->"He hacked into my car's computer!"\\
-- '''Jennifer Marsh''', ''Untraceable''

A [[TheCracker Cracker]] or PlayfulHacker can cause unlimited harm/mischief in the TV world because any computer, or thing with a CPU as a component, or even with a few strands of copper wire in it, is connected to the Internet and thus becomes easily accessible and subvertible to the character's hacking skill.

Everything from NORAD to the engine computer on your SUV can be tampered with and shut down from a laptop in a room thousands of miles away. This openly defies the fact that in ''neither'' case are said computers actually ''online'' in a way they're reachable by someone on a modem. (Well. Unless you have [=OnStar=].)

TV writers make no distinction between the Internet and the closed intranets used by governments, militaries, or private companies. Nor do they apparently understand the fact that a lot of computers are closed systems that are responsible only to themselves, with no way to even contact the outside world, let alone receive new instructions from some malicious techie.

If it's a computer, then it's vulnerable. Period.

And as if that was not enough, you can erase a person's existence by deleting his identity records. In Hollywood reality, physical records like paper birth certificates and driver licenses are always null and void if the computers can't find a digital copy -- and physical records are simple enough to destroy. Your friends and family will apparently forget you were ever born if the e-records are deleted -- and they would be unable to protect you if the authorities were convinced you are a criminal and/or a terrorist. Less often, this is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] because the person thus deleted was a [[LonersAreFreaks ''complete'' loner]] with [[{{Otaku}} no real life friends.]]

This trope is usually how an [[AIIsACrapshoot Evil Computer]] manages to subjugate humanity by shutting down or reprogramming everything electrical in the world, from blenders to [[SinisterSurveillance street cameras]] to nuclear missiles. Again, 99% of these things aren't even ''online''.

In a series set in TheFuture, of course, it might make sense to assume that most things have a connection of some kind, though no matter how networked the world gets, there will still be systems [[http://www.cacert.org/help.php?id=7 kept offline for security]].

Compare ItsASmallNetAfterAll.

%%Do not remove the folders, they are the standard.

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[[foldercontrol]]

!!Examples:

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* Ed in ''CowboyBebop'' retaliates against a pair of ISSP policemen who try to apprehend her by hacking into their ship's auto-pilot and deliberately crashing it. (Fortunately for them, she's a PlayfulHacker and does it while it's parked outside with no-one in it).
** In the same episode, Ed also hacks into the access to a spy satelite network, which was also online.
*** And vandalizes South America. That's right, the continent.
* The basic premise of ''CorrectorYui'' is {{Magical Girl}}s in an online world trying to fix things in the real world, including school trips, traffic lights and medical machinery.
* In ''SerialExperimentsLain'', '''everything''' is online, without exception, to the point that one of the catchphrases is: ''no matter where you go, everyone's connected.'' [[spoiler:In fact, Lain once almost gets run over by a car, because of a failure in the citywide car guidance system.]]
** However, this is somewhat justified in that the series is set in a parallel universe where the internet effectively connects to a ''SpiritWorld''. Considering that the first scene depicts someone uploading their consciousness to the internet by committing suicide, conventional electrical gadgets being connected to the internet isn't far-fetched by comparison.
* Perhaps the SEELE attack on MAGI in ''[[NeonGenesisEvangelion End of Evangelion]]'' would have failed much sooner if NERV, instead of putting up firewalls in a RaceAgainstTheClock, had simply disconnected the bloody thing from every line connected to the outside world.
** The English dub translation for Iruel's invasion of the MAGI makes Ritsuko suggest that attempting to sever connections between different parts of MAGI or MAGI from anywhere else would require a matter of dismantling the Geofront (in the Japanese translation, she merely voices her concern about abandoning MAGI so swiftly).
** Given that SEELE paid for the Geofront to be built in the first place, its entirely possible that they installed their own backdoor hard lines.
* Satsuki, the [[TheCracker hacker]] in ''{{X1999}}'', has a computer that is not only sentient and can hack into anything online, but it can actually electrically manipulate the power cords themselves to attack people. Even disconnecting the computer from the network doesn't help once she's got her claws in it.
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] when Satsuki steals Nataku's life support data. "We're being hacked and we aren't even on a network!"
*** Of course, given that Satsuki is one of the Seven Angels, likely with the powers that being such are supposed to entail, it's not quite such a stretch to imagine she's got some sort of electrical telekinesis. Something along those lines, anyway. Still more believable than some of the other examples, I'll give it that much.
* ''{{Ghost in the Shell}}'' justifies this trope as making sense in a world where almost everyone you meet has a cybernetic implant connecting their brain wirelessly to the internet. Shown most prominently when the Laughing Man, on more than one, occasion hacks not only cameras but people's visual inputs to replace his face with his two-dimensional logo. In a MindScrew moment, people will even remember and swear that the logo is the ''real'' face.
** However, the trope is averted when logical. In the aforementioned Laughing Man incident, two homeless guys without any cybernetics are not effected. Not that they see particularly much. The military uses "autistic mode", meaning they turn off their wireless capability. Likewise certain facilities and networks are not connected to the broader net, forcing Section 9 to resort to more direct methods fairly often.
** And then there is the case of "ghost hacks", where a person's natural personality and memory can be deleted/edited from a remote source.
*** This is really, really hard however - less than half dozen individuals are seen capable of this in any version of the story.
* Nicely Averted in ''CannonGodExaxxion''; though each ArtificialHuman can hack into things like robots and space battle ships, they have to assimilate them with {{Nanomachines}} to do it.
* ''RealDrive'' has this, although there are still some people without a cybernetic implant.
** Justifiable in that the programs that show up in ''Real Drive'' are all of the commonly accessible type; the protagonists are only given access to closed systems when they're explicitly told to hack into them by the systems' operators.
*''{{Digimon}}'' absolutely ''loves'' this trope. Apparently, the Digital World and Digimon can affect not merely computers and phone lines in the real world, but everything from microwaves to traffic lights to ''an entire house's electrical setup''.
** Sort of justified, as the Digital World is more like AnotherDimension than a digital construct, and Digimon are pretty much made of electricity.
* Justified in ''{{Blame}}''!. The Netsphere was designed as an on-line paradise and safe haven for any human with [[MacGuffin Net Terminal Genes]], as well as a system with absolute control over near everything within TheCity.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* If {{Batman}} needs anything, ever, somehow the Batcomputer can ''always'' find it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* ''{{Terminator}} 3'' is an example of the evil computer version -- in this case, Skynet. Many of the electronic things it spreads through, like cash registers, aren't even supposed to be online, so the Terminator infects stuff with remote-control {{Nanomachines}} -- and most cash registers actually do use the internet to transmit credit card information.
** Although they make the DidNotDoTheResearch mistake of suggesting that civilian and military networks are connected together.
*** As The ColdWar is over, Skynet is no longer a strategic defense network, it's an [[TheWarOnTerror anti-terrorism]] MagicalDatabase;
**** A surprisingly large amount of military networks are connected to the civilian network. For example, secret information is tunneled over the Internet after being heavily encrypted. TheGovernment has ''literally'' made sure EverythingIsOnline so they can [[SinisterSurveillance keep tabs on everyone.]]
**** So the plot of ''EagleEye'' is a remake of ''TheTerminator'' where the humans stop Skynet from coming to power?
** Which part of the above explains how "infecting" a truck will allow you to press the gas pedal remotely?
*** [[MetalGearSolid The Nanites]] of course, they are like magic.
*** Assuming the Truck has cruise control with a chip, some cruise control systems actually do move the pedal to mantain speed and can have mounted speed changing buttons on the dash. The nanites here affect the cruise control chip (or wheel/RPM speed sensor, or electronic throttle) and have a bluetooth-like capacity.
**** That is {{Truth in Television}}. To prove a point, my ''1986'' van will push the pedal down itself when in cruise control mode.
**** Liberal application of WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief might allow [[AWizardDidIt nanites]] to control A truck. That still doesn't really explain how infecting ONE truck by poking a hole through the steering column and injecting some nanites suddenly allows her to control [[WallBanger EVERY CAR ON THE ROAD.]]
* The heroes of ''{{Sneakers}}'', with the super-chip they've just stolen, are able to access anything from the Federal Reserve to the national air-traffic control system.
* This trope is the entire plot of ''Hackers''. (Which [[InsistentTerminology should rather be called]] ''[[TheCracker Crackers]]''.)
* ''{{Wargames}}'', probably one of the earlier instances of this trope, relies on the idea that the computer that controls the launching of nuclear missiles is accessible to anyone with a 300 baud modem.
** Of course, the creator of the [[AIIsACrapshoot not-so evil A.I.]] put in a [[AppliedPhlebotinum backdoor password]]; [[ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish his son's name]].
* This is used in ''Live Free or DieHard''. The hackers have a "fire sale"; communications, water, power, all are taken down in sequence. They even give a jet pilot false orders to kill [=McClane=]. Of course, they are unable to remotely access the power grid and have to physically break into a power hub and later, the U.S. MagicalDatabase.
* ''{{Superman}} III'', notable for displaying this trope ''before'' the Internet as we know it came along, stars a guy who figures out how to glean the fractions of cents ignored when a percentage of one's income is taken for taxes, becoming rich. The bad guys recruit him, and he undergoes {{Flanderization}}, eventually becoming an über-[[TheCracker Cracker]] and controlling everything from bank accounts to traffic lights to ''[[{{Weather Control Machine}} the weather itself]]'' (by messing with satellites).
** That first bit is actually TruthInTelevision; it's a tactic called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salami_slicing "salami slicing"]] that goes back to the early 70s.
* The SandraBullock movie ''TheNet'' (1995) is ''well'' built around this trope. Angela Bennett led a[[strike:n almost]] ''completely'' [[LonersAreFreaks solitary existence]] where [[{{Otaku}} most of her acquaintances were online]]. Her only living family was her mother - who had Alzheimer's. She meets a man on vacation who seduces her based on her chatroom logs and steals her identification, then is forced to sign a different name on a computer pad so she can get tickets home. They then erase her identity by hacking public records. [[strike:If the bad guys had targeted anybody else, their evil scheme wouldn't have worked.]] Several of her friends come to her aid, but they decoy the first one's plane into a smokestack by hacking his GPS, the second is hospitalized and then overdosed with insulin when they hack the hospital, and a third [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim is just shot]]. Of course, the whole thing is run by [[strike:Bill Gates]] Jeff Gregg, a [[{{Captain Ersatz}} software billionaire]] who is making millions off his [[strike:faster, more efficient browser which provides better access to the internet]] "hackproof" security system -- which contains a [[AppliedPhlebotinum backdoor]].
* Averted in the 2007 ''{{Transformers}}'' [[TransformersFilmSeries movie]], where the Decepticons can only access the US military's defense network by directly hacking the mainframe at the base in Qatar or the CONUS mainframe on Air Force One. Then again, in the movie [[spoiler:[[AppliedPhlebotinum all modern electronics]] are [[AncientAstronauts based on Megatron's systems]], and they apparently [[MisappliedPhlebotinum didn't realize it.]]]]
** This is justified, however, because software is more important than hardware for communication. This tropers computer has a ext3 partition which the linux OS can access but windows can't even see, despite being on the same drive. Having two identical pieces of hardware running different OS's communicate is a non-trivial task.
* In ''Short Circuit 2'', Johnny 5 replaced his shoulder-mounted laser with a radio that can hack things. He uses it to shut down cars by triggering their burglar alarms and pilot remote controlled model airplanes. However, in the last few minutes of the movie where the villain is escaping in a boat, Johnny 5 tries to use it on the boat, but [[PhlebotinumBreakdown it doesn't work]] because ''it is not radio controlled.''
** The laser got replaced by a "utility pack". This troper thought the transmitter -- or whatever it was -- had always been on Johnny's head in both movies. As for the end of the movie, well... [[spoiler:Johnny was pretty messed up by that point and running out of power. Moments later, he uses the crane to get high enough to play Tarzan.]]
*** That's correct; in the first movie, he uses the transmitter in his head to keep turning on the TV after his FriendToAllLivingThings companion keeps shutting it off, as well as to detect when Nova's goons are close. In the second movie, he also uses it to commandeer a billboard to act as cue cards for his creator during his date with the token girl.
* ''Untraceable'', the source of the quote. Apart from car-hacking, the villain also sets up [[MurderDotCom a system where footage of whatever victim he's caught is streamed live to the internet, and the more views it gets, the closer the trap they're caught in comes to killing them.]] 'Cause NewMediaAreEvil.
* Averted in the first ''MissionImpossible'' movie: the CIA terminal containing the information Ethan needs to steal is completely isolated, so getting said information requires an elaborate distraction to allow Ethan and crew access to the [[AirVentEscape ductwork]] of the building so he can infiltrate the room the terminal is in.
* In ''HighSchoolMusical'' one of the "brains" uses her laptop to hack the school's electrical grid, disabling power everywhere except the theater, so that Troy and Gabriela can make their callback at the climax of the show (movie or stage).
* In ''EagleEye'', the VoiceWithAnInternetConnection who guides the protagonists, (ab)uses the fact that EverythingIsOnline to control every bit of electric machinery to aid the protagonists in their tasks. Traffic lights, security cameras, metros, mobile phones, electronic billboards, everything can be manipulated. Even construction cranes. And the movie, via timestamps on computers, shows it takes place in the distant future of January 2009.
** In the movie's defense, it went to great lengths to show that the manipulated items were state-of-the-art online devices.
** Subverted with Agent Morgan (Billy Bob Thornton) who, thrown by the fact that cameras keep conveniently going online, seeks out the closed-circuit cameras of a small business store.
** The Voice With an Internet Connection can even cause a power pylon to drop its wires on a target and electrocute him -- despite the lack of any apparent mechanical means, online or otherwise, in place for the purpose.
* Carried to a ridiculous extreme in ''Ghost in the Machine'' (not to be confused with the [[GhostInTheMachine trope of the same name]]): in a freak accident, a serial killer has his mind (or soul, or whatever) transferred into {{Cyberspace}}. Not only is he able to hack computers, he can also control electrical appliances, including electrocuting his victims, and in one particular WallBanger of a scene [[spoiler:causes a microwave oven to cook someone to death. ''In mere seconds. From several feet across an open room!'' Apparently by turning it UpToEleven, despite the fact most magnetrons only have one power level (pseudo-levels achieved through duty cycles).]] Though it does [[RuleOfCool look cool]].
** Though not as deadly as in the movie, nor involving in cyberspace, paranormal beings causing appliances to turn against the owners may [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1567428/Aliens-caused-Sicily-fires,-say-officials.html not be as unheard of as one would think]] according to the leaked results of an [[IncompetenceInc £1 million government investigation]].
* [[TheMatrix The Matrix]], anyone?
* In TheCore, the plucky comic-relief hacker prevents Project Destini from firing by hacking into the power grid, and re-routing ''all'' electrical power, ''throughout'' the United States, to Coney Island. Apparently, there is no longer any such thing as a manual transformer switch.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Also [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in the ''DoctorWho'' novels ''System Shock'' and ''Millennium Shock'', in which the BigBad has spent years planting alien microchips in all kinds of things, precisely so they can do this. Perhaps this is why Mickey in "World War III" is able to launch a missile from his computer with a single password...
* In ''SnowCrash'', Hiro Protagonist's motorcycle is rendered inert by a computer virus. ("Asherah's possessed his bike.") Perhaps justified by the book's setting in a futuristic cyberpunk world, since there's already lots of work going into the idea of making the electronic engine-management system of cars remotely accessible, so that it can be disabled in the event of theft, or stopped by the police without the need for risky manoeuvres. More creative uses are left as an exercise for the student...
** His bike was explicitly mentioned as having an operating system. Pretty much everything in the book was online. Asherah was the name given to a 'meta-virus', and in this case was used allegorically. More importantly, the bike was just mentioned as 'having crashed' (in the software sense) and no cause was considered.
* If it's a computer, Otto Malpense of H.I.V.E. can control it, hack into it, or just plain mess around with it. Examples include; [[spoiler:"talking" with a computer-controlled car, deactivating the Big Bad's space station while texting the semi-good guys, and jamming a grappler device.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* After Chloe's {{flanderization}} in ''{{Smallville}}'' to become a [[PlayfulHacker mega hacker]], she gains access to the ''Daily Planet'''s MagicalDatabase and is able to find absolutely everything online.
* The fourth season of ''[[TwentyFour 24]]'' features a terrorist plot to simultaneously melt down every nuclear reactor in the US using a piece of AppliedPhlebotinum that looks like an ordinary laptop computer in a fancy attache case.
** Season 7 introduced us to the "[=CIP=] device", a widget somewhat resembling a [=PCI=] modem, which had the power to hack into air traffic control transmissions, remote control aircraft, cause chemical plants to go critical, and [[InformedAbility cause general havoc nationwide]].
* Allegedly justified with the grumpy supercomputer Orac in ''[[BlakesSeven Blake's 7]]'', because its creator also invented the "Tarriel cells" that power all computers in the Federation. How it also managed to control computers installed on ''alien spaceships'' is not explained...
* ''PowerRangersOperationOverdrive'': A MonsterOfTheWeek infects the HumongousMecha with a virus... that is transmitted to the base, and somehow, to an android character who has never shown to have any actual connection to the base's computers (he's got to push buttons like everybody else.) This would have actually made perfect sense in some seasons (which have ''literal'' [[MagicalComputer Magical Computers]] that are connected by the same mystical forces) but Overdrive is all tech. OTOH, the virus ''was'' transmitted by a Magic Ninja...
* In ''{{Cybergirl}}'', the Cyber Replicants are able to interface with any computers simply by cocking their heads. This includes security systems, [=ATMs=], electronic keyboards, [=TVs=] and school computers. Only one of which is usually online.
** Cy's predecessor, Alana (in ''TheGirlFromTomorrow''), however, has a wrist device that interfaced with any and all computers. In ''1990''.
* In ''[[JakeTwoPointO Jake 2.0]]'', Jake use his symbiotic {{Nanomachines}} to move a new Cadillac sedan, noting that the car is computer controlled.
* ''{{Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad}}'' takes this to ridiculous levels; in one episode a "mega-virus monster" inside an ''alarm clock'' gives the main character a sequence of nightmares. Only the RuleOfFunny lets one suspend disbelief.
** Don't forget the pom-poms that were infected with a virus that uploaded whoever used them to the villain's computer. Ironically, the villain only wanted the cheerleader who owned them, but by the end of the episode the entire school (including the lunch lady, the main character's little sister, and the entire football team) were screaming floppy disks hanging from his ceiling, which he found very annoying.
** This troper's favorite example was an episode where a virus monster took over the ''wristwatch'' of one of the heroes, giving the villains ''control over her left hand''.
* In one particularly nonsensical episode of ''SevenDays'', an [[AIIsACrapshoot evil]] lovesick program manages to ''manipulate the knobs on gas burner stove'' in an elaborate MurderTheHypotenuse.
* In the ''InspectorMorse'' episode "Masonic Mysteries", the villain is able to frame Morse by hacking into the police computer and altering his records. And he does all this from a prison terminal. After doing a computer course at prison.
** [[HeyItsThatGuy The villain in question]] is ''[[StarWars Emperor Palpatine]].'' As if those insignificant machines would ''dare'' to disobey...
* The Cylons of the reimagined ''BattlestarGalactica'' use this trope a lot. In some cases it's {{justified}} as in the miniseries where the Colonies have allowed a [[WhatAnIdiot Cylon infiltrator to write their military coding]]. In the second season where the Galactica's computers are networked, the Colonials must have added about a billion unsecured Bluetooth connections set to default access to the network.
** Further partially justified in that, in order to synchronize the jump drives of all the other ships in the fleet, it is explicitly shown that the Galactica has to maintain wireless connections with all of them. For a while, the Cylons continually tried to hack the Galactica when it was preparing to coordinate a fleet jump.
* John Henry from ''TheSarahConnorChronicles'' is apparently able to control lights, elevators, and normal doors through the Internet.
** Justified: In the Zeira Corp. building, we're explicitly told that he's been given control. It's not much of a stretch to assume the systems are electronically controllable. The only other time we see him do this, it's remotely to Catherine Weaver's home, who, as president of Zeira Corp (and [[spoiler: a Terminator]]), probably has fully-integrated electronic controls there as well.
* Micah in ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' embodies this trope with his [[strike:mutant]] evolved ability to talk to machines.
* ''DoctorWho''. In "The Green Death" the meglomaniac computer BOSS (Bimorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor) plans to take over the world by controlling all the world's computers. In 1973. Somehow this enables it to control people's minds as well.
** In "Dalek", the Dalek not only manages to [[ItsASmallNetAfterAll download the entire Internet]] within mere seconds from a random terminal in an ElaborateUndergroundBase, it also succeeds in draining the entire Eastern United States of electricity within these same mere seconds.
*** Although that's not a computer, it's a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien, and the base it's in ''is'' run by the guy who says he owns the internet, it should still be limited by its interface, which was a computer.
* Played straight and averted in the ''same'' episode of ''TheSpectacularSpiderMan'', ''Shear Strength''. Dr. Octopus hacks into and controls satellites, cell phone GPS locators, street lights, even a coffee shop cash register all because they have computers. However, he later needs the help of someone else to get some Homeland Security codes, as they are on a closed network.
* Amazingly averted by {{NCIS}}: Los Angeles, when asked to do something about a security system the team hacker points out that it isn't actually connected to the internet.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* In ''{{Champions}}'', every motor vehicle in Millennium City is remotely controlled by a central computer. They never really discuss the implications of this.
* ''{{Shadowrun}}'' is generally one of the usual suspects, though it does avert the trope on occasion. In 3rd edition, extra-sensitive systems were often off-line or in a closed-circuit system, though "extra-sensitive" may or may not include the security of top-secret megacorp research labs. 4th edition still takes the cake: almost all computers rely on wireless technology, meaning you don't even need a physical connection to your target to wreak havoc. Forget people's cars, start thinking about people's ''{{cyberware}}'', which may include things like eyes or even the connection between their brain and their somatic nervous system.
** Actually, further supplements mention that alot of cyberwear is NOT wireless (like the aforementioned somatic system upgrades), and the few that are tend to have such weak signal you'd need to be humping the person's cyberlimb to be close enough to hack it. A later change in rules made it impossible to hack limbs themselves. Also, important or critical systems may not have wireless nodes at all, or have the range of said node limited by wireless-impeding means like Wireless absorbent paint, insulation and jammers.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The basic premise of ''MegaManBattleNetwork''. In some optional missions, escaped viruses make their way into action figures and electronic keyboards. Even the Mafia operates online.
** The premise of ''{{Megaman NT Warrior}}'', the anime version of the above game series, is naturally founded upon this trope as well.
** Also occasionally averted. While many unlikely things are connected to the internet such as Mayl's piano & Myuki's mirror (which may just be PCs designed to look like these things), there are many devices like cars, [=TVs=], vending machines & major public works like the water treatment plant that are not online, despite being computer controlled & must be jacked into manually.
** The trope continues in the spiritual successor, MegaManStarForce.
* Taken to ridiculous extremes in the Sega CD game ''Panic!'', where a computer virus infects the World Central Network, and ''every machine in the world'', including vending machines, vehicles, elevators, and countless other objects, starts [[PhlebotinumBreakdown going haywire in indescribably bizarre ways]]. This makes substantially more sense than the rest of the game.
* Averted in ''DeusEx'', [[spoiler:Helios has very little power through his hacking, at most he is able to "change some codes and turn out a couple lights", his real power from that people willingly follow him as an alternative to to the corrupt leaders currently in power. Helios can also play with the security systems, but he IS directly interfaced with them]]
** Played straight to a degree as well [[spoiler:There is some code of the Daedalus AI on every communication device on Earth.]]
** Played absolutely dead straight in that the prison cells in the secret [=MJ12 facility=] [[spoiler: under the UNATCO base]] can be opened remotely, and this weakness is used to release [[spoiler: the protagonist]]. [[spoiler:Again, the AI doing it was created by MJ12.]]
* ''SplinterCell: Double Agent'' has a sequence where a character hacks into some slot machines and makes them start spewing money as a distraction.
** To make it worse, those slot machines are on a cruise ship at sea.
** However in the previous ''SplinterCell'' games, averting this was the whole reason for Third Echelon's existence: Sam Fisher is only sent in to infiltrate the facilities that ''can't'' be breached by electronic means.
* Major plot point in ''[[DotHack .hack]]'' games, both the original and GU series: The first game has the 8 Phases (and the destruction thereof) along with Morganna to create such a chaos in the internet that it crashes ''the stock market''. Also, it temporarily cripples the hospital where some of the coma victims were treated. In GU, this gets even worse, as [[spoiler: Cubia]]'s threat is causing ''simultaneous worldwide nuclear reactor meltdowns''. This ''is'' TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, but still...
* ''[[TheLongestJourney Dreamfall: The Longest Journey]]'' takes place in a future in which, indeed, pretty much everything is online. The mysterious network failures known as "The Static" have even resulted in fatal car accidents, and, indeed, one the things you get hack during the game is a car.
* A possible aversion or just playing it straight occurs depending on how you parse it in ''MassEffect''. The various offensive hacking useable in combat effects systems that should not only be operated offline to avoid this exact thing(like say guns and shields)but also should be encrypted to prevent such things. The aversion would come if the omni-tool was using its nanotics and an induction system limited by line of sight EM radiation. Given how much work the designers put into justifying everything then this isn't as far fetched as one would think. Of course none of that explains how you can hack someones nervous system...
* Averted at least once in ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2''. On Telos, while doing the light-side path, the player has to extract incriminating evidence from a corporate databank. After talking to an employee of that company, you find out that the system is closed off from the outside so it can't be sliced. Instead you need someone who can physically infiltrate the company's HQ and extract the data from there.
* In Outlive instead of the human spies who do operations for the player on a set budget and have a training time if they get captured and killed, the robots pay money to create expendable viruses that are used in certain quantities for certain missions. These can be used for everything to scouting an area of pristine wildernes and sabotage, to redirecting ICBMs.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* [[http://www.bmoviecomic.com/?cid=338 This]] ''BMovieComic'' strip and its [[TheRant rant]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* This trope is used [[TVTropesWikiDrinkingGame egregiously]] in ''TheMagicSchoolBus'', where a computer can raise and lower the flag, make coffee, and open doors. This wouldn't have been so bad, except this was the episode in which they showed how computers "worked".
** It would be possible to make a computer do any or all of those things, but not out of the box.
*** Possible, yes, but pointless. You would have to essentially mod the computer and have it running all the time. Also some of the things they were using the computer for were either a) probably already programmable, like the coffee maker, or b) something you'd want a human to handle anyway for safety's sake, like locking/unlocking doors or turning on the sprinklers.
* The most wonderful example of this would be ''{{Inspector Gadget}}'''s niece Penny's Computer Book. In a time when the first laptop computers were ''just'' being released, hers could break into ''anything'' to help her Uncle Gadget.
** What makes this more fantastical is that she was able to do this before anything that could be called the Internet existed. Through radio and microwave hacking? Or electric telepathy?
*** Electric telepathy FTW!
* ''TheFairlyOddparents'' has Timmy often using the internet as an excuse for where/how he gets the things he wishes for. Including heat vision. [[AdultsAreUseless And of course his parents buy it.]]
* Also applies to XANA's attacks in ''CodeLyoko'', although this is partially [[HandWave explained away]] -- the inky black "spectres" are apparently capable of wiring up any electronic device, inanimate object, or even human being, as desired.
** Jérémie also manages to hack about anything with the Supercomputer, including military databases.
* In an episode of the old ''MegaMan'' cartoon, a virus causes ''everything'' to work for Dr. Wily. Even phone cords. And toasters. And sofas. In fact, the objects he controls act in ways they couldn't possibly in normal life, like street lamps strangling people.
** Technically, it was a box attached to some cables in a power station. And he controlled all those appliances all at the same time with ''just a joystick''.
* Justified in ''{{Futurama}}'': [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Mom]] had designed things that way so that she could eventually TakeOverTheWorld.
* On the [=Y2K=] Halloween episode of ''TheSimpsons'', Homer's workstation being non Y2K compliant causes everything to rebel, including pacemakers, electric shavers and ''cartons of milk''.
** That was more likely a case of LampshadeHanging on the ridiculous amount of hype about Y2K and the supposed "problems" it would cause everyone.
* In the cartoon series ''TheBatman'', a Digital Advanced Villain Emulator (D.A.V.E) program "escapes" through the power cord of his computer, into a manufacturing factory, knocks out a worker by firing electricity through the keyboard and then reprograms the factory to build him a body.
* In ''StaticShock'', a disgruntled technician builds a helmet that allows her to uplink her consciousness to the Internet in the form of the ultimate worm virus. Not only can she connect to things that shouldn't be online, she can take anything that has a computer in it and use that fact to access functions the computer itself couldn't, such as driving cars by accessing "the onboard computer systems", which should really just consist of a GPS or something. Now, given that she chose to pull this gimmick against an electricity-themed hero and his supergenius sidekick, she doesn't last very long -- she gets taken out with antivirus software which winds up feeding back through the helmet and pretty much rendering her catatonic. The repercussions are never discussed.
** For being about a [[CharacterTitle titular]] electrokinetic, this show DidNotDoTheResearch; Virgil Hawkins is somehow able to ''play CDs'' by '''sticking his finger in the hole''' and '''''holding them to his ear.'''''
* Acknowledged in ''{{ReBoot}}'': Daemon can't infect systems that don't have a connection to the net. Interestingly, you can use Portals to access said systems.
* Averted in an episode of ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' where the Riddler tries to conceal his identity by erasing all online records of himself. Batman notes that there are plenty of hard records which will have to be destroyed in order to make the process thorough, and sure enough, the Riddler sends some of his thugs to city hall to destroy the records of him there.
* Lampshaded in ''KimPossible''. When two villans want to find something really valuable and heavily guarded to steal, they type in "really valuable and heavily guarded" on Google. It works perfectly, as the first answer they get is the one they want.
* DannyPhantom's recurring enemy Technus, who is apparently able to hack into any electronic device and then combine it with other electronics to create... giant evil ghost robots. Yes. In one of the more ridiculous situations, he jumps from Tucker's PDA to an extremely powerful computer, which is apparently connected to a huge satellite that allows him to control all the computers in the world somehow.
* In one episode of the 1980s animated ''Incredible {{Hulk}}'', an evil computer starts taking over the world through the electric power lines. All manner of small appliances, including electric razors and pop-up toasters, start flying around and attacking people.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Networked devices that have no reason for being that way were recently pointed out as a massive security problem in office environments, as in this case of a [[http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/493387 net-enabled, self-updating ''coffee maker'']] (?!?). Not only can a sufficiently grief-minded hacker execute a "denial of coffee attack" by remotely screwing with the boiler temperature or the grounds:water ratios, but the control program has to be run on an XP box somewhere on the coffee maker's LAN, which effectively opens a back door onto that machine, and from there into the ''entire network''. Oops!
** Even the ''power grid'' [[http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10216702-83.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1 is online]]. And using default or no passwords.
* A hilarious example of this trope's effects in action, even titled [[http://notalwaysright.com/we-can-thank-hollywood-and-hacker-films-for-this/948 We Can Thank Hollywood And "Hacker" Films For This]].
* MIT's web enabled drink machines, [[http://www-cse.ucsd.edu/users/bsy/coke.html and others along those lines]]
* Then there was the Polish kid who modified a TV remote to hack into [[http://hackedgadgets.com/2008/01/24/simple-ir-hack-derails-polish-trains/ the Lodz train system and control it.]]
* There are also actually some limited versions of this technology in existence now, or under research, but they are usually passive in nature. EMESCAT systems, which have existed since the Cold War, are designed to remotely gather information (such as, say, reading what's on your CRT computer monitor) from the electromagnetic radiation given off by a computer. This generally takes the form of a sensitive EM sensor near the computer in question, such as in a van across the street, or the other side of a hotel wall. Superconducting Quantum Interface Devices (also called SQUIDs), are similar devices that are currently (mostly?) [[StrangeDays theoretical]]. These latter would generally depend on direct physical connections to the computer, but ranged versions have been proposed.
** TEMPEST and all manner of passive and active sensing systems have existed for a while. Similarly, the old-school [=UK=] [=TV=] detector vans used simple tricks to spot even televisions that had been turned off and unplugged (less useful nowadays with vastly more pervasive use of electronics). However, reading your screen or your keystrokes from across the road is not in the same ballpark as reading the same information from anywhere in the world. There have been documented cases of highly effective electronic warfare (such as the Israeli strike on a Syrian 'nuclear facility' in September 2007) but these are, once again, done using in-theatre devices and not by some hackers with a net connection somewhere else in the world. hacking local devices remotely is not even slightly the same game as hacking arbitrary devices via the internet.
[[/folder]]

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