FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Tech

Video: The Hacking in 'Skyfall' Was Almost Believable

That's doesn't mean it was correct, but for Hollywood, it's close.

Hacking, in Hollywood terms, is kind of a sexy thing–it's got intrigue, it's got lawbreaking, it's got hidden information and toppling evil regimes and all that. But in real life, the process of hacking anything isn't visually exciting, which is why so much of Hollywood hacking is comically dramatic and often features insane user interfaces.

Skyfall (spoilers from here on, and in the video) used hacking as a prominent plot device, and it did a good job of avoiding hacking minutiae to make the whole process seem more plausible without gussied up shots of some guy typing out rapid-fire code over a yacht rock soundtrack. But was it plausible? According to this surprisingly in-depth video from The Tech Feed, it actually kinda is. Hacker Darren Kitchen explains that the villain Silva could have theoretically blown up the MI6 offices using something akin to the Stuxnet virus, although that would assume that MI6 had made some stunning security errors. But still, at least they did a better job than Hackers.

@derektmead