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Comment by CrulesAll | Hacker News Reader

A friend of mine that was in Desert Storm taught me this. Of course, he was on the other side

One of my favourites. Great cast.

Kingsley and Redford on the roof: "There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information"

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They're not on the roof for that scene; they're in his office, using the computer room's air conditioning as a sound mask (and using a Cray Y-MP as a bench). While the movie takes some very early-90s liberties with technology (especially the scene where they use the chip), it's remarkably respectful of hacking -- there's a stronger emphasis on social engineering then the purely technical, and my "head canon" is that the chip itself is a quantum chip capable of breaking any then-known encryption.

No, the roof: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk0Mzci2Sks

I'm thinking of the scene where they talk about the corrupting influence of money: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifJMFqSV7ic

I love the way you confidently relied on your 80s film trivia memory to correct someone online without double checking. Im not being sarcastic its kinda cool.

Sneakers is from 1992.

Thus the “late 80’ies”…

early nineties ?

Extreeemely late eighties

Nineteen eighty twelve.

1992, the year that was late to the 80's

The 80s ended in September 1991. One week “Use Your Illusion” was released, which meant it was still the 80s then. The following week “Nevermind” was released, so obviously the 90s started sometime during that week.

This is terrific, I’m totally stealing this line to drop at my next dinner party.

We have already established that not double checking is kinda cool.

For the first time in 10 years it looks like one of my comments has been flagged. And it was about 80s trivia. I love this crazy world.

Anyone interested in learning more about social engineering should check out "The Art of" books by legendary hacker Kevin Mitnick.

Or… sticking to the theme…

The Old Man and the Gun

… another great film by Redford, about an elderly man who leans on his charisma and confidence to rob banks. Based on a true story.

Or... The Sting!

Back when Social Engineering meant wearing a hell of a suit and dodging the 'Bunco Squad'. All the elements are there: Greed, Scarcity, a sense of urgency, all legitimised by the leveraging of Social "proof".

If it was remade today there'd be a good chance Redford would find Newman's character down on his luck running facebook ads for crypto scams featuring AI videos of prominent celebrities.

So much so that it arguably accelerated the introduction of the Clipper Chip by unimaginative spooks only a year later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip

For me the biggest Hollywood liberty taken is the beautiful ASCII Colourized UIs for federal agencies and ATC that they reveal with the decrypt!

> it's remarkably respectful of hacking

This is one of my favorite things about the movie, and why I always recommended it to my security friends.

It's also remarkably respectful of Bay Area geography -- they got the major bridges right. None of that Dustin Hoffman going the wrong way on the Bay Bridge stuff.

Seeing as this is considered remarkable by some people, it makes me want to watch a compilation of all movie scenes that were an insult to Bay Area geography. There should be a channel someplace, where each video is a compilation of a different city/landmark.

Totally, one of my dogs favorite stops on our walk is that plaza where they met the "NSA agents"

Only a handful of scenes were shot in the Bay Area:

- https://filminglocations.fandom.com/wiki/Sneakers

- https://www.set-jetter.com/ontheset/sneakers

> breaking any then-known encryption

(Also from fuzzy memory) Any then-known Western encryption. The chip was supposedly useless on Soviet/Russian encryption techniques, thus emphasizing who exactly the chip was meant to be used against.

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