Possible US DDoS Attack Is Reminding People of 'Live Free or Die Hard'

Monday's possible DDoS attack on the U.S. has caused quite a stir online. The type of attack is designed to overwhelm certain websites and online services with traffic and to render them unusable and many thought it caused issues with social media sites like Instagram, as well as cellular networks like T-Mobile. (However, experts have their own theories on the widespread problems around the web on Monday.)

While Twitter, which seemed to be mostly unaffected, became the place for people to vent their frustrations, a few users pointed out the similarity between Monday's alleged attack and Live Free or Die Hard. The 2007 action flick was the fourth installment in the Die Hard series, and pairs John McClane (Bruce Willis) with hacker Matt Farrell (Justin Long) to stop a group of cyber-terrorists determined to upend safeguards in the U.S. government. The film featured the expected amount of shootouts and explosions for a Die Hard flick, but this time with added tech. It was based on a 1997 article in Wired titled "A Farewell to Arms," which details a kind of coordinated attack on that could disrupt an entire country's transportation, telecommunications, financial and utility infrastructures.

This type of attack in the film was known as a "fire sale." While the DDoS attacks haven't been confirmed as a single attack as of Monday, despite some speculation, some cinephiles couldn't help but point out the obvious comparison between the two.