The Movie War Games Inspired President Reagan To Take Cybersecurity Seriously

Updated Dec 1, 2019 6:43 AM EST

On this day, June 3rd, 1983, War Games starring Matthew Broderick hit big screens across the United States. The movie had all the staples of a 1980s Cold War techno-thriller—a super powerful, blunt, and ruthless military-industrial complex, cutting-edge tech way beyond reality for the time, computers and more computers, and of course, ‘super kids’ that play the film’s protagonists and the main problem solvers. The movie actually spoke to an ever more glaring reality of the time, that a major nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union would end in a world-shattering loss of life. The film’s most memorable line, voiced by a computer, underscored just how depraved the stakes were: “The only winning move is not to play.”

At its core, War Games was about hacking and the vulnerability of networks and computers themselves. I mean, the whole plot begins with high school age Matthew Broderick’s character hacking into NORAD’s computer network from his early 1980s personal computer in his bedroom. This cyber vulnerability plot point ended up changing the course of U.S. national security events.

Fred Kaplan, author Dark Territory : The Secret History of Cyber War— also a guy who a Pulitzer Prize for outstanding journalism — recounts how President Reagan’s screening of the film on June 4th, 1983 at Camp David ended up having a major impact on U.S. cybersecurity and defense policy going forward:

Yes, you read that right, the dawn of the U.S. government taking cybersecurity seriously across its entire enterprise, and especially its sprawling strategic command and control infrastructure, was largely born out of the movie War Games . You can read the groundbreaking 1984 directive that came out of the President’s inquiry here . What’s even more intriguing, is that War Games opened just three years to the day of one of the most dangerous moments in the Cold War, when the U.S. thought it was under attack by thousands of Soviet ballistic missiles. The cause of the near-apocalyptic false alarm? A $0.46 computer part.

War Games was a fun, but also a somewhat chilling movie, that unfortunately resonates once again as we sit on the precipice of another potential nuclear arms race . It’s worth another viewing, if only to remind us that sometimes the only way to win the game is to not play it in the first place.

Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com

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更新于美国东部时间2019年12月1日上午6:43

1983年6月3日，由马修·布罗德里克主演的《战争游戏》在美国各大影院上映。这部电影具备了20世纪80年代冷战时期科技惊悚片的全部要素：一个超级强大、冷酷无情的军工复合体，远超当时现实的尖端科技，大量的计算机，当然还有扮演主角和主要问题解决者的“超级少年”。这部电影实际上反映了当时一个日益严峻的现实：与苏联进行大规模核战争将导致世界毁灭性的人员伤亡。影片中最令人难忘的一句台词，由电脑配音，强调了这场战争的残酷程度：“唯一的制胜之道就是不参与。”

《战争游戏》的核心在于黑客攻击以及网络和计算机本身的脆弱性。我的意思是，整个故事始于高中生马修·布罗德里克饰演的角色，用他卧室里那台上世纪80年代初的个人电脑入侵了北美防空司令部（NORAD）的计算机网络。这个网络安全漏洞的情节最终改变了美国国家安全事件的走向。

《黑暗领域：网络战争的秘密历史》的作者弗雷德·卡普兰（同时也是一位获得普利策新闻奖的杰出记者）讲述了里根总统于 1983 年 6 月 4 日在戴维营放映这部电影，最终对美国未来的网络安全和国防政策产生了重大影响：

没错，你没看错，美国政府开始认真对待网络安全，尤其是在其庞大的战略指挥控制基础设施方面，很大程度上要归功于电影《战争游戏》。你可以在这里阅读1984年总统调查后发布的具有里程碑意义的指令。更耐人寻味的是，《战争游戏》上映的日期恰好是冷战时期最危险的时刻之一——美国当时误以为自己遭到了数千枚苏联弹道导弹的攻击——的三年后。而这场几乎酿成世界末日的虚惊的罪魁祸首，竟然是一个价值0.46美元的电脑零件。

《战争游戏》是一部既有趣又令人不寒而栗的电影，不幸的是，在我们再次站在另一场潜在核军备竞赛边缘之际，它再次引起了人们的共鸣。这部电影值得再看一遍，哪怕只是为了提醒我们，有时候赢得游戏的唯一方法就是一开始就不参与。

联系作者：Tyler@thedrive.com

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