“Please Read the Article”? Please Cite Women Academics.
Hi all, Over the weekend, journalist Fred Kaplan published an article in the New York Times, entitled "'WarGames' and Cybersecurity's Debt to a Hollywood Hack" ( http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/movies/wargames-and-cybersecuritys-debt-to...). The core argument -- that WarGames culturally influenced the Reagan administration's cyberpolicy -- sounded a great deal like communication scholar Stephanie Ricker Schulte's work. When I brought this reference to Kaplan's attention on Twitter, he was super dismissive and minced my words. So, naturally, I wrote a blog post about the incident, situating it within a broader trend of tech journalists (mostly men) minimizing the work of academics (mostly women), and capitalizing on this sin of omission in promoting their own books and other works: https://merylalper.com/2016/02/22/please-read-the-article-please-cite-women-... I'm really interested to know the thoughts of this community, both as one that knows the history of cyber law/policy inside and out, but one with many members committed to egalitarian principles. Best, Meryl -- *Meryl Alper* Assistant Professor Department of Communication Studies Northeastern University Holmes 217 m.alper@neu.edu merylalper.com
Meryl, Thank you very much for this and for the post that you wrote. I read it earlier in the week, and I was really impressed --both by what you said and the fact that you said it. Best, Marie ______________________ Marie Hicks, Ph.D. Asst. Professor, History of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL USA mariehicks.net | mhicks1@iit.edu | @histoftech On Feb 24, 2016, at 11:27 AM, Meryl Alper <m.alper@neu.edu> wrote: Hi all, Over the weekend, journalist Fred Kaplan published an article in the New York Times, entitled "'WarGames' and Cybersecurity's Debt to a Hollywood Hack" (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/movies/wargames-and-cybersecuritys-debt-to...). The core argument -- that WarGames culturally influenced the Reagan administration's cyberpolicy -- sounded a great deal like communication scholar Stephanie Ricker Schulte's work. When I brought this reference to Kaplan's attention on Twitter, he was super dismissive and minced my words. So, naturally, I wrote a blog post about the incident, situating it within a broader trend of tech journalists (mostly men) minimizing the work of academics (mostly women), and capitalizing on this sin of omission in promoting their own books and other works: https://merylalper.com/2016/02/22/please-read-the-article-please-cite-women-... I'm really interested to know the thoughts of this community, both as one that knows the history of cyber law/policy inside and out, but one with many members committed to egalitarian principles. Best, Meryl -- Meryl Alper Assistant Professor Department of Communication Studies Northeastern University Holmes 217 m.alper@neu.edu merylalper.com _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
Thanks for posting this. I'm very glad to have the link to Schulte's interesting article. Reading it side by side with Kaplan's piece raises a few issues for me, however, about what sort of due diligence can be reasonably expected in a diverse and fragmented field with intense policy interest. I review a lot of cybersecurity scholarship, most of it in the international relations field but some elsewhere. I think scholars of all stripes do a pretty poor job of covering the waterfront in their literature reviews, yet I also have to temper my expectations given the extreme multi-disciplinary nature of the topic. Adequate coverage of IR, law, economics, computer science, mathematics, communications, STS, computer history, etc. would require a book length essay. The new Journal of Cybersecurity is a valiant effort to bring some of these fields together, but it will be a while before we start seeing cross citations even in those pages. This field has not settled into a stable set of debates and doesn't have much of a cannon--I think the bibliometrics would show a pretty diffuse web rather than a number of common core citations. There is a ton of redundancy and wheel reinvention as different scholars in different fields rediscover the paradoxes, puzzles, and exaggerations rife in cybersecurity. Despite years of work in this area, I am routinely surprised (or chagrined) to discover important articles that have been out for a while. Not only had I not heard of Schulte's article, I had not even heard of _Television and New Media_. Maybe this is an important journal in communications, or maybe it is obscure, I don't know. I do know that I have read articles by communications scholars that make no mention to work in IR journals like _Security Studies_ or _Journal of Strategic Studies_ that is germane to the topic.Schulte, for example, makes no citation to the abundant work on cybersecurity in the defence analysis community that covers her time period; but then, why should she? I am reticent to criticize since it is hard enough to be thorough and up to date in one's own field, and maybe the audiences do not overlap. Thus I tend to focus more on the logic of arguments rather than the pedigree of argumentation, but I also realize this is a peculiar bias of IR as opposed to, say, diplomatic history. Given that scholars do a poor job getting outside their discipline, what should be our standard for journalists? What citations should we expect in their books, much less short form essays? What allowance should be made for discoveries and interpretations that happen in parallel? I'm not sure the "scoop" in scholarship or journalism has the same unified meaning when audiences and sources are so fragmented and complex. Going specifically to Kaplan and Schulte's texts, I don't really see the overlap. Schulte is talking about the general cultural influence of WarGames. It's not clear that she is making a causal argument that policymakers were influenced by WarGames and made policy they would not have, or whether WarGames just provided some instrumentally useful content to discuss emerging security issues. Kaplan by contrast is talking about a rather specific incident where Regan viewed the movie and asked a question, and then about a specific policy document. Schulte mentions neither of these. Kaplan's causal argument is also ambiguous, and he points to the fact that the same individual was an influence in prior policy in this area and the plot of WarGames. But Schulte doesn't talk about that either. Kaplan, on the other hand, is not making the general cultural argument that Schulte does, but is rather looking at the history of specific policies. Even the side-by-side quotes that Meryl Alper pulls seem to me to be talking about different things. There is a family resemblance in that both are talking about the relationship between WarGames and security policy. There is no doubt that Kaplan's book would be enriched by a citation to Schulte's work. I also am willing to bet that there are other authors that have linked the WarGames meme to defense policy debates before Schulte--I'm thinking potentially of Martin Libicki, but I would have to check. However, I don't see them as similar enough to require any mutual citation, as nice as that might be, and certainly not in Kaplan's short form essay. The spontaneous discovery from different pathways is eminently plausible here, and, moreover, the discoveries are in fact of a different quality. Let me be clear, the Twitter exchange that followed is a different issue, and Kaplan seems to merit some criticism there. I am just talking about the two texts here, and the tenuous relationship between them. This does not seem to be in the same category as the Medina-Morozov overlap. I also want to be clear that I am not discounting the reality of gendered bias in borrowing and giving credit. That is a real issue. But here, in the articles, not the Twitter exchange, the complexity and heterogeneity of the topic appears to be a major mitigating factor. Thanks very much for raising this important issue. This is clearly a general problem for computing history, and historiography. Best, Jon Jon R. Lindsay Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Global Affairs University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs 1-416-946-8866 www.jonrlindsay.com On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 12:27 PM, Meryl Alper <m.alper@neu.edu> wrote:
Hi all,
Over the weekend, journalist Fred Kaplan published an article in the New York Times, entitled "'WarGames' and Cybersecurity's Debt to a Hollywood Hack" ( http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/movies/wargames-and-cybersecuritys-debt-to...).
The core argument -- that WarGames culturally influenced the Reagan administration's cyberpolicy -- sounded a great deal like communication scholar Stephanie Ricker Schulte's work. When I brought this reference to Kaplan's attention on Twitter, he was super dismissive and minced my words. So, naturally, I wrote a blog post about the incident, situating it within a broader trend of tech journalists (mostly men) minimizing the work of academics (mostly women), and capitalizing on this sin of omission in promoting their own books and other works: https://merylalper.com/2016/02/22/please-read-the-article-please-cite-women-...
I'm really interested to know the thoughts of this community, both as one that knows the history of cyber law/policy inside and out, but one with many members committed to egalitarian principles.
Best, Meryl
-- *Meryl Alper* Assistant Professor Department of Communication Studies Northeastern University Holmes 217 m.alper@neu.edu merylalper.com
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
Thank you for this, Meryl. I have posted this on the Yale ISP mail list - which means hundreds of affiliated fellows will at least know about this! 'Best, -Ramesh --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramesh Subramanian, Ph.D. Gabriel Ferrucci Professor of Computer Information Systems Quinnipiac University Hamden, CT 06518. Phone: 203-582-5276 Email:rameshs@quinnipiac.edu Web: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/about/directory/faculty-detail/?Dept=16&Person=23345 & Fellow, Yale Law School - Information Society Project New Haven, CT 06511 Email: ramesh.subramanian@yale.edu Web: http://www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/9841.htm ________________________________ From: Members [members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] on behalf of Meryl Alper [m.alper@neu.edu] Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2016 12:27 PM To: members@lists.sigcis.org Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] “Please Read the Article”? Please Cite Women Academics. Hi all, Over the weekend, journalist Fred Kaplan published an article in the New York Times, entitled "'WarGames' and Cybersecurity's Debt to a Hollywood Hack" (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/movies/wargames-and-cybersecuritys-debt-to-a-hollywood-hack.html?_r=0<https://websitecheck.quinnipiac.edu/canit/urlproxy.php?_q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5ueXRpbWVzLmNvbS8yMDE2LzAyLzIxL21vdmllcy93YXJnYW1lcy1hbmQtY3liZXJzZWN1cml0eXMtZGVidC10by1hLWhvbGx5d29vZC1oYWNrLmh0bWw%2FX3I9MA%3D%3D&_r=cXVpbm5pcGlhYy1lZHU%3D>). The core argument -- that WarGames culturally influenced the Reagan administration's cyberpolicy -- sounded a great deal like communication scholar Stephanie Ricker Schulte's work. When I brought this reference to Kaplan's attention on Twitter, he was super dismissive and minced my words. So, naturally, I wrote a blog post about the incident, situating it within a broader trend of tech journalists (mostly men) minimizing the work of academics (mostly women), and capitalizing on this sin of omission in promoting their own books and other works: https://merylalper.com/2016/02/22/please-read-the-article-please-cite-women-academics/<https://websitecheck.quinnipiac.edu/canit/urlproxy.php?_q=aHR0cHM6Ly9tZXJ5bGFscGVyLmNvbS8yMDE2LzAyLzIyL3BsZWFzZS1yZWFkLXRoZS1hcnRpY2xlLXBsZWFzZS1jaXRlLXdvbWVuLWFjYWRlbWljcy8%3D&_r=cXVpbm5pcGlhYy1lZHU%3D> I'm really interested to know the thoughts of this community, both as one that knows the history of cyber law/policy inside and out, but one with many members committed to egalitarian principles. Best, Meryl -- Meryl Alper Assistant Professor Department of Communication Studies Northeastern University Holmes 217 m.alper@neu.edu<mailto:m.alper@neu.edu> merylalper.com<https://websitecheck.quinnipiac.edu/canit/urlproxy.php?_q=aHR0cDovL21lcnlsYWxwZXIuY29t&_r=cXVpbm5pcGlhYy1lZHU%3D>
Thank you for sharing this article and your response, Prof. Alper, and for bringing this issue to wider attention. --Andrew -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Andrew Meade McGee Corcoran Department of History University of Virginia PO Box 400180 - Nau Hall Charlottesville, VA 22904 On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 5:21 PM, Subramanian, Ramesh Prof. < Ramesh.Subramanian@quinnipiac.edu> wrote:
Thank you for this, Meryl. I have posted this on the Yale ISP mail list - which means hundreds of affiliated fellows will at least know about this!
'Best, -Ramesh
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramesh Subramanian, Ph.D. Gabriel Ferrucci Professor of Computer Information Systems Quinnipiac University Hamden, CT 06518. Phone: 203-582-5276 Email:rameshs@quinnipiac.edu Web: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/about/directory/faculty-detail/?Dept=16&Person=23345 & Fellow, Yale Law School - Information Society Project New Haven, CT 06511 Email: ramesh.subramanian@yale.edu Web: http://www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/9841.htm ________________________________ From: Members [members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] on behalf of Meryl Alper [m.alper@neu.edu] Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2016 12:27 PM To: members@lists.sigcis.org Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] “Please Read the Article”? Please Cite Women Academics.
Hi all,
Over the weekend, journalist Fred Kaplan published an article in the New York Times, entitled "'WarGames' and Cybersecurity's Debt to a Hollywood Hack" ( http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/movies/wargames-and-cybersecuritys-debt-to... < https://websitecheck.quinnipiac.edu/canit/urlproxy.php?_q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5ueXRpbWVzLmNvbS8yMDE2LzAyLzIxL21vdmllcy93YXJnYW1lcy1hbmQtY3liZXJzZWN1cml0eXMtZGVidC10by1hLWhvbGx5d29vZC1oYWNrLmh0bWw%2FX3I9MA%3D%3D&_r=cXVpbm5pcGlhYy1lZHU%3D
).
The core argument -- that WarGames culturally influenced the Reagan administration's cyberpolicy -- sounded a great deal like communication scholar Stephanie Ricker Schulte's work. When I brought this reference to Kaplan's attention on Twitter, he was super dismissive and minced my words. So, naturally, I wrote a blog post about the incident, situating it within a broader trend of tech journalists (mostly men) minimizing the work of academics (mostly women), and capitalizing on this sin of omission in promoting their own books and other works: https://merylalper.com/2016/02/22/please-read-the-article-please-cite-women-... < https://websitecheck.quinnipiac.edu/canit/urlproxy.php?_q=aHR0cHM6Ly9tZXJ5bGFscGVyLmNvbS8yMDE2LzAyLzIyL3BsZWFzZS1yZWFkLXRoZS1hcnRpY2xlLXBsZWFzZS1jaXRlLXdvbWVuLWFjYWRlbWljcy8%3D&_r=cXVpbm5pcGlhYy1lZHU%3D
I'm really interested to know the thoughts of this community, both as one that knows the history of cyber law/policy inside and out, but one with many members committed to egalitarian principles.
Best, Meryl
-- Meryl Alper Assistant Professor Department of Communication Studies Northeastern University Holmes 217 m.alper@neu.edu<mailto:m.alper@neu.edu> merylalper.com< https://websitecheck.quinnipiac.edu/canit/urlproxy.php?_q=aHR0cDovL21lcnlsYWxwZXIuY29t&_r=cXVpbm5pcGlhYy1lZHU%3D
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
I’ve been reading this discussion with great interest. I hope people don’t mind if I go off track and share some impressions I have of the film War Games as it related to my own work. The first is that you can see from the photo that Matthew Broderick is hacking into NORAD through an IMSAI 8080 computer. The IMSAI was basically a clone of the Altair, only with a decent power supply. The few Altairs that I ever saw in use typically had an external power supply bolted on, as the original power supply was not up to the demands placed on it. If indeed he could hack into NORAD with an 8-bit IMSAI, that was a heck-of-a programming job! After the movie came out, Ed Fredkin, a Cambridge, Mass. computer pioneer, told me that his colleagues would come up to him and say, “I am so sorry to hear about your son.” People thought that he was the inspiration for Prof. Falken, since Fredkin owned an island. But Fredkin never lost a son, he was not a recluse but quite accessible, and it is much more likely that Claude Shannon, not Fredkin, was the inspiration for Falken (note the scene where Broderick goes to the library & looks up a cover story of a Scientific American article—Shannon published just such an cover story, on mazes, I think). Shannon was a bit of a recluse. I had to order Schulte’s paper from Interlibrary Loans, so I haven’t had a chance yet to read it. However, in the abstract, she talks about the “internet” in War Games. Is that right? I don’t recall Broderick using the “internet” to hack into NORAD, but I could have missed it. In 1984, with the IMSAI, he probably did not have internet access. Of course, there’s the internet, and there’s the “Internet.” See Quarterman’s book on “The Matrix” for more on this. I am having your blog post forwarded to Larry Lasker, through a mutual friend. Let’s see if he responds! As I said, I do not mean to ignore the important issues brought up by Meryl & others. It was just that reading about War Games brought back a flood of memories of the 8-bit world in those days. Paul Ceruzzi Paul Ceruzzi ceruzzip@si.edu<mailto:ceruzzip@si.edu> 202-633-2414 From: Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Meryl Alper Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2016 2:42 PM To: members@lists.sigcis.org Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] “Please Read the Article”? Please Cite Women Academics. Hi all, Over the weekend, journalist Fred Kaplan published an article in the New York Times, entitled "'WarGames' and Cybersecurity's Debt to a Hollywood Hack" (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/movies/wargames-and-cybersecuritys-debt-to...). The core argument -- that WarGames culturally influenced the Reagan administration's cyberpolicy -- sounded a great deal like communication scholar Stephanie Ricker Schulte's work. When I brought this reference to Kaplan's attention on Twitter, he was super dismissive and minced my words. So, naturally, I wrote a blog post about the incident, situating it within a broader trend of tech journalists (mostly men) minimizing the work of academics (mostly women), and capitalizing on this sin of omission in promoting their own books and other works: https://merylalper.com/2016/02/22/please-read-the-article-please-cite-women-... I'm really interested to know the thoughts of this community, both as one that knows the history of cyber law/policy inside and out, but one with many members committed to egalitarian principles. Best, Meryl -- Meryl Alper Assistant Professor Department of Communication Studies Northeastern University Holmes 217 m.alper@neu.edu<mailto:m.alper@neu.edu> merylalper.com<http://merylalper.com>
Hello all-- Paul, your instinct is right regarding the use of the lowercase-i "internet" in Schulte's book. She is principally concerned with the everyday use of "internet" as it is understood and discussed in popular culture rather than the particular family of networks running TCP/IP. (The subtitle of Cached is "Decoding the Internet in Global Popular Culture.") Her book makes a compelling case that early representation of computers and networks in films like WarGames shaped how non-specialists, including policy-makers, would later make sense of the information infrastructures being assembled around them. As to the fictional exploits of young Broderick, there is no packet-switched Internet. Just the plain old telephone service. Broderick's character finds NORAD by accident while "war-dialing" for a computer game company [1]. Otherwise, his on-screen hacking is limited to social engineering [2]. That underpowered IMSAI wasn't brute forcing any passwords-- just shuttling characters from the modem to the display. :) [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb1r_uKOew4 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UqEg1cFqig Big thanks to Meryl for opening up this important and engaging discussion! Kevin Driscoll On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 2:23 PM, Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu> wrote:
I’ve been reading this discussion with great interest. I hope people don’t mind if I go off track and share some impressions I have of the film War Games as it related to my own work.
The first is that you can see from the photo that Matthew Broderick is hacking into NORAD through an IMSAI 8080 computer. The IMSAI was basically a clone of the Altair, only with a decent power supply. The few Altairs that I ever saw in use typically had an external power supply bolted on, as the original power supply was not up to the demands placed on it. If indeed he could hack into NORAD with an 8-bit IMSAI, that was a heck-of-a programming job!
After the movie came out, Ed Fredkin, a Cambridge, Mass. computer pioneer, told me that his colleagues would come up to him and say, “I am so sorry to hear about your son.” People thought that he was the inspiration for Prof. Falken, since Fredkin owned an island. But Fredkin never lost a son, he was not a recluse but quite accessible, and it is much more likely that Claude Shannon, not Fredkin, was the inspiration for Falken (note the scene where Broderick goes to the library & looks up a cover story of a Scientific American article—Shannon published just such an cover story, on mazes, I think). Shannon was a bit of a recluse.
I had to order Schulte’s paper from Interlibrary Loans, so I haven’t had a chance yet to read it.
However, in the abstract, she talks about the “internet” in War Games. Is that right? I don’t recall Broderick using the “internet” to hack into NORAD, but I could have missed it. In 1984, with the IMSAI, he probably did not have internet access. Of course, there’s the internet, and there’s the “Internet.” See Quarterman’s book on “The Matrix” for more on this.
I am having your blog post forwarded to Larry Lasker, through a mutual friend. Let’s see if he responds!
As I said, I do not mean to ignore the important issues brought up by Meryl & others. It was just that reading about War Games brought back a flood of memories of the 8-bit world in those days.
Paul Ceruzzi
Paul Ceruzzi
ceruzzip@si.edu
202-633-2414
*From:* Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] *On Behalf Of *Meryl Alper *Sent:* Wednesday, February 24, 2016 2:42 PM *To:* members@lists.sigcis.org *Subject:* [SIGCIS-Members] “Please Read the Article”? Please Cite Women Academics.
Hi all,
Over the weekend, journalist Fred Kaplan published an article in the New York Times, entitled "'WarGames' and Cybersecurity's Debt to a Hollywood Hack" ( http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/movies/wargames-and-cybersecuritys-debt-to...).
The core argument -- that WarGames culturally influenced the Reagan administration's cyberpolicy -- sounded a great deal like communication scholar Stephanie Ricker Schulte's work. When I brought this reference to Kaplan's attention on Twitter, he was super dismissive and minced my words. So, naturally, I wrote a blog post about the incident, situating it within a broader trend of tech journalists (mostly men) minimizing the work of academics (mostly women), and capitalizing on this sin of omission in promoting their own books and other works: https://merylalper.com/2016/02/22/please-read-the-article-please-cite-women-...
I'm really interested to know the thoughts of this community, both as one that knows the history of cyber law/policy inside and out, but one with many members committed to egalitarian principles.
Best, Meryl
--
*Meryl Alper*
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Studies
Northeastern University
Holmes 217
m.alper@neu.edu
merylalper.com
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
Colleagues - You may find this interview that I conducted with Stephanie Ricker Schulte of interest, on the occasion of the publication of her book. http://illusionofvolition.com/2013/04/19/how-about-a-nice-game-of-chess-an-i... Best, Sarah --- S a r a h T. R o b e r t s, P h. D. Assistant Professor Faculty of Information and Media Studies (FIMS) Western University http://fims.uwo.ca/index.htm Blogging periodically at http://illusionofvolition.com
On Feb 25, 2016, at 3:11 PM, Kevin Driscoll <kdriscoll@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
Hello all--
Paul, your instinct is right regarding the use of the lowercase-i "internet" in Schulte's book. She is principally concerned with the everyday use of "internet" as it is understood and discussed in popular culture rather than the particular family of networks running TCP/IP. (The subtitle of Cached is "Decoding the Internet in Global Popular Culture.") Her book makes a compelling case that early representation of computers and networks in films like WarGames shaped how non-specialists, including policy-makers, would later make sense of the information infrastructures being assembled around them.
As to the fictional exploits of young Broderick, there is no packet-switched Internet. Just the plain old telephone service. Broderick's character finds NORAD by accident while "war-dialing" for a computer game company [1]. Otherwise, his on-screen hacking is limited to social engineering [2]. That underpowered IMSAI wasn't brute forcing any passwords-- just shuttling characters from the modem to the display. :)
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb1r_uKOew4 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UqEg1cFqig
Big thanks to Meryl for opening up this important and engaging discussion!
Kevin Driscoll
On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 2:23 PM, Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu> wrote: I’ve been reading this discussion with great interest. I hope people don’t mind if I go off track and share some impressions I have of the film War Games as it related to my own work.
The first is that you can see from the photo that Matthew Broderick is hacking into NORAD through an IMSAI 8080 computer. The IMSAI was basically a clone of the Altair, only with a decent power supply. The few Altairs that I ever saw in use typically had an external power supply bolted on, as the original power supply was not up to the demands placed on it. If indeed he could hack into NORAD with an 8-bit IMSAI, that was a heck-of-a programming job!
After the movie came out, Ed Fredkin, a Cambridge, Mass. computer pioneer, told me that his colleagues would come up to him and say, “I am so sorry to hear about your son.” People thought that he was the inspiration for Prof. Falken, since Fredkin owned an island. But Fredkin never lost a son, he was not a recluse but quite accessible, and it is much more likely that Claude Shannon, not Fredkin, was the inspiration for Falken (note the scene where Broderick goes to the library & looks up a cover story of a Scientific American article—Shannon published just such an cover story, on mazes, I think). Shannon was a bit of a recluse.
I had to order Schulte’s paper from Interlibrary Loans, so I haven’t had a chance yet to read it.
However, in the abstract, she talks about the “internet” in War Games. Is that right? I don’t recall Broderick using the “internet” to hack into NORAD, but I could have missed it. In 1984, with the IMSAI, he probably did not have internet access. Of course, there’s the internet, and there’s the “Internet.” See Quarterman’s book on “The Matrix” for more on this.
I am having your blog post forwarded to Larry Lasker, through a mutual friend. Let’s see if he responds!
As I said, I do not mean to ignore the important issues brought up by Meryl & others. It was just that reading about War Games brought back a flood of memories of the 8-bit world in those days.
Paul Ceruzzi
Paul Ceruzzi
ceruzzip@si.edu
202-633-2414
From: Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Meryl Alper Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2016 2:42 PM To: members@lists.sigcis.org Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] “Please Read the Article”? Please Cite Women Academics.
Hi all,
Over the weekend, journalist Fred Kaplan published an article in the New York Times, entitled "'WarGames' and Cybersecurity's Debt to a Hollywood Hack" (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/movies/wargames-and-cybersecuritys-debt-to...).
The core argument -- that WarGames culturally influenced the Reagan administration's cyberpolicy -- sounded a great deal like communication scholar Stephanie Ricker Schulte's work. When I brought this reference to Kaplan's attention on Twitter, he was super dismissive and minced my words. So, naturally, I wrote a blog post about the incident, situating it within a broader trend of tech journalists (mostly men) minimizing the work of academics (mostly women), and capitalizing on this sin of omission in promoting their own books and other works: https://merylalper.com/2016/02/22/please-read-the-article-please-cite-women-...
I'm really interested to know the thoughts of this community, both as one that knows the history of cyber law/policy inside and out, but one with many members committed to egalitarian principles.
Best, Meryl
--
Meryl Alper
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Studies
Northeastern University
Holmes 217
m.alper@neu.edu
merylalper.com
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_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
participants (8)
-
Andrew Meade McGee -
Ceruzzi, Paul -
Jon Lindsay -
Kevin Driscoll -
M. Hicks -
Meryl Alper -
Sarah T. Roberts -
Subramanian, Ramesh Prof.