14 
“Laughing at people talking about the internet decades ago” is one of our favorite video subgenres here at Gizmodo, and this specimen doesn’t disappoint: a fatherly narrator explains the dangers of hackers. Look out! Your modem is under attack!
The video, entitled “Computer Security: You Make the Difference,” hits all the same points that plague hacked companies today. Passwords can always be cracked, files can always be copied.
But you must appreciate the 90s depiction of the hacker, when the stereotype was a cunning scofflaw with a Marlboro hanging from his lips, rather than a 13-year-old arsehole cursing at you via Xbox Live as he downloads Anonymous software. There’s nothing glamorous about this hacker of the 90s. He’s a solitary man — his dojo, the bare white walls of some gloomy basement. His eyes burn from the CRT. But look at his bone structure, and his manicured hair — he’s no nasally loser, he’s a criminal. Just skip to 2:25 to see the horror in his victim’s face.
And what do we have now? Kids like this. [via Laughing Squid]
The Original Android Mascots Were Super Scary
This 1990 Philips Ad Is Awesomely Awful
Microsoft Ironically Remembers the 1990s in New Internet Explorer Advert
Where’s the video link?
Sorry Cochise, we were having issues with the video appearing, but it should be up there now, if not soonish!
Can’t watch the video at work at the moment, are there any warnings about not clicking on links that appear to come from friends?
If “Laughing at people talking about the internet decades ago” is your kind of thing, you might enjoy a book I wrote in 1989 called Psinapse but only published on the Kindle last year. It’s set in 2019 and although it’s right about some things, it looks pretty wrong about others. Sorry if this comment is a little spammy and bad form, but it is genuinely relevant.