Was “Blackhat” Inspired by Any Real-Life Cyber Attacks?
Cyberterrorism is all-too real in today’s world. Every week we read about another company experiencing a data breach, or a huge system interruption caused by someone on the other side of the world. The interconnected nature of everything ameliorates so many elements of our lives that there’s no turning back, but we can expect cyberterrorism to remain a constant.
“Blackhat” is a term for a cyber hacker who has malicious goals, a “whitehat” being the opposite. The term stems from old westerns, where the bad guy always donned a black hat. Michael Mann used one particular real-world cyber attack as the framework for his picture Blackhat (2015), employing the same hacking methods from the attack to kick off the film’s terrorism narrative.
The source was Stuxnet, the computer worm that hit the Natanz Iranian nuclear facility back in 2010, using malware installed through USB drives. Stuxnet is a type of RAT (remote access tool) similar to the one used by the hacker in Mann’s film, where a RAT is also used to infiltrate a nuclear plant.
Several genuine big-time hackers were brought in as consultants on the film to ensure all the hacking was, at least theoretically, possible. One of the consultants was Stephen Watt, a 7-foot tall bodybuilder/hacker who worked at Morgan Stanley before perpetrating a high-profile cybercrime - a likely inspiration for Chris Hemsworth’s character.