The Power at Hand
National Geographic Channel Breakthrough, Season 2
Narrator: Barry Pepper
National Geographic/Imagine/Asylum Production
Each episode is 50 minutes in length
6 Episodes in this series
Episode Two: Cyber Terror
Hang on to your seats for this ride into the world of cyber terror, or hackers who can do anything. This is the subject of the second Episode of National Geographic’s Breakthrough, Season 2, “Cyber Terror.” Yes, and terror, it is, when the audience gets to explore the “white hats” (good hackers who work security) and “black hats” (bad hackers, who do harm for money or just for the fun of it.).
The episode begins with a hacker showing how he can get into a computer system and destroy files within minutes, and sometimes a shorter length of time. What to remember throughout, is that No One Is Immune. When you use your tablet or lap top at a place that has free Wifi, your computer/tablet leaves a “mark,” that an astute hacker can follow as a bloodhound on a trail, get your information and before you know it, there is identity theft.
Another part of this episode follows two “white hats,” as they pass themselves off as “black hats,” and try to learn from Isis how they recruit people and what is their “recipe” for an explosive device. This is fascinating stuff and another team travels to Beirut and works with a bank on bank security. They find it is easy to get someone distracted enough to plant a device that allows them into bank records. This is called using a “pineapple.” One USB device in one computer can bring down a company.
During the past holiday season, while shopping one day, I was in three major businesses that had computer problems slowing business down and leaving customers confused and angry. As the episode states, this could have been done by a teenager with a lap top. You are riding on a bus and the kid next to you is on their lap top. Are they doing home work or mayhem? We are so used to electronic devices, what would we do if a dialysis machine started malfunctioning and it really was someone who hacked into the system? Frightening thought.
Direction, cinematography and music are excellent.
Breakthrough: Season 2 is produced by National Geographic/ Imagine and Asylum. The series will run on television in 172 countries and in 43 languages. The six episodes are “Addiction: A Psychedelic Cure” narrated by Mike Colter and shown on May 2, 2017, “Cyber Terror” narrated by Barry Pepper and shown on May 9, 2017, “Curing Cancer” narrated by Sheila Vand and shown on May 16, 2017, “Game of Drones” narrated by JK Simmons and shown on May 23, 2017, “Predicting the Future” narrated by Aaron Eckhart and shown on May 30, 2017 and “Power to the People” narrated by Chris Pine and shown on June 6, 2017. For more information see www.nationalgeographic.com or on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, Linkedin and Pinterest.
Copyright 2017 Marie Asner
