I think people overplay stuff like this because they think that before widespread Internet none of the issues being faced had been talked about. For them the 1980s (or earlier) are a dark age.<p>The reality is that by 1985 the UK already had the Data Protection Act, the US had computer crime acts in place, high profile hacks had occurred (notably the hacking of the Duke of Edinburgh&#x27;s email in the UK), 2600 was being published, and WarGames far from being a &#x27;hokey hacking movie&#x27; actually showed the reality of the sort of hacking that someone would undertake (dialing through phone number after phone number and accessing systems that were largely unprotected).<p>If you were immersed in the BBS scene or Usenet at this time these things were being openly discussed. This essay feels like a very basic summary of some of what was going on.