'The Most Dangerous Town On the Internet' Profiles The Romanian Town Nicknamed 'Hackerville'

We often hear about hacking and crimes involving hackers (and not just ones related to Sony), but we don't hear quite so much about the people behind these crimes. Norton, the virus protection software company, has released a 20 minute documentary, In Search of The Most Dangerous Town On the Internet directed by Sean Dunne, which looks at the hackers that live in the Romanian town of Râmnicu Vâlcea.

The town is renowned for being a den of hacking activity—black hats and scammers—and the documentary puts a human face on the cyber security threat by speaking with numerous individuals involved in the scene.

Individuals like Guccifer who's hacked Hilary Clinton's email and members of the FBI and Secret Service, and Max Ray Vision (aka Iceman), a hacker for hire who once hacked NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab resulting in him getting a $500,000 fine.

As well as painting a particularly bleak picture of just how vulnerable we all are, the film also talks to security people combating the hackers—hackers who they also sometimes end up recruiting to help find flaws and fix them.

It's an eye-opening reality check and a fascinating look at a criminal subculture many of us know very little about.