What would make a "good hacking show" on tv or the web?

[TheCotMan]

Over a few years, I've read criticism from many people about various shows that claim to cover hacking.

Shows on TV, or the web are often criticized for being mostly show, with little substance, or "lame," or, "boring," but what would make a good hacking show on TV or the web?

If you were paid to make a show about hacking, how would you do it? Would you write one of fiction with real-world examples, or a demo show? Would you not even try, and tell the would-be employer that it can't be done?

[renderman]

Re: What would make a "good hacking show" on tv or the web?

Hollywood has screwed up perceptions royally and most people would be bored stiff to see how it's really done.

Now if MAKE took to the airwaves with how-to's and articles about projects, that would be cool.

[TheCotMan]

Re: What would make a "good hacking show" on tv or the web?

Hollywood has screwed up perceptions royally and most people would be bored stiff to see how it's really done.

The dredge-work, and tedious searches would likely be boring, but what about the older definition of hacking, which doesn't necessarily mean "break into a system" ?

Would a tour to different 2600, Electronics UserGroups, Linux UserGroups, DCG, and other group meetings to see what people have built in software or as hardware draw an interest?

I'm not writing about case-mods or things to make something "look cool" but modifications that add new features, or combine things in ways that others haven't considered, or in ways that are not commercially available.

Finding holes and exploiting them could also be covered in a piece of hacking, but so can lockpicking, and alarm bypass.

Now if MAKE took to the airwaves with how-to's and articles about projects, that would be cool.

Do you think MAKE could be encouraged to do this?

[noid]

Re: What would make a "good hacking show" on tv or the web?

They should call it 'Hack the Planet' and get two efeminate japanese guys to host it.

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: What would make a "good hacking show" on tv or the web?

stuff happening with keyboards and monitors simply doesn't make for good TV... now, hardware hacking and other innovative solutions (i.e. MAKE stuff, MythBusters, Monster Garage, etc) these are all examples of hacking that lends itself very well to observation in addition to participation.

the going from town to town idea is kinda neat, i suppose, if the local 2600 and DCGroups are doing anything cool. heh, an episode taking place at a Toool meeting could make for some jaw-droping tv.

[[Syntax]]

Re: What would make a "good hacking show" on tv or the web?

Something with the format of National Geographics "Seconds from Disaster" might work..

They show a disaster.. all the measures put in place to prevent it, and then a re-enactment of the events that took place that circumvented the precaution measures. They use alot of CGI though as far as diagrams and special effects to recreate the event..

But I agree, most people would be bored by watching someone type.. and others just plain confused as to what the hell the narrator is talking about.

[hackajar]

Re: What would make a "good hacking show" on tv or the web?

I always thought that people focused too much on the events leading up to an outcome. Take monster garage or MythBusters. Both give you a song and dance on how they are going to do something cool, before they acually do it. Then 2min at end of show focus on finished project. What if they built something for the first 2min of show, and spent rest of show featuring product? Maybe in front of other sources knowlegable in topic. This inspires them to mod exiting project, or go off on tangent with new project that does same thing better. Would this not motiviate watching audence to do the same? (Haven forbidde if this happend with a show like JackAss, though).

[TheCotMan]

Re: What would make a "good hacking show" on tv or the web?

Though it might take a while, it could be a good reality game show, where a "system" is defended by employees of the show using standard tools and packages, similar to CTF, but with real employees hired from temp agencies to man the phones or whatnot.

Then, multiple teams invited to gain as much access to the local site machines, information, and content. Follow teams around with cameras to record what they are doing, and encourage them to think outloud.

As for build-off competitions, create a task to be accomplished by assembling or building something.

As for the issues of disaster recovery, that might be good for a few episodes, but I'm not sure if it could stand by itself.

Many of these programs would waste large amounts of tape, as they demostraete the 99% reading, learning, thinking, and 1% (or less) successful idea.

[Clp727]

Re: What would make a "good hacking show" on tv or the web?

From a novice point of view, I like things that get into detail. Such as what commands or methods are used to achieve an outcome. The outcome would be making something perform a task that it isn't supposed to do, or a task that isn't supposed to be public knowledge.

An example; When I first heard of editing the desktop.ini in the Temporary Internet files directory of Windows 2000/XP to view the hidden folders, I was amazed! Or the data that is stored in certain .dat files. I know stuff like that is probably well known by many, I am trying to catch up. I had an oppertunity to show those things to the CIO and the LAN Analyst at my company and they were unaware of that procedure and quite impressed. (We were attempting to discover how one of our supervisors had infected her laptop.)

I think that a good hacking show would need content that appeals to people at all levels. I enjoy detailed content and plenty of reference material. I personally enjoy learning about computer security. I have been exploring the many types of operating systems in an attempt to have a better understanding of a Unix environment. There is nothing more satisfying than learning!

[theCount]

Re: What would make a "good hacking show" on tv or the web?

If you want it to sell to the mainstream, the programme will need conflict of some sort. The idea about the reality game show sounds good, but will need bloody good editors as the footage will be quite substantial, even after a limited time period for the "attack". Again with my assumptions, people want to see social engineering, either successful or comical dumpster diving, lockpicking, et cetera ... not a bunch of guys and girls hunkering around a computer. In the end, the beast would be lame with little substance.

Now, if going mainstream is not part of the equation, the "Access All Areas" reality game show could very well work. Say, three teams of four of five, plus another defending (plus your normal office employees), a week to break in, distilled into a one-hour segment highlighting the methods used, what worked, what failed, and why.

I wrote more, but I realised I was contradicting myself. Just ad libbing it.

[erehwon]

Re: What would make a "good hacking show" on tv or the web?

Why am I having flashbacks of the Pseudo Network....

[zorch]

Re: What would make a "good hacking show" on tv or the web?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...70004478274086