[ISN] Bruce Willis thwarts cybergeddon

From: InfoSec News (alerts@private)
Date: Sun Feb 25 2007 - 23:14:39 PST


http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/02/23/die_hard_hacker/

By John Leyden
23 Feb 2007

Bruce Willis will face down cyberterrorists in upcoming blockbuster 
Live Free or Die Hard.

Ex-model turned actress Maggie Q will play an uber-hacker out to bring 
down the US's transport and banking system with a few mouse clicks in 
the forthcoming haxploitation opus.

In an entertaining development, the latest installment of the franchise 
finds Willis's character (John McClane) as a semi-retired, divorced, 
recovering alcoholic working for Homeland Security. He's aided in his 
fight by a whizz-kid hacker he has in custody at the time the 
cyber-attack kicks off.

Without giving away too much of the plot, Willis shoots the bad guys and 
knocks helicopters out of the sky after after his car gets stuck in 
traffic.

Well-known cyber-security myth debunker Rob Rosenberger said the movie 
frightens him, but not for the reasons the film makers are seeking to 
achieve. "I fear this movie will give 'cyber-terrorism' the hysterical 
push it's been waiting for," he told El Reg.

"Remember when the 'Good Times virus alert' spawned a year-long tsunami 
of email mass hysteria? I fear nothing less from this Bruce Willis 
movie. Imagine Richard Clarke, John Arquilla, and D.K. Matai on a 'This 
Week With David Nerdly' where they all scream about the coming 
cybergeddon."

-=-

Bootnote

Two years ago, the National Security Agency stand at the RSA Conference 
in San Francisco featured a video warning about the supposed threat of 
cyberterrorism from Sylvester Stallone.

In a style reminiscent of has-been actor Troy McClure from The Simpsons, 
Sly said viewers might remember him from films such as Rambo where he 
came up against terrorists. A new breed of terrorist was on the loose 
who used computer viruses and hacking techniques, he said, informing 
conference delegates that their businesses were on the front line of 
defending against attack.


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