As with most mainstream media when it comes to complex technological stories, CNN has embarrassed itself in a recent discussion of the alleged hacks that Russia perpetrated against the United States during the recent general election. With a voice clip of outgoing president Obama condemning the Russian attack, CNN showed footage from a Fallout 4 Pip-Boy to illustrate 'hacking.'
Spotted by the ever vigilant eyes of the Reddit user base (props to Poofylicious in this case), the gaff was of course mocked by many, but if we play Devil's Advocate, illustrating hacking is not easy.
A look at any Hollywood movie where hacking takes place and you'll see people feverishly tapping keyboards, bright lights, multiple monitors, lots of weird, visual representations of breaking into something or making your way through a digital landscape.
Which is all rather exciting compared to the reality of tapping away at a terminal or interface.
Hell even us journalists have difficulty in illustrating hacking when there's a story about it. Fortunately in this case we can just show what CNN did, since that's the topic of discussion, but I'll more often than not just use an obvious scene from a hacking movie like Swordfish or Hackers.
What do you think the best visual representation of hacking would be?
