Today we are pretty familiar with the risk of hackers. We talk about hacking as a real privacy issue and even a national security threat. But 30 years ago, when the public was just beginning to get access to personal computers, the risks were not well known, and hacking was much easier.
That all changed in 1983, when a group of Milwaukee teenagers and young men hacked the Los Alamos Nuclear facility in their spare time. They sparked a media frenzy, a federal investigation, and new laws surrounding hacking.
That group, called “the 414s” is the subject of the documentary “The 414s: The Original Teenage Hackers,” which is a selection at this year’s Central Wisconsin Film Festival.