The Irish Times: Reeling in the hackers

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0219/1224264787078.html

A new study reveals that the popular film portrayal of computer hackers is actually quite accurate, writes KARLIN LILLINGTON

IF YOU don’t like the idea of a scholarly paper on the trail of hackers in films, then take it up with Damian Gordon’s parents. “I have to blame my parents – the only films we were ever taken to were science fiction and futuristic kinds of films,” says Gordon, a lecturer in computer science at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Gordon has just published his paper, Forty Years of Movie Hacking: Considering the Potential Implications of the Popular Media Representation of Computer Hackers from 1968 to 2008, in the current issue of the International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions.

A self-confessed film buff, he likes to show students clips from such films as a teaching tool because he feels they bring an abstract subject to life and help initiate lively discussions.

“With computer science you’re always trying to explain complex ideas in a clear way. Clips from films can be very useful for that. Any time I can, I try to slip in a film clip.”

In trying to teach his students about security issues, he realised many had misguided notions about what the typical computer hacker is like and where security threats come from.

That set him thinking that perhaps the misperceptions came from the upper trails of hackers in popular culture.

So Gordon set out to compile a list of as many films that featured hacking as he could and came up with 50 – which he realises is not comprehensive and excludes foreign films, but does pick up most Hollywood films since the late 1960s that fit within his criteria outlined in the 29-page paper. He excluded animated films and documentaries, for example.

He included films from as early as 1968 through to 2008, across several genres from science fiction to crime films.

His paper observes a curious dearth of films in the 1970s, just as computing was coming into popular visibility. His theory is that a lifting of censorship rules caused films to focus more on violence and sex.

“Hacking computers was probably too passive and boring,” he laughs.

The aim of his paper “was really to investigate why there is a general public perception that hackers all seem to be teenagers in bedrooms. Lots of books on hacking talk about this, but it is so wrong. Most hackers are around 30 and are computer professionals.

“Being a hacker is really not about sitting alone in a dark bedroom. It has a lot more to do with your interpersonal skills.”

His film findings surprised Gordon just as much as they might surprise others. Far from having public perceptions of hackers shaped by films, he found that the celluloid portrayal of hackers was actually quite accurate – setting aside the unlikelihood of your average female hacker looking like Sandra Bullock or Angelina Jolie.

“It’s devastating to realise that most movies do portray hackers correctly,” he jokes.

First off, he found that the average age of the majority of film hackers was over 25, with only a quarter younger than that. Some 65 per cent were aged between 25 and 50, and only 3 per cent were older than 50, which he thinks is fairly accurate.

As for profession, 32 per cent were portrayed as working in the computer industry, 28 per cent were full-time hackers, 20 per cent were students and 20 per cent worked in other professions.

Gordon notes that this actually meshes fairly closely with reality – one study cited in his paper notes that the average hacker is 27 and either a computer professional or full-time hacker.

Gordon also found that, in the films, about 10 per cent of the hackers were women, which also approximates real-world statistics.

He notes that for some reason there are far more female hackers portrayed on television compared to film. “I’m presuming that’s because men tend to do the action bits on television,” he says.

Two areas in which film deviated from real-world hacking are the number of attacks depicted as coming from outside an organisation rather than being instigated from those inside an organisation, and the portrayal of the intentions of hackers.

In film, only 20 per cent of the attacks are internal, but industry studies suggest the ratio may be closer to 50-50, Gordon notes in his paper.

Also, the vast majority of hackers in films are actually portrayed as the good guys – a huge 73 per cent, with 10 per cent being somewhere in between, and 17 per cent portrayed as bad guys. “I was definitely surprised at the number of films showing hackers in a positive light,” he says.

However, he rather likes this himself, given that the term “hacker” started out as a positive one, referring to people who were highly adept at tinkering with electronics and writing or modifying computer programs. Only much later did the public start to use the term hacker to mean someone with malicious intent.

“I’d like to reclaim the title as a positive one,” says Gordon.

Damian's top five

Top Millions (1968) Peter Ustinov as Marcus Pendleton, a con-man just out of prison. “Really a great movie.”

Tron (1982) Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a former employee of fictional computer company ENCOM. “I adored Tron, and you can never go wrong with Jeff Bridges.”

Superman III (1983) Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) discovers that he has an extraordinary talent for computer programming. “A great salami-slicing attack.”

WarGames (1983) David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) as a high school student who is highly unmotivated at school but is an enthusiastic computer hacker at home. “Fixed in people’s minds the archetype of the young hacker operating from his bedroom.”

Sneakers (1992, Heist) College students Martin Brice (Gary Hershberger) and his friend Cosmo (Jo Marr) use a college computer to hack into banking systems to transfer funds. “Fantastic film”

Star Trek to blame for lack of female Computer Scientists ???

How very interesting, two topics that are very dear to my heart...Star Trek and gender balance in Computer Science...a study has been published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggesting that stereotypical images of computer science (including Star Trek, videogames, junk food, and comic books) create barriers to females from joining the fold, as the decor broadcasts a kind of masculinity. The paper entitled "Ambient belonging: How stereotypical cues impact gender participation in computer science" suggests that these stereotypical images can either create/prevent a sense of (ambient) belonging, and for females they serve as barriers to joining.

I love the debate that this opens; I think it is a very interesting and a very important issue to discuss. I think it is vital we have gender balance in computer science, it is a necessity as fundamental as gravity.

The study in this paper is a good beginning, but that's about it, in it the authors presented students with two computer rooms, one which contained comic books, video-game boxes and junk food, the other room contained nature posters, healthy snacks and general interest books -- given the choice, 82 percent of the women picked the nonstereotypical workroom. In follow-up tests, a total of 215 students were asked to imagine they were joining either a geekily decorated or a neutrally decorated company after graduation. For every possible scenario, women preferred the non-geeky space.

Lead author Sapna Cheryan of the University of Washington suggests that non-stereotypical depictions of computer science, in the media and in classrooms, could help update the field’s image. Now this it seems to me is very, very obvious, and over simplified -- the findings suggest that environment can influence people's comfort level. I accept this, but I think there are a number of larger issues here, such as the way computer education is treated in secondary school as a result of secondary school teachers attitudes to women in science. I think blaming the media is a bit trite, I have previously looked at the representation of computer users in TV and it is clear to me that female computer users are well represented in the media.

I think to make this type of study more useful, the experimental approach needs to be expanded.

First what we need are more longitudinal studies on this issue, the study undertaken in this paper appears to be a very short-term experiment.

And second let's see which of the geeky elements are the problem. Do they work in combination or is there any one element that is key? My view is "let's not eliminate these things (where possible) let's modify them to be more inviting to everyone", So;

• If Star Trek is a parameter, what if the images are of positive female role models in Star Trek, e.g. Captain Janeway or B'Elanna Torres the engineer, would this change things?
  
• If video games are a parameter, let's try ones with more positive female role models in them.
  
• If the issue is junk food let's just get rid of junk food out of computer labs, it's bad for your brain.
  
• If the issue is comic books, can we find comics with positive female role models? like Halo Jones or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
  

Still this is a great paper to start the debate.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091214143728.htm

http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2009-22579-003&CFID=26947242&CFTOKEN=68584354

Harvard study: Computers don't save hospitals money

An interesting article on the benefits (or lack thereof)
of computers for hospitals. It would be interesting to
see a similar study in schools.


http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9141428/Harvard_study_Computers_don_t_save_hospitals_money?taxonomyName=Hardware&taxonomyId=12

Computer Science Related Articles

I've started a new blog;

http://joiningwiththetech.blogspot.com/

in which I will post links to interresting
computer science related articles.

Picasso's Guernica in 3D by Lena Gieseke

Picasso's Guernica is a painting that means a great deal to me,
I have just found a wonderful site that has created a 3D rendering
of Guernica and has movies that focuses in on the individual parts
of the painting, to let you see it in a whole new way, wow !

http://guernica.lena-gieseke.com/

British Government Gives Official Apology to Alan Turing for Homophobia

On Wednesday 9th of September 2009, Gordon Brown issued an apology for Alan Turing's "horrific" treatment.

http://io9.com/5357059/british-government-gives-official-apology-to-alan-turing-for-homophobia

Things I do on my summer holidays

Here are a few work-related things I do over the summer holidays;

• Development of new courses and subjects, to address market needs, and new technologies and methodologies,
• Research, including designing experiments, writing code, interviews, survey, etc.
• Recruitment which can be meeting and interviewing potential students and production of promotional materials,
• Liasing with Industry and government bodies,
• Writing research papers,
• Dealing with student appeals and cases of unfair practice,
• Supervising postgraduate students,
• Applying for research funding,
• Helping organise conferences,
• Reviewing journal papers and drafts of student dissertations,
• Helping students revise for repeat exams,
• Teaching in partner insititutes,
• Development of teaching and assessment materials for next year (so I typically teach 4 courses in Semester 1 and 4 in Semester 2, and rarely get the same courses two years in a row. It typically takes me 2-3 hours to prepare an hour of lecturing for an undergraduate course, and 5-6 hours for a Masters course (you can't exactly make this stuff up on the spot), and as it happens for next year I am going to be teaching subjects on four different Masters courses, so I'm going to have to be working at least 9-5 for a lot of the summer).