"The Net"

[Ray Arachelian]

On Wed, 2 Aug 1995, Timothy C. May wrote:

> The portrayal of her job as a "beta tester," with a couple of Mac screens
> running and lots of MacTCP connections, was well done. In fact, maybe the
> most interesting look at computer screens I've seen. (But maybe I'm
> biased...)

Don't forget the Wolf 3D "beta" she removed the virus out of. :-)  She 
was actually using ResEdit in one of the scenezez, but don't know why 
they kept on flashing all those hex dump black screenz.  After all, all 
they had to do was install MacsBug on the machine and hit the 
programmer's switch...  instant way to show code, and would have been 
even more realistic... (though some would use McNosey or The Debugger 
instead.)

> The cheesy climax, involving a computer virus, was especially egregious.
> But tension has to be gotten somehow, I suppose, and most moviegoers will
> not be terribly excited by the "real stuff." All in all, some good tension.

Except for having the "ESC key" virus travel to the Dept. Of Justice 
mainframe from a Mac (I'd like to see a virus do pull that one off!)  The 
rest was fairly believable to some extent.  The moral of 'The Net' was of 
course that you shouldn't trust your machine's security to some off the 
shelf package 'Gatekeeper.'  Trust only 'Cypherpunk' Brand Software ;-)

She made some very big mistakes in her actions.  First, there are such 
things as backups, she could have convinced her lawyer to go to the DMV 
and force them to restore her records from tape.   Her fingerprints and 
photograph would appear... or more than likely look her up in the paper 
files.  I'm sure she got her first license waay back before they stored 
graphics on machines from the timeframe of the movie, her age, etc.

Shouldn't have been too hard to pull that off.  It may be easy to modify 
a series of computers and alter all records with a full set of back 
doors, but you can't change backups that are in the vaults of a 
government agency that easily. :-)

> Ironically, I saw a second movie the same day..."Under Siege II." It had a
> lot of crypto, as well. Things like "Going secure" on cellphone
> conversations with the Arabs purchasing the terrorist actions.

Things are starting to look up for us if Joe Bloe sees these movies and 
learns about security and crypto -- even if it's by watching movies.

don't forget in the Net, Angela used several cell phones which led 
straight to her even though they were stolen... and of course the bad guy 
was listening in on all her conversations. :-)

Also how did she get into the Moscone Convention Center without a badge; 
I didn't see her swipe one from someone... just snuck right in..

The thing that I liked most about this is the parralel between James 
Gregg and Bill Gates.  :-)  Not quite as obvious and forward as it should 
have been.  All Mac's and no Windoze 95 screens anywhere!!!!  I think 
Bill is well pissed about that.





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=================================================================93=======
 + ^ + |  Gate Keeper    | Amerika: The land of the Freeh. | \-_    _-/  |
  \|/  |mozzart at ghost.com| Where day by day, yet another   |  \  --  /   |
<--+-->|                 | Constitutional right vanishes.  |6 _\-  -/_  6|
  /|\  |    Just Say     |                                 |----\  /---- | 
 + v + | "No" to the NSA!| Jail the censor, not the author!|     \/      |
=======/---------------------------------------------------------VI------/
      /  I watched and weeped as the Exon bill passed, knowing that yet /
     / another freedom vanished before my eyes.  How soon before we see/
    /a full scale dictatorship in the name of decency? While the rest /
   /of_the_world_fights_FOR_freedom,_our_gov'ment_fights_our_freedom_/