futurist and ahead of the times, but the ideas in “A Logic Named Joe” were presented even earlier.

            The author explains that all of the Logics are connect to each other, but at the beginning of the story, do not communicate with each other. The Logics begin to link together when one highly intelligent Logic understands how to compile and display information from all the combined Logics, and starts operating as a server. It also learns how to over ride a censor block (think parental controls). The Logic then starts its’ own version of Google and transmits it to all other Logics. Users would be greeted with a message, asking them what they would like to know. The user could then type in a question, and an answer would appear. The earliest version of Google did not exist until 1996, 60 years after this story was written.

            At one point in the story, a Logic user is trying to locate a local resident. She types in the name of the person she is looking for, and the Logic begins searching through all the connect Logics that are registered to the owners. This is now known as an IP address. In this story, though, the person that is being searched for has not registered his Logic. Today, you can find almost anyone with a computer based on their IP address, and, unlike this story, every computer is registered.

            When the Logic is unable to find who the user is looking for, it decides to ask all Logic users for their name. The logic then takes this information and links it with their address, birthday, bank information, criminal records, and anything else that might be stored on a database. While this could happen today, most people and institutions have developed software and firewalls to protect the privacy of the general public. But, with advent of Facebook and other social networking websites, some of the public has become sloppy at what they post and provide to the World Wide Web.

            There is one part in “A Logic Named Joe” that slightly resembles Facebook, and past relationships that are rekindled by using this social networking website. Once the Logics user was able to find the former flame she was looking for, she tries to reignite their relationship. The Logic makes this easier by providing her with all his information. Social networking websites like Facebook have made reconnecting with old relationships as easy as typing a name. The searcher can be provided with information such as age, martial status, location, phone number and email address. In my opinion, this short section of the story foreshadows social networking which did not start until the mid to late 1990’s.

            If I was to have read this story about five years ago, I would have thought that the author was close to predicting the future of computers and the internet, with the exception of watching this information from the comfort of your living room. Today, you can connect your television to your computer or wireless internet connection and watch various television shows, movies, and other websites. Even though this story was written almost 70 years ago, the author was able to explain the evolution of computers in a short science fiction story.

Module 9

The Dell computer company has become a model for providing products that are made per customer request, instead of mass producing one item. Any person can call the Dell phone number and place an order for a computer or laptop and have that order customized to their needs and requests. This system not only allows for a personal customer experience, it means that no product is left on the shelf waiting for sale.

This first step in building a Dell computer is knowing what the customer wants. A customer service representative can be reach by phone, and the customer places their order. This order information is then entered into the Dell order management system, along with the customer’s credit card and shipping information. Once the credit card has been verified and payment is received, the order is then send to Dell’s production system. This information is received in one of Dell’s six factories. The factory then orders the parts for the computer or laptop from their local suppliers. The parts arrive at the factory within ninety minutes. These parts are then placed into a bin where they are shipped to another area in the factory where the computer is screwed together by hand. The almost finished product then travels to another area where software is loading onto the computer. The product is then boxed, placed on a pallet, and sent to the airport. It will arrive in Nashville, TN about a day later. The computer will then be shipped to the customer’s home. This system proves to be fast and effective.

Dell is also very creative in the way they shape the demand of certain products. If Dell notices that their supplier is running low on a specific product, the customer service representative will try to pursue customers into ordering an upgrade at a discounted price. This way, the fabrication and shipping process is preformed without delay.

The internet has been used by many to operate companies more efficiently. Companies can use the internet for conducting global meetings and updating suppliers of products that need to be shipped. Freidman mentions that the Al-Qaeda also uses the internet to conduct its global supply chain, but then explains that they really use it mainly for recruitment. When I think of supply chain, I think of the examples presented earlier in Freidman’s book, like how WalMart provides information to all of the supplier of what needs to be replaced on the shelves, and then having that product shipped to one central distribution center. Recruiting new suicide bombers is only part of the supply chain. The Al-Qaeda also uses the internet to shape their image, instead of only relying on publicity from their acts of terror. This could be considered part of the supply chain, as they will only want to recruit a certain type of person. When looking at all the information that is presented, and when compared to a traditional supply chain, I think that the Al-Qaeda does not have an effective supply chain.

Counties in the Middle East that produce most of the world’s oil tend to keep the wealth within the monarchs and dictators. These select few are able to freely spend the millions they have earned just by drilling oil. Citizens of these countries do not pay taxes, and therefore this is no money going towards the betterment of the country as a whole. These counties tend to have no higher education, court systems, or general rights for the citizens. This is known as the “curse of oil”; since most of the counties wealth comes from oil and oil related sales, the rest of the population has not developed any other creative ways to make money. Once the oil runs out, there will be no more money coming into the country. There is no advanced education to provide the general public with tools to support themselves. The country will fail without the oil.