HACK THE PLANET! Your regular hosts Neil (aka Integer Overflow) and Dan (Shoe_Gazer) are taking over the airwaves with special guest Matthew Bretten (Mr Null) to pull apart the most 90s film of all-time. We analyse the visuals, the clothing, the soundtrack and the tech, all of which help to make Hackers a hundred times better than Swordfish.

To keep our critical eyes sharp, we debate whether curiosity was really their only crime, whether the hacks still hold up today, and whether the recycle bin is really a good place to store secure files.

Among the oddities we encounter along the way, we talk about the merits of SWAT teams pointing guns at kids, whether Acid Burn's fencing proficiency is a useful weapon, we get pedantic about RAM, and try to avoid talking about Matthew Lillard at all.

References:

• BBC Future: These unlucky people have names that break computers (Jennifer Null)
• Let's Talk About Tests, Baby
• YouTube: 24 season 4 prequel featuring Alberta Watson (with Jack Bauer swearing)
• YouTube: Doctor Who Max Headroom 1987 broadcast signal intrusion incident
• YouTube: CSI "I'll create a GUI interface using Visual Basic"
• DEF CON hacking conference
• The Official Social Engineering portal
• YouTube: Homer's explanation of nerds
• The top 30 worst Ashley Madison passwords
• TV Tropes: MacGuffin
• YouTube: Dactyl Nightmare (Virtuality VR game which The Plague plays)
• YouTube: Ronnie O'Sullivan fails to play pool in VR
• Wikipedia: RISC architecture
• YouTube: GoldenEye - montage of Boris "I am invincible" scenes
• YouTube: Hackers - the final hack scene (featuring all of the dodgy viruses, and Dade's weird eyepiece)
• Wikipedia: Gary McKinnon
• YouTube: Mr Robot scene which references Hackers
• YouTube: ALF's cameo in Mr Robot's bizarre 80s episode
• YouTube: Urban Dance Squad - Good Grief
• TestBash Manchester 2017
• Meetup: North West Tester Gathering (Manchester)
• Meetup: Liverpool Tester Gathering

Security testing resources from Dan:

• GitHub: Dan's security testing learning repository
• GitHub: Ticket Magpie

YouTube clips for some of the nostalgic name-checking in this episode:

• 1984 (featuring John Hurt)
• Early PowerBook commercial
• Wipeout
• Short Circuit
• Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker
• GamesMaster pilot episode
• Bad Influence pilot episode
• Knightmare pilot episode
• Saved By The Bell credits
• The Net
• Strange Days
• Johnny Mnemonic
• Trainspotting
• Magic Carpet
• Star Wars: Rebel Assault
• The 7th Guest
• Phantasmagoria
• Flashback
• Myst

Our next episode will be a double-header, as we tackle both ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY and STAR WARS EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE to answer the eternal question: Is it a bug, or a feature?

Twitters: @matthewbretten @ScreenTesting @TheTestDoctor @neilstudd

Emails: [email protected]

Intro music: Orbital - Halcyon And On And On Outro music: Squeeze - Heaven Knows