Hacking on Screens and Pages: Pop Culture That Shaped Cybersecurity

Someone sits down at a keyboard, mashes keys for six seconds, and says "I'm in." Every security professional dies a little inside but that scene is probably the reason half of us got into this field.

This episode walks through the movies, TV shows, books, graphic novels, and video games that shaped how we think about cybersecurity. Each pick lands in one of two buckets: the fantastical, the ones that made hacking look cool even when the tech was nonsense and the accurate or semi accurate, the ones that actually got the culture, the tools, and the tedium right or tried to. From Neuromancer to Mr. Robot, from Ghost in the Shell to Hacknet, and from The Cuckoo's Egg to community-built projects like Skadi: Threat Hunter and REKCAH Comics' The Future Is ******, this is a guided tour through the media that built cybersecurity's identity. The episode closes with a five-item starter kit for anyone looking to dive in.

Whether you're new to cybersecurity and looking for a way in, or a veteran who wants to hand someone the right recommendation, this one's your reading, watching, and playing list curated on Plaintext with Rich.

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Transcript

The Fake Hacking Scene Problem

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You've seen it. Someone sits down at a keyboard, green tech starts flying, they mash keys for six seconds, bam, I'm in. And every security professional in the room dies a little inside. But here's the thing that scene, it's probably the reason half of us got into this field. Not because it was accurate, but because it was exciting. Today's episode comes from a listener who asked for a breakdown of my favorite cybersecurity movies, shows, books, comics, and games. I'm expanding on what they did mention, right? So let's do it. Welcome to Plain Text with Rich. We're going to move through five categories graphic novels, books, TV shows, video games, and movies. And for each one, I'm splitting picks into two buckets. The fantastical, right? The ones that don't care about accuracy, they're fun. They got us hooked. They made hacking look cool even when the tech was nonsense. And the accurate to semi-accurate, right? The ones that actually got the details right. The tools, the culture, the tedium, the real thing. Now, some picks shreddle both. And I'll call those out. Now let's start with the most niche category. This is gonna be graphic novels and comics. On the fantastical side, Ghost in the Shell, the manga, right? 1989. Lasumini's Shiro built a world where hacking means diving directly into someone's cybernetic brain. Wildly speculative, but its questions about identity, consciousness, and AI were decades ahead of the curve. It inspired the Matrix, right? An entire anime genre, and the cyberpunk aesthetic we still reference today. What about Barbara Gordon as Oracle in the DC Comics universe? After being paralyzed by the Joker, she became Batman's intelligence and hacking backbone. She ran what was essentially a security operations center for superheroes. One of the first mainstream characters whose superpower was cybersecurity expertise, might I add. Now on the accuracy side, Scotty, Threat Hunter by Chris Cochran and Meryl Vernon. This one hits close to home. It's a graphic novel about a teenage threat hunter who battles malware, hackers, and social awkwardness, like in a vibrant digital world called Cyber City. Now, Chris and Merrill come from the cybersecurity community. I call them friends. They built this to get young people, especially girls, excited about cybersecurity, and it works. Real concepts like botnets, C2 infrastructure, risk prioritization are woven into the story without being patronizing. If you have kids or no kids who are curious about tech, hand them this book. You also have The Future Is Star, Star, Star, Star, Star, right, out by Recca Comics. And if you're curious, yes, Recca is hacker spelled backwards, because of course it is. This is a 60-issue comic series backed by Black Hills Information Security, written by Fred Van Linti with art by Inio Buffy. I probably pronounced that wrong. It follows a team of hackers called Black Mountain fighting data barons and AI overlords in a near future dystopia. Here's what makes it special. Every issue contains actual capture the flag hacking challenges baked into the story. You can do the characters, or you can do the hack that the characters are doing, right? That's awesome. It's Mr. Robot meets interactive fiction meets your local comic shop. They launched in 2025 with a five-year publishing plan. Bold commitment, especially in today's comic landscape. Now moving over to books, and again, we'll start with Fantastical first. Neuromancer by William Gibson came out in 1984. This book coined the word cyberspace, written before the World Wide Web really existed. A washed up hacker pulls one last job in virtual reality. Wildly speculative, but it invented an entire genre. If you haven't read it, consider it almost required cultural literacy for this field. You have Damon by Daniel Suarez. A dead game designer's code triggers an autonomous AI that starts restructuring society. Now, Suarez is a tech console, and the details about botnets, distributed systems, and social engineering are disturbingly plausible for a novel. Now, moving more to the accurate nonfiction, the Cuckoo's Nest, or I'm sorry, The Cuckoo's Nest, great movie. The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll, 1989. An astrometer notices a 75 cent billing discrepancy and traces it to a KGB connected hacker infiltrating U.S. military systems. All true. Stoll essentially invented incident response before the term existed, written in a warm, nerdy, accessible style. This is usually my first recommendation to anyone new to cybersecurity. You have Sandworm by Andy Greenberg, the definitive account of the Russian military hacking group behind Not Petya. That attack caused an estimated$10 billion in damage. And Greenberg follows the investigators who connected the dots. It reads like a thriller. Every word is true. Countdown the Zero Day by Kim Zether, right? The Stuxnet story, how the US and Israel built and deployed the first real cyberweapon targeting physical infrastructure. If you work in operational technology or industrial control systems, this should be required reading. What about TV shows? Well, on the fantastical side, person of interest. It's a ridiculous show. A billionaire builds an AI mass surveillance system, right? Starts as a case of the week procedural, evolves into one of the most thoughtful shows ever made about AI surveillance and competing intelligence. It aired before the Snowden revelations and then suddenly kind of felt really prophetic. Black Mirror, you can't miss Black Mirror. Now, Black Mirror, not a hacking show, but arguably the most influential series in making regular people think about what technology does to us. Start with Shut Up and Dance if you want this cybersecurity angle. Now, looking at it from an accuracy standpoint or semi-accurate standpoint, Mr. Robot, if you only watch one thing from this entire episode, make it this. They hired real penetration testers as consultants, right? The tools on screen are real. And you know, Cali Linux is there, social engineering, actual terminal commands. But what makes it special isn't just the accuracy, it's the way it explores mental health, loneliness, and the psychology of why people hack. I don't think anything really comes close to this one. Halt and Catch Fire, set in the 80s and 90s during the personal computer and really internet revolution. Again, not a hacking show, but but it captures the passion, ethics, and culture of early tech better than a lot of things, criminally underwatched. Video games, uh, fantastical, watchdog series if anybody's ever played it. Open world games where hacking is your weapon. You hack traffic lights, cameras, phones, entire cities from a smartphone. Not remotely realistic, but incredibly fun. One of my all-time personal favorites, hopefully somebody remembers it, Deus X, right? Immersive video open world set in a conspiracy laden cyberpunk future, hacking terminals, reading corporate emails, bypassing security. The original is still considered one of the greatest PC games ever made, and I will stand by that. On the accuracy front, Hacknet, it's a terminal-based simulator where you use real-ish commands, uh port scanning, password cracking, file system navigation in a Unix-like interface. Probably the most accessible, realistic hacking game out there. And if any listener is inspired and wants to try actual hacking or gamified learning instances, check out Sans Skills Quest, right? Look into Tyler Ramsby's hacksmarter.org, hack the box, or try hack me. They're gamified platforms with real tools, right, against real sandbox systems. And that's how many people actually break into their cyber careers. Looking at movies, fantastical. Oh, you knew this one was gonna come up. Hackers. Uh, 1995. The hacking is pure fantasy, right? The 3D file systems are ridiculous, but it captured the attitude and energy of 90s hackers in that culture. I think better than anything before or since, right? Hack the plan still quoted at every DEF CON. The Matrix. Not remotely realistic. And I will say there are some things there that do air towards being realistic, right? The opening scene with Trinity, real in-map output on screen. And no movie has done more to shape the popular image of what a hacker looks like. But it was way outside there, right? From an accuracy standpoint, war games, 1983. My birth year, a kid with modern accident, well, a kid, right, with with a modem accidentally connects to a military supercomputer, right? The war dialing technique was real. This movie literally inspired the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Sneakers, 1992. Phenomenal movie. Highly, highly, highly recommend this, right? Robert Redford leads a pen test team. Social engineering, physical security bypass, cryptographic devices. The team dynamics mirror a real red team, really ahead of its time. Who Am I? A 2014 German film, uh, widely considered by security professionals as the most realistic hacking movie ever made. The social engineering, the tools, the hacker group dynamics, it all rings true. And for documentaries, three quick ones I'll call out. Zero Days, the Stuxnet documentary, pairs perfectly with Countdown to Zero Day. Uh, Citizen Four is the Snowden Leaks filmed in real time, won an Academy Award. The Great Hack, Cambridge Analytica, and what happens when personal data becomes a weapon. Uh, here's your plain text takeaway, right? None of these are perfect. The fantastical stuff exaggerates, the accurate stuff sometimes sacrifices entertainment. But all of it, in its own way, got people thinking about cybersecurity. And that's worth something. If I was to give you a starter kit, here's five. Watch Mr. Robot, read the Cuckoo Zeg, play Hacksnet, pick up Scotty the Threat Hunter, or The Future Is from Wrecca Comics, stream Zero Days. I think that would keep you busy for a while. And I know I miss things, right? So send me your favorites. Email me, DM me, drop them in the comments. Encrypted messages on VAS tapes are also accepted. I read them all and I get back to you. If you enjoyed this episode, I would love for you to share to someone who you think would equally enjoy this episode. This has been Plain Text with Rich. One topic, usually 10 minutes or less. This one is 11 minutes, right? No panic, just good times. See you next time.