Prediction Not checkable as stated
Kor Adana in 2017: Blockchain and cryptocurrencies are the future
“Personally, I think blockchain is unbelievably exciting, and I think it's the future. So I am all for people investing in cryptocurrencies, investing in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and it is a volatile market right now, and you have ICOs coming out every day, and That …”
Insight
Entertainment industry networking is inherently transactional
“There's something oddly, in the entertainment industry, there's something oddly transactional about the relationships, And if you go into it kind of understanding that, like, it's not to say that it's, they're insincere because you're, you obviously have frien…”
Opinion
Aspiring television writers must move to Los Angeles
“Definitely. I would move to LA. If you want to be a TV writer, yes. If you want to be a novelist, you can stay wherever you're at. But if you want to be a TV writer, I would say move to LA. Definitely.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Elliot's first hack in Mr. Robot was based on Kor Adana's own
“Years later in the writer's room for Mr. Robot, and you'll see this in season two, I think it's the fourth episode, fourth or fifth episode, in the beginning where there's this VO of Elliot talking about his first major hack. And he's like, I broke into my lib…”
Insight
Kor Adana's workplace apathy was perceived as confidence, accelerating his promotions
“This kind of apathetic attitude, which was I guess perceived as like confident and you know, like I really know my shit because I don't care about the outcome... And it did really well for my, like I ended up doing really well and moving up the corporate ladde…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Elliot Alderson's cybersecurity role in Mr. Robot mirrored Kor Adana's job
“And Sam didn't know that I had a previous life as like a cyber security, you know, cyber security guy. And basically what Elliot did on the show was my old job.”
Assertion Supported
Mr. Robot shot all computer screens practically, avoiding green screens entirely
“We shoot everything practically on Mr. Robot, meaning we don't shoot green screens, we don't burn anything in in post.”
Assertion Supported
Mr. Robot used interactive Flash animations for on-screen terminal hacking scenes
“The way we achieve that is through flash animation. So I'll work closely with an animator to create an interactive demo, basically, where everything looks legit, like, looks like a real desktop environment, looks like a real terminal window, but it's not. It's…”
Assertion Supported
Mr. Robot screen code compiles but intentionally omits steps to prevent attacks
“I mean, the code that we're using, yes. But we're not going to show, we never show enough”
Opinion
Television production is the only justifiable remaining use case for Adobe Flash
“The only thing that you would ever want to
Use flash for is working on a television show like Mr. Robot”
Assertion Partly supported
Every URL and QR code in Mr. Robot leads to interactive puzzles
“Any URL, web address, IP address, host name that you see on any of our screens, any QR code, any barcode that you see anywhere on the show in the frame of Mr. Robot will lead you somewhere and it will lead you to a puzzle.”
Assertion Supported
Mr. Robot Season 2 ARG Flashed Linux Crash Screens Containing Hidden URL
“And it was just the sequence where we flashed like a frame of a piece, like a bunch of different screens, like crash screens of like a Linux system crashing. And if you found the right character on each of those screens in order, it would lead you to another U…”
Disclosure
Mr. Robot incorporates recent cyber exploits by assuming characters discovered them early
“We sort of fudge it because Okay, maybe it was not disclosed at that time, but, you know, hackers were still aware of it, or the community, like certain members of the community were aware of it, and we can just say that Elliott and F Society, you know, were a…”
Assertion Supported
Mr. Robot's on-screen code snippets can be found in full on GitHub
“If you were to just screenshot a bit of our code or a bit of source code that's on one of the screens and research it, you'll Be able to find it on GitHub. You'll be able to find it somewhere in its entirety.”
Insight
Kor Adana: Hacking is using systems in unintended ways
“I want to, you know, use systems in a way that they weren't supposed to be used for. Which is a definition of hacking, so to speak.”
Disclosure
Kor Adana saved three years of living expenses before entering television
“I saved up enough where I could three years of work, three years of working for no income. I would be fine. And in my mind, I'm like, all right, if I can't make this happen in three years, then I'm not cut out to do it.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Designing the opening hack in Mr. Robot Season 2 took two months
“In season two, I think it was the first scene in episode two of four. So that would be 2.3. And it's the one I referenced earlier of him talking with the voiceover about his first hack and he has four terminal screen windows open up. He has exploit code in one…”
