World Backup Day Deals Best Cloud Storage Options Apple AR/VR Headset Uncertainty Samsung Galaxy A54 Preorders iOS 16.4: What's New 10 Best Foods for PCOS 25 Easter Basket Ideas COVID Reinfection: What to Know
Want CNET to notify you of price drops and the latest stories?
No, thank you
Accept

HP hires Christian Slater to hack companies for fun

Commentary: In a new ad campaign, HP shows how easy it is to hack into corporate systems.

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


And there he is, howling with laughter.

HP/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

Breaking into other people's computers seems quite popular these days.

Effective, too. It can even influence elections, so I'm told.

Enter the 7th Cavalry known as HP. The company on Tuesday released a series of ads in which it shows how deceptively easy it is to creep into someone's digital everything through their computer, or even their company printer.

Starring Christian Slater -- he who stars in hacking TV series "Mr. Robot" -- this four-part HP affair shows him playing the Wolf.

This character is a hacker who literally ululates when he's happy.

In various scenarios he shows how simple it is to dupe employees into clicking on an email -- or how odd it is that companies have firewalls, but still leave so much of their equipment unsecured.

It's all classily done, and one can imagine any senior executive or even IT-know-it-all who happens upon this series will feel uncomfortable.

Strategically, this foray into security makes good sense for HP. It's an area around which there is so much fear and so little confidence that anything can remain secure for long. The ads present HP printers as "the world's most secure."

If some of the most exalted companies and political organizations are vulnerable to seemingly simple hacks, what hope is there for anyone?

Why, even the Navy last year reported that its systems had been hacked, after a consultant working on a Navy contract had their laptop hacked.

The consultant was from Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Technically Incorrect: Bringing you a fresh and irreverent take on tech.

Batteries Not Included: The CNET team reminds us why tech is cool.