Hacking the System Online

I saw the show on National Geographic, the Host is Brian? i think, he is funny, the format is a story-setting. Each episode, Brian gives a scenario, and how to hack your way through each of them , very addicting. His scenarios aren't crazy like what to do when you are at the edge of apocalypse, he uses everyday life scenario and made it very very entertaining. I mean He teaches you how to buy mattress and made it so interesting. How cool is that? I got hooked the first 5 minutes. His hacks are very simple, yet very very informative and useful. I have never learned so much in 30 minutes. Brian is very charismatic, Jason his friend is very smart addition. They are informal but also the show is definitely very unique. I think they are gonna be huge, better than regular "survival" show.

Thing shown in the show are really useful. I'm a private investigator and some of these are trick I use. The host, Brian Brushwood, has a great rapport and is really fun to watch. Fans of Scam school and Con College will be familiar with his work. The show has a very light and family friendly atmosphere while also being very entertaining and teaching helpful tricks and shorts. The show focuses on safety and convenience. Seriously, it's awesome! Sometimes I ask myself "why do I even have cable?", then I remember this show. It's fantastic. Stop reading, right now and go watch it. You won't be disappointed. 10/10 I couldn't ask for better content

To start off, kkp-14365 is a moron. That reviewer is the only reason I created an account.

"The "info" in this show ranges from recycled gossip to outright incorrect." - I may not say that I agree with 100% of the show, but much of it is logically sound. This statement seems to imply that there is not much fact or reason in here.

"...there is very bad advice that can compromise yours security, to advice that could lead to legal trouble if you accept it." - There are a couple things that I would never attempt here, but Brian Brushwood makes warnings about them.

"There is nothing new here. The errors are glaring, and some are downright brain-dead errors." - Much of this will be new to many people out there. Sure, not to me, but there are plenty out there. Also, going back to my response above - Brian makes reasonable statement for most things in the show. This guy should "show his work" when making argument by stating specifics instead of generalizing the whole show.

"Using "This is my password" vs "k2j340@" is not stronger. The ignorance required to think the first is better, simply because of more characters, shows a complete misunderstanding of security." - Incorrect, all things being equal. The longer the password, the less possible it will be to attack by way of brute force or dictionary attacks. There is a reason that there has long since been a trend in sites requiring more complex and longer password. Other types of methods, like exploiting vulnerabilities in software, may be possible and no length or complexity will save you. The mere fact that using exploits is not the only way to bypass security (since brute force is an option) makes the lengthening of passwords a useful method.

"Errors such as this abound, and the fact that the creators of this "entertainment" pass themselves off as experts only makes matters worse." - I do agree that this is really focused on entertainment.

A lot of the "hacks" here employ some sort of social engineering methodology. That is what Brian Brushwood is good at. And social engineering works.

I haven't watched all the episodes yet, but I will.

Some of the scenes seem a bit staged. The music is a little over- the- top dramatic. And a few things I would disagree with. But overall, it is interesting food for thought, if only to make you more self- aware.

Even if you don't agree, understand, or care about all the specifics they discuss, it will remind you that OTHER people are trying these hacks on you... in one form or another.

The biggest lesson so far is that I will never ever copy my financial papers on my work copier again. Seems that it might all be stored on the copier hard drive, and may or may not be encrypted.

I did like the low-tech hack for getting a small vehicle to trigger a signal light. That looked like it might actually work, and Brian seemed surprised that it did.

They also debunk some stuff, so it isn't all staged for dramatic purposes.

FYI... took the wife a couple of episodes to get into it, so your results may vary.

They also give enough disclaimers so that if you "try this at home", you're an idiot :)

The "info" in this show ranges from recycled gossip to outright incorrect.

It may be entertaining, but in the first episode, which is the last I'll watch, there is very bad advice that can compromise yours security, to advice that could lead to legal trouble if you accept it.

There is nothing new here. The errors are glaring, and some are downright brain-dead errors.

Please, do not use a longer password simply because it is longer.

Using "This is my password" vs "k2j340@" is not stronger. The ignorance required to think the first is better, simply because of more characters, shows a complete misunderstanding of security.

Errors such as this abound, and the fact that the creators of this "entertainment" pass themselves off as experts only makes matters worse.

Stay away, unless you watch for laughs.

There are several very good suggestions or tips so far but on many occasions such as smashing a car window with a rubber mallet won't get you very far...which they did. Calling 2 small (I know how powerful they are because I use them in various applications and sizes) magnates industrial. Truing to trip a light. No, not good enough. They are powerful but only for a very short distance. There are other devices that claim the same thing but to change enough conductance you need something that outputs a larger field than those magnates he used. The copper wire is an OK idea although a larger coil (diameter) might be the better bet. Not for a bike but maybe a car. An electromagnate would carry a much much larger field. The trunk tips were very nice info for people. There are so many to list but the fact that there IS a lot of good information kind of balances out the fakery or the misrepresentations by either design or by mistake. But they are there. Best thing to do is be careful if you try this to see if it works. Always have healthy suspicion and awareness of what they are showing you. And when there are situations that are told to be authentic make sure you question why no one is reacting to it or to the people with the camera equipment....

I had trouble finishing the first episode. This show just seems to either state the obvious or make up facts. I did think it was funny that when trying to break a car window they used a rubber mallet and act surprised it didn't work. Just more mindless garbage for people to watch. Please don't think this trash is real or that it really works. Also just saying your an expert in something doesn't make you one, who is this guy and why would I just believe that hes an "expert". Maybe the show gets better after a few episodes? I'm not sure but i do know that what I have watched could have been produced better by a high school AV club.

Let's get straight to the point. If you have half a grain of common sense, then this show is straight up garbage. You're led to believe you're going to see the host choose and break into a car, which is true, if by that you mean "the host chooses the clearly staged car and opens the door easily without any extra work and the camera intentionally blocking the view, after which the host uses a large set of skeleton keys to start the engine and drive out of the scene". Everything about this show is so cringe worthy. They create OBVIOUSLY staged scenes and expect to fool the viewer by showing feeds from "hidden" cameras. Absolutely everything about this show is old, rehashed garbage. If you've spent 10 minutes on the internet, you've already seen everything this show has, and you've already seen half of it debunked. Nothing in this show is a "hack".