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Animorphs did it first
(lemmy.nz)
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this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2026
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Digital Fortress! I don't think it had plot armour (I'll spoiler tag it as it was the very end of the book):
spoiler
The password was to stop malware (that was leaking all their secrets in real time) and every wrong guess sped up the process. Also their brute force machine was the thing that was caught by the malware in the first place so maybe they were extra cautious and wanted to try and solve the riddle?It's been like twenty years since I read the book though so maybe I'm misremembering. Cool story though (or at least my younger self thought so), taught me about how the NSA can read your messages years before Snowden.
It's been decades for me too, the way I remember it is that the password just didn't work unless you knew you were typing the right one.
It was also the first time I heard of the NSA (I'm not American) - and then later I saw it mentioned on the Simpsons too in an episode where they were hiding in bushes listening to people. I was really surprised by people's reaction to Snowden because I thought it was just common knowledge.