BitTorrent Crash Linked to Military Satellite Hack
Written by enigmax on December 19, 2008When you want to get a precious cargo moved in a cool way in a Hollywood movie, look no further than Frank Martin, aka The Transporter. When you want to get precious stuff from A to B over the Internet, the ‘cool’ way is by using BitTorrent. But did you know you can hack a military satellite with it in seconds?
There can be no denying it, there is a definite link between BitTorrent and movies. The movie industry has been at war with the famous protocol from the instant it realized that its not just Linux distros it can effectively shift around the Internet. When it comes to large files, BitTorrent is the delivery king.
But what if you want to move a precious cargo around in a Hollywood fantasy world? What if you needed a method of getting something from A to B, using a person who is as content agnostic as BitTorrent? Well, you could try to hire Jason Statham’s character in The Transporter movies. Now in his third outing, Frank Martin is a driver/courier who specializes in getting things from A to B while asking few questions. Some of his guidelines would please many BitTorrent fans, especially the “no names” and “don’t look in the envelope” rules, but sadly, not everything is sunny in torrent world.
In his latest movie, Transporter 3, Frank has to work with a human cargo – the rather attractive daughter of a Ukranian minister, previously kidnapped by the bad guys – and take her from France to Odessa. But this is TorrentFreak, so at this point you weren’t expecting a movie review, but something about BitTorrent.
A few minutes after the hour mark, the true evil of the bad guys becomes apparent. At the order of the chief baddie, an operative is told to “hack into a military satellite”, which he achieves in just a few seconds and, as is compulsory when anyone in Hollywood hacks a computer or cracks a code, the camera swings to a computer screen as rows and rows of complicated-looking text rolls by, dramatizing the process.
It seems that an old Mac version of the BitTorrent Mainline client, developed by BitTorrent Inc., is used to hack the satellite. Unfortunately, or perhaps part of the process – it crashed immediately.
Concerned at this nefarious use of our favorite technology, we contacted the person responsible for this piece of technology, to find out what on earth is going on. In response to the report, Andrew Lowenstern, the developer of the old client noted: “Clearly, the technical consultants for Transporter 3 have good taste in obsolete BT clients. You can see they created that crash report themselves since it says the exception type is a breakpoint.”
It’s disappointing that a movie as realistic as Transporter 3 has been let down by a lack of technical accuracy, especially when the storyline and acting were of the highest calibre, and the stunts so believable ;)
Nevertheless, great fun!
Previously: RIAA Stops Lawsuits, But Not the Threats
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57 Responses
It dosent matter what the actor/actress is doing when it comes to computers in movies,as long as they make it seem so complicated the average person could never understand. Actually I just hacked into UFO spaceships right now with Utorrent.
Of course, movies are never concerned with physical accuracy. For example, someone could fall down the Niagara falls for a full 30 seconds and still not reach the bottom.
Roze
You silly movie stealers.
Did you not realise that all recent screeners have ‘comedy’ like this added by the studios?
Each screen with bittorrent on it is slightly different, catching the leakers!
Check them out frame by frame and prrove me wrong. You will be suprised!
is there any way we can sue them for unlawfully using the client? lol
Dont know, feels like all news and blog posts on the net today has lost its “shine”… after the big news of the RIAA throwing in the towel.
I find myself sitting by my window and looking out for hours… trying to spot some of those pigs flying :))
Where are those naysayers who said the industry would crush us? we cant fight them… blah de blah de blah.
Its not a 100% win of course because those scum still exist and have just changed tactics… but just a matter of time.
Peace all.
Wonder what they were downloading at the time… Transporter 2 (2005) DVDrip :-)
I will download this movie from BitTorrent.
I think the movie was accurate in its depiction of the use of bitTorrent as a h4x device, since in this reality, you can use the air from tires of a car to float the car up to the surface…by releasing it from the tires and catching it in a bag…
Then again the movie was complete bullshit and you trying to link bittorent with anything related to it make this blog fail as well.
BitTorrent is for lowlifes.
“blah de blah de blah”
lol
@1 …. So I guess you’re using ufoTorrent?
I will hack the internet… all of it
All the transporter films are rubbish.
Statham’s acting isn’t strong enough for a lead role. Come on Jason give us something worth paying for.
;0}
This is a robbery. Give me all of your internets!
Maybe the bad guys were hired to stop the military from seeding?
i fingered my daughter for hollywood but i am yet to see the cheque
“It’s disappointing that a movie as realistic as Transporter 3″ lol wut?
@h33t You did WHAT to your daughter?
WORST MOVIE EVER – and the Audi stays in tact without a scratch the whole time – quote: “It’s disappointing that a movie as realistic as Transporter 3..” [made me puke]…WTF!?
Seems you (author) didn’t watch this movie OR you’ve got a damn lame taste IMO.
They just wanted some advanced looking scary text hackary looking program that people would not understand. I think they went with bittorrent as a joke for those few that does notice it and does understand. :)
Sarcasm maybe?
Just a thought….
KUDOS #9
I still believe that by far the best fake “hack” is in Swordfish, when Hugh Jackman’s character cracks some encryption with a super-hottie lipstick-gliding his manhood… now that dude was my hacker idol.
@1
you leave my ufo alone. i am now lost and can’t call home.
Didn’t they use screenshots of a valid ssh-exploit for the hacking scenes in one of the matrix movies (when trinity hacks the security of the power plant). Now that’s what I call nice research!
You should see what MacGyver can do with BitTorrent.
Transporter 3 eh? I’m about to watch it. All Transporter series are good.
ester egg zD
“Seems you (author) didn’t watch this movie OR you’ve got a damn lame taste IMO.”
I specifically watched it to do some research for the article.
But what I lack in movie taste, I certainly try to make up for via sarcasm, I even gave a nice wink at the end
here’s another ;)
:P
lol i hate it when i see stuff like that in a movie, like when u see the mic @ the top of the screen, it brings you back to reality, i’v been using bittorrnado to hack my bank account for years ;)
Lulz. This TOTally reminds me of the part in “Hackers” where the guy is looking at the gal’s laptop and he says (and I’m not kidding) “Killer refresh rate!” Also brings to mind the Penny Arcade comic about the laughably goofy technology-speak used in the latest Die Hard movie. (”They’re stealing the webs!” “Which webs?” “All of them!”)
Oh yeah. And don’t forget about the part in ID4 where Jeff Goldblum hacks some alien’s spaceship force-field with an old G3 PowerBook. And who says OS9 is obsolete?
I would love to see realistic
password-cracking in movies .
They would start in episode 1 and once we have downloaded episode
36.489 from bit-torrent they might be half done :)
can anyone confirm that slightly different frames wher used to find the leaks?
I have used utorrent to hack into my next door neighbours wifes panties for years… lovely stuff…
@36
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife.
@36 – are you seeding her?
@Dec 20, 2008 at 16:12 by God
Sorry God
I just couldnt resist her binarys.
@Dec 20, 2008 at 16:25 by Me
Oh yes, my ratio is well up, along with other things
@1: Precisely. Remember in the Godzilla 2000 movie where the M.A.M.E readme makes an appearance?
http://gfpoken.bigw.org/g2k/
Same idea here I think.
Another things:
How can the “bad-people” use internet to locate the car of
“the transporter”, without satelite coverage? Since their is no phone signal (the transporter cant call out)… Also using the not hacked milatairy satelite?
Maybe it was an homage to the BT community by the editor/post production staff or prop guy? Let’s look at it as a silent protest of the MPAA from whomever was responsible for it. I can’t imagine that someone would specifically find and use this client – they had to have known about it before hand.
Kee-rist! Anyone worth his salt knows that hacking via MAC or Windows is for kidz.
Real hackers use rTorrent.
.
rofl this is hilarious.
I really like the CRANK movie he played in aswell.
I have hacked the internet and downloaded it to my computer. I will be putting the BT up on mininova later if you want it back.
@45: Hope Al Gore doesn’t sue you for copyright infringement.
@33:
The Hackers movie came to mind when I read the story, but there was another bit I thought of – a Dilbert cartoon where the PHB tries to use his laptop to land the plane he’s aboard. It of course crashes.
What’s next?
Another “Fire Sale” ???
LoL
Don’t u remember the hack in “Clear and Present Danger” ? When the guy just tries different variations of information to find the right password lol. I think it was wife’s year, kid’s day, father’s month, twice reversed, or something to that degree.
not really a hack i guess…
It never surprises me when people post dumb ass comments like this =) Because most of them are simply stupid.
Nmap is a real tool btw.Go here for list of movies it made an appearance in:-> http://nmap.org/movies.html
My response is awaiting moderation.
I’m stuck at 100%.
Please Seed.
wow making fun of hollywood thats hard
nothing will ever beat de endless “DIRs” in 2010. :)
How many movies can you name that actually display real hacking methods? You don't, because somewhere in the world the nerdiest motherf*cker will be watching, he will get a nose bleed over hacking codes, and the movie would get sent back to the lab.
Unless, of course, they make it sly enough. Did anyone confirm whether Trinity actually uses a hack in the power plant scene? Prove me wrong if you wish.
Torrent Freak TV has improved over the pilot.
The host seems more professional. There are less technical problems. The stories are more interesting,
You scared the shit out of me, I thought someone, somehow, somewhere hacked a military satellite and BitTorrent was involved. That would have screwed our pooches, even with the technical impossibilities.
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