He later threatens to have Dade's mother incarcerated with a manufactured criminal record. Determining that Dade did not hack into Ellingson, The Plague sends him a powerful laptop with a request that he join him.
He copies the disk so they have un-tampered evidence. Kate and Cereal Killer ask for Dade's help which he refuses as he has a record. Released on parole, Joey reveals the disk to Phreak who is arrested the next day and informs Kate the disk is hidden in a bathroom at school. After various hacks including canceling Gill's credit cards, creating a personal ad in his name, fabricating a criminal record, and changing his payroll status to "deceased", the duel remains a tie. Joey is arrested and his computer searched, but he had hidden the disk containing the file.ĭade and Kate make a bet, with Dade choosing a date with Kate should he win, and Kate having Dade perform menial computing tasks if she prevails. In fact, The Plague had inserted the "Da Vinci" virus as a red herring to cover for his worm.
Plague realizes the garbage file being downloaded is a worm he himself inserted to defraud Ellingson.Ĭlaiming the file is the code to the "Da Vinci" computer virus that will capsize the company's oil tanker fleet, and pretending the hackers are to blame, he enlists the US Secret Service to recover the file. However, his intrusion has been noticed and brought to the attention of computer security officer Eugene "The Plague" Belford, a former hacker. While downloading a garbage file as proof of his feat, his mother disconnects his computer leaving him with a fragmented file. Dade identifies himself as "Crash Override". On his 18th birthday he hacks into a local television station and changes the broadcast to an episode of The Outer Limits.Īnother hacker handle "Acid Burn" counters Dade's attack. He is banned from computers and touch-tone telephones until he is 18 years old. Made in the s when the Internet was unfamiliar to the general public, it reflects the ideals laid out in the Hacker Manifesto quoted in the film: "This is our world now My crime is that of curiosity. The film follows a group of high school hackers and their involvement in a corporate extortion conspiracy.