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Television Media Security

Penetration Testing TV Series Coming 209

Posted by kdawson from the tiger-team dept.
ChazeFroy writes "CourtTV (TruTV) has a new series starting Dec. 25 at 11 pm called 'Tiger Team.' It follows a group of elite penetration testers hired to test organizations' security using social engineering, wired/wireless penetration testing, and physically defeating security mechanisms (lock picking, dumpster diving, going through air vents/windows). They do all of this while avoiding the organizations' various security defenses as well as law enforcement. The stars of the show also did a radio spot this morning in Denver." Wonder how they socially engineer away the presence of a camera team in the air vents.
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Penetration Testing TV Series Coming More

Penetration Testing TV Series Coming

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  • Sounds a bit like... (Score:4, Funny)

    by 1zenerdiode ( 777004 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @12:52AM (#21748356)
    ...some sort of interactive pr0n... I don't want to see the set-top box.

    • Re:Sounds a bit like... (Score:5, Funny)

      by renegadesx ( 977007 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @01:11AM (#21748470)
      Im just glad the usual trolls are not around (goatse, gay sex writer, pony lover, etc)

      They would have a field day with the title alone

    • Next up in the cable technology space... (Score:4, Funny)

      by ravenspear ( 756059 ) * on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @01:26AM (#21748568)
      Set top boxes that give you feedback on the presence of any loose male cables dangling from their backsides through a series of audio tones.

      Sources familiar with the development of the units indicate that the cable integrity is calculated through an internal "fulfillness meter" each box has that is dynamically calibrated to the thrusting force of initial cable insertion by the owner.

      The audio tones are said to become louder as the internal weight of the portion of cable inserted decreases on a linear scale.

      New owners feel the new design could be a boon to children, who lacking a cohesive concept of proper cable pairment, had difficulty before in detecting the causes of abnormal video problems with the units.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bidule ( 173941 )

        The audio tones are said to become louder as the internal weight of the portion of cable inserted decreases on a linear scale.

        I suppose both pitch and volume modulation go hand in hand. That would result in a richer, more natural sound.

        New owners feel the new design could be a boon to children, who lacking a cohesive concept of proper cable pairment, had difficulty before in detecting the causes of abnormal video problems with the units.

        You know how funny noise can keep kids amused for hours? The last thing I want is a 4y old playing with home entertainment devices.

        If you're antropomorphizing, might as well go all the way. It would be more useful to have a "hey!" sound if you put it in the wrong place, but it's hard to detect before it is fully inserted.

    • Set-top box (Score:5, Funny)

      by Dr. Cody ( 554864 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @01:38AM (#21748624)
      "I'm sick of all this sex on the tellyvision--I MEAN, I keep falling off!"

      - Mrs. Nesbit

    • All I have to say is (Score:5, Funny)

      by steelfood ( 895457 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @01:50AM (#21748698)
      It better be hard or it won't be interesting.

  • How times have changed. (Score:5, Funny)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @12:53AM (#21748366)
    (lock picking, dumpster diving, going through air vents/windows)

    Funny, when I did that they called it B&E - sigh.

  • First 50 seconds on Youtube (Score:5, Informative)

    by ChazeFroy ( 51595 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @12:54AM (#21748372) Homepage
    Opening montage of the show is on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Be-ZzcXVLw [youtube.com]

    • Re:First 50 seconds on Youtube (Score:4, Funny)

      by elrous0 ( 869638 ) * on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @11:14AM (#21751536)
      Breaking into all those places is easier for any clever hacker or thief. If they really want to impress us here on /., they need to accept the ultimate challenge: break into a girl's pants.
  • They do all of this while avoiding the organizations' various security defenses as well as law enforcement.


    COPS meets Tiger Team. I see a great need.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gmack ( 197796 )
      Sounds more like Sneakers the TV series.
    • "COPS meets Tiger Team. I see a great need."

      I kinda doubt it....not many hackers run around in wife beater t-shirts and mullets.

      :-D

      • They don't?
        • He means not many hackers he has seen portrayed on TV and in the movies.

          We all know they are quasi skateboard punks with the unix bible under their arm and rich kids rebelling from their daddies lack of efectione.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by TheLink ( 130905 )
            Well it's going to be hard getting those fat bearded hackers through air vents or windows.

            On the bright side, some of them might actually smell better after dumpster diving. ;).

  • I thought.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by pablo_max ( 626328 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @12:59AM (#21748400)
    I thought it was a reality TV show about life in a condom factory.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It would be titled 'Jack, the Disgruntled Condom Factory Worker with a Needle.'

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by deniable ( 76198 )
      Every unit hand tested at the factory.
  • On Court TV? I thought that kind of show only aired on Cinemax after midnight.

  • Reverse engineering? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Fractal Dice ( 696349 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @01:07AM (#21748446) Journal
    Kudos to the first group to penetrate the series' offices and make off with their tapes.

  • nested humor (Score:5, Funny)

    by varkatope ( 308450 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @01:24AM (#21748550) Homepage
    I was going to write something witty and mildly suggestive. like "hey, so THOSE are the guys that inspect all those condoms that say things like inspected by No.4. I could be that number 4! Look out ladies." (Score:3, Funny)

    Then I realized that this is Slashdot, and most of us couldn't get laid if it was our jobs. (badum pum. ah-thankyou) Score:2, Funny or Score:2, Insightful. ...But THEN I realized once again that this is Slashdot, and that this story contains computers and myriad potential for dick jokes! (Score:5, Super Awesomeness OMG)

    So uh.... I could totally be that Number 4 inspector! ...something something computer security!
    ????
    Profit!!

    • Re:nested humor (Score:5, Funny)

      by Erpo ( 237853 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @03:29AM (#21749134)
      Golly. It sounds like you think people play Slashdot like some kind of giant MMORPG, grinding for points. But that couldn't be true. The purpose of comment moderation is to encourage people to make posts that are useful to the community and enrich the news, and everyone knows that computer systems are only used for their intended purpose.
    • You can be the Number 4 Inspector, just so long as I don't have to be the Number 2 Inspector. Because, well.. ew.

  • Ssssshhh!!! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TibbonZero ( 571809 ) <Tibbon&gmail,com> on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @01:38AM (#21748628) Homepage Journal
    Don't make Americans even more freaked out. Everyone's already worried about 'security'. Don't make them think that us average dumpster divers and hackers are bad people.
    • Well, depending on how they do it, they could make those hackers the "cool people". I just hope they manage to do it without overdoing the Sneakers BS.

      I mean, this is sensationalist TV. I doubt they'll focus on a lot of puzzle work and the long hours of patient observation to find the flaws in their security setup.
      • Oh yes, wouldn't that make for fascinating tv! Watching people, watch other, for hours on end! Astounding! You sir should be a tv producer.
        • I didn't say that it would be exciting. Hacking is a bit like fishing (not phishing, dammit), it's really not a spectator sport.
    • I guess it's a double edged sword. If, for example, my next employer was just a little more informed as a result of seeing this show, and took a little extra time to shred any documents containing any sensitive data about me prior to putting it out to the curb, then it may very well be worth while. We as consumers are also very trusting of the various entities we provide our information to as well, so the same applies to the next medical doctor I might see. I'm cautiously optimistic this will contain mor

  • That's not the IT-reality show *I* want to see... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Mr. Roadkill ( 731328 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @01:44AM (#21748664)
    No, I'd like to see "I'm A CEO - Get Me Out Of Here".

    Steve Ballmer, a stack of chairs, and Larry Page. Oh, and a couple of bottles of tequila. And handguns.

    Darl McBride, twelve inches of hosepipe and a bottle of fireants - lube will be optional.

    Who else wants to see Mark Burnett or Jon de Mol pick this up and run with it?

  • Boss is in on it (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RealGrouchy ( 943109 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @01:52AM (#21748710)
    From the looks of the trailer/montage, it looks like these are people who are paid by the site owners to test the security systems; the tech security equivalent of "secret shoppers".

    Not very surprising, but what does surprise me is that the site owners are letting CourtTV broadcast to the world that their facilities are insecure.

    - RG>
    • I highly doubt that the names of the companies will be part of the show. They'll probably just say: "A electric utilitiy company based in the northeast." or somesuch.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by deniable ( 76198 )
      They'll go for mid-size companies and won't name them. They've probably had the film in the can long enough for the company to action anything that came up and I'm sure they'd remove anything that was still vulnerable.
    • This show (like all 'reality' shows) is going to be crap and set up. No drama means no ratings, so they have to create drama. First off, no CEO with any brains would allow his or her company to be placed in this spotlight along with allowing real criminals an opportunity to view their security systems up close. A company has to have customers who trust them and getting burned on a 'reality' show is not a way to earn it.
      • "First off, no CEO with any brains would allow his or her company to be placed in this spotlight along with allowing real criminals an opportunity to view their security systems up close."

        You're right, because there's absolutely no way to edit recorded footage these days. Otherwise, shows like this would be possible without a bunch of fake trickery.

  • The easy way in (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @02:06AM (#21748776)
    "...(lock picking, dumpster diving, going through air vents/windows)..."

    Aha! Out of that list, looks like "going through...Windows" will be the fastest, easiest way to breach security.
  • when they called this red cell, marcinko was kicking butt, and it wasnt compromising fax machines, but military bases.

    seal team ftw :)
  • If it's on TV then you know it will be staged and chock full of pseudo-science dumbed down for the unwashed hordes (like Ghost hunters only with even worse acting and cheesy special effects).
  • Judging from other reality formats, this may not be too realistic. Show value over accuracy!

    Also there are numerous legal issues. For example, instructing people publicly to do this may be illegal in the first place and open you up to liability of somebody uses the methods shown to commit a crime. Also, companies will not agree to have their vulnerabilities shown in public.

    I therefore predict that this will only show well-known attack techniques against very common vulnerabilities, but nothing of real infor
    • Quite likely, but I could see small companies wanting a free penetration test, even at the expense of having their security flaws shown. You won't benefit from them, since it's likely they will be shown how to close them, too.

      What you could lose of course is goodwill. I mean, would you trust a company that has been shown on national TV to be insecure? In other words, all those companies that we'd love to see penetrated and shown as insecure would never ever even consider participating in this.
  • ...without the appropriate movie reference [imdb.com]!

  • Cameras would make it easier. . . (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ookabooka ( 731013 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @02:57AM (#21748988)

    Wonder how they socially engineer away the presence of a camera team in the air vents.

    Ok, airvents yes, but social engineering would probably benefit from these cameras. A secretary might not stop a guy in an IT suit walking out with a computer, but you think he/she'd be more likely to stop a guy carrying out a computer while he's talking to a 3 man camera team with boom microphones etc. "Hey, where are you going with that computer?" "Oh, I'm John from tech co, is having me lead this team from around about IT in the modern world." (turns to camera) "One thing paramount to security is patching your systems, this machine here has been exhibiting bizzare behavior on the network, most likely due to spyware and that is why it has been removed from the network to undergo analysis in the IT lab." Really, I think the hardest part would be getting the crew to go along with whatever quick responses you give to anyone who really questions you. It only takes 1 guy that acts a bit suspicious and unsure to ruin the whole thing.
    • That was supposed to be: "Oh, I'm John from tech co, <boss's name> is having me lead this team from <media company> around about IT in the modern world."

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Opportunist ( 166417 )
      Actually, a TV team might even help. Make it big, even show off that "you're coming on TV" and you'll see people cooperate with anything, because hey, they're getting screen time! Start interviewing them, they'll be nervous and distracted, you could even steal their computer underneath their hands without them noticing it because hey, they're on TV!
      • This is exactly what I was thinking. I'm less likely to question someone who appears as if they're doing some tv show then I am some random slob.
  • I am guessing this is something like "It Takes a Thief" [discovery.com] on the Discovery Channel

  • While I'm sure this makes for good TV and all... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by edunbar93 ( 141167 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @03:09AM (#21749034)
    This is one of those things where just because you *can*, doesn't mean you *should*. And putting it on TV with a CYA boilerplate of "don't try this at home kids", is an astoundingly stupid idea.

    It actually kind of reminds me of a segment in Weird Al's movie "UHF".... "Today boys and girls, we're going to learn to make PLOO-TOE-NEE-UM. Out of common, household items."
    • I hate to burst your bubble, but there's no "boys and girls" in that quote. Here ya go:

      Hello, my name is Philo and welcome to Secrets of the Universe. Today we are going to learn how to make plutonium from common household items.
      (Anthony Geary [imdb.com] as Philo, "UHF" [imdb.com])
  • I am crawling deep into this cave - we don't know what is in there but it could be very dangerous... Followed by a head shot of the lead guy crawling toward the camera into the great danger just beyond in the cave.
    This show is so obviously faked, or it would be completely boring for the average person to watch. Who wants to watch someone forging credentials and walking around with a clipboard. No way they could do their job with a full camera crew behind them (Well, they could do it once... make fake cr

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by parcel ( 145162 )

      I am crawling deep into this cave - we don't know what is in there but it could be very dangerous... Followed by a head shot of the lead guy crawling toward the camera into the great danger just beyond in the cave.
      It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
      >
  • Obviously, it's important for companies to become more aware of security. On the other hand, it will also provide lots of training material for criminals. I remember reading that some of the crime-detective shows have taught the criminals how they were getting caught, and criminals have started taking the exact precautions needed to avoid getting caught. (For example, using bleach to destroy their own DNA evidence, or putting a bunch of random cigarette butts in the ashtray of a car they had stolen - to
  • (Geeks + tech info + "penetration") = chaos.

    Be more careful, Slashdot.

  • It follows a group of elite penetration testers
    I don't have the slightest clue what an "elite penetration tester" is, but some part of me (i think its the lower/middle part) really wants to major in this field.

  • Pretty standard stuff (Score:5, Informative)

    by teslatug ( 543527 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @04:31AM (#21749402)
    So from the radio interview, they explain one of their breakins into an expensive car dealership. The weak point is as usual the employees who let them video tape the place and let one of them into the data center just because he managed to get (through dumpster diving) the business card of their support company.
  • Take it easy, it is just a show but there is a real life also. Penetration testing wasn't new even when I hit it in an insurance company(70's). We did it and when we did need professionals hired people from an UK company for that, they were good, very good. They were impressed of our computer / systems security but much less of our physical security (heh, I was responsible of systems security). I still remember our CEO really blowing up when the penetration team presented him a couple of very sensitive busi

  • TV (Score:2)

    by Tom ( 822 )

    Wonder how they socially engineer away the presence of a camera team in the air vents.
    #1 rule of television: Nothing you see on television is real.

    Like any "reality show", they show at best a recreation of actual events.

  • Wonder how they socially engineer away the presence of a camera team in the air vents.
    Probably by carrying the cameras themselves like those bad haunted house shows.

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @07:21AM (#21749936)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Tag should be "setec astronomy", not "ctec astronomy"

  • Wonder how they socially engineer away the presence of a camera team in the air vents.

    "We're filming here."

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