Module 11

                                                                                           Module 11

For this week the class had to review a film related to computers and write about it. I decided to watch again Live Free of Die Hard. I actually like all the die hard movies but this one is one of my favorites.The assignment is just to explain how the computers were used in the movie.

In this movie the F.B.I. is investigating a computer outage at their cyber-security division. They start tracing  the hackers responsible for this and they find out that most of them have been killed. The F.B.I decide to take the rest of the hackers into custody. This is when they ask detective John McLane to collect Matt Farrell because he was the closest officer available to Matt's location.

 McLane picks up Matt in time for him not be killed by assassins hired by the terrorist Matt was unknowingly working for named Gabriel. Matt explains McLane he was hired along with other hackers to find a code for a large amount of money but they didn't knew who was their boss.

When they get to D.C. there is chaos everywhere because Gabriel has taken over the transportation and stock market, he also broadcast a message threatening the United States and a broadcast showing a fake explosion of the capitol building.  Matt recognizes this as the start of an and attack designed to target the nation and explains that to McLane. They later find out that Gabriel was a top expert hacker for the U.S Defense Department  and was fired when he tried to show the head of the department about the vulnerability of America if there was a cyber-warfare.

While the movie keeps going we discover that Gabriel plan was to take over a National Security Agency building facility where all personal data and financial records of the United States were going to be saved in case of a cyber-security emergency, this security system was created after 9/11. We also find out that Gabriel was the one who created the program,that is why he knew all the information was going to be there and why he created all this chaos, to create the illusion of an emergency and activate the download. During the movie we can see how just with a few clicks Gabriel and his crew take over not only computers by changing the traffic lights or turning down all lights of the city but also how they could hurt people and control their lives by erasing their savings accounts,401k and trying to kill anyone that interferes with his plan.

I think in this movie the use of computers is very realistic, I don’t think every hacker is going to send an F-5 to kill you but I believe that someone with knowledge can hack into the transportation system or any other system and create a disaster. Now a days there is a lot that can be made from your computer if you have the tools, you don’t even need to be as smart as the bad guy in this movie, you can learn how to hack or override something from YouTube. I think there is a lot of movies out there that shows us how much power we have given to computers in our lives and how things can go wrong from it.