CNBCfix review: Firewalls
never seemed so futile
in CNBC’s ‘Code Wars’
Posted: Friday, May 27, 2011
Visually depicting computer drama has so far proved difficult, whether it's the acclaimed Aaron Sorkin film "The Social Network," or CNBC's own Google and Facebook documentaries of 2010-11.
Usually the best the production can do is to show kids celebrating how much money they've got, or gray-haired insiders with grim looks on their faces explaining how soberly they treat security.
Melissa Lee ventures down the latter path in CNBC's "Code Wars: America's Cyber Threat," a long-form documentary that at first glance feels destined to deliver little more than ominous cyber-insecurity warnings and generalities.
After a stodgy opening 10 minutes, however, Lee's production rallies to tell at least a few interesting stories, primarily that of Stuxnet, a 2009 computer attack already likely forgotten by most everyone that succeeded in wiping out a portion of Iran's nuclear program.
As always, it's helpful to note what's not in the program.
Most documentaries lede with a personal story, a human being seriously affected by the topic presented, willing to share details on camera. Lee has this, but only in the limited form of a few soundbites at the 40-minute mark from Mark Patterson, a Maine developer whose business account was looted by the Zeus virus of more than $500,000. According to this article, Patterson went on to sue his bank, which only partly covered the loss, and apparently the litigation is pending. (Evidently a number of employees used the account and regularly had to answer 2 challenge questions that were co-opted by the hackers, and the bank insists it's not at fault because its firewall was not penetrated.)
Lee prefers the bigger picture, opening instead with strong hints of a budding U.S./China hacker battle, for reasons of economics and national pride, as well as a daily barrage of "thousands" of hacking attempts against the U.S. government, according to the Defense Department. Her program, like many CNBC documentaries, could benefit from a narrower focus that picks either consumers or governments, but not necessarily both.
A bigger absence than the upfront human heartache is the headline-making big-fish interview. Lee talks to techies and bureaucrats. There's no Eric Schmidt here, no Steven Ballmer, no Carol Bartz, no John Chambers, no Michael Dell, no Robert Gates, no Nouriel Roubini, no Duncan Niederauer, no politician of either party who would view this as a pressing issue, which should tell us something slightly reassuring.
Most viewers will agree with the concerns raised by Lee and her guests but realistically shrug about what they can or should do about it. They're more likely to wonder whether all the shopping and banking information they enter online is truly safe. Lee does ask John Hering and Kevin Mahaffey of Lookout to "show" (as much as it possibly can be shown) how easy it is to scoop up people's online info in wi-fi networks. But she noticeably avoids any mention of popular shopping and banking and brokerage sites and any assessments as to their vulnerabilities. The public seems to accept the notion that someone can always pilfer their credit card, but that actually being robbed by hackers simply hasn't occurred enough to be an everyday concern for people.
The program doesn't take off until the 23-minute mark, when it chronicles the Stuxnet attack on Iran. Lee pointedly asks if the Defense Department was involved in this operation and is told that "this is not something that we're gonna be able to answer at this point." Whether it was the U.S. and Israel behind it, as Lee says one Israeli source said off-camera, anyone who doesn't think governments are practicing their skills in this field is probably still using a Commodore 64.
Lee's segment on Estonia's cyber-war suggests that computer mischief might be a preferred form of conflict before taking up arms, which is troubling and reassuring alike. It doesn't appear from the footage as if Lee actually went to Estonia, but it's a decent point on how e-commerce can be a problem if the system's down.
"Code Wars" is from CNBC's long-form programming division that supplies many of the channel's prime time documentaries, but "Code" is notably in-house and not outsourced as some have been to the capable Kurtis Productions. Yet, the crew in the credits is slimmer than in most other CNBC features, reflecting the production's heavy reliance on office interviews and stock footage.
Not surprisingly, McAfee and Symantec get a healthy amount of exposure for their contributed commentary. Early emphasis on power grids, nuclear plants, energy facilities, etc., is predictable and dry. The best thing Americans can hear is that, for all the things we put on a computer, irregularities have so far been extraordinarily rare. Lee closes with, "On a battlefield without borders, we remain captive — to high technology, and high anxiety." Think positive, and consider her program your Xanax.
Other reviews of "Code Wars": David Hinckley, N.Y. Daily News, 3 stars out of 5 — "a compelling and frightening case that when it comes to keeping information secret, the Internet is a vault with a wide-open door"
"Code Wars: America's Cyber Threat" (2011)
Featuring: Dmitri Alperovich, Wan Tao, Ethan Gutmann, Dale Meyerrose, William J. Lynn, Joseph Weiss, Sean McGurk, Liam O Murchu, David Albright, Olli Heinonen, John Hering, Kevin Mahaffey, Max Butler, Mark Patterson, Don Jackson, Jim Lewis, Jaak Aaviksoo
Senior executive producer: Mitch Weitzner
Senior producer: Wally Griffith
Producers: Alison O'Brien, Deborah Camiel
Editors: Conrad deVroeg, Allison Stedman, Victor Zimet
Camera: Joe DeWitt, LeRoy Jackson, Marco Mastrorilli
Audio: Chris Balmer, David Schumacher, Everett Wong
Production associate: Boram Lee
Associate producer: Emily Bodenberg
Additional camera: Bob Briscoe, Gim Lay, Raul Marin, Mark Neuling, Rob Pearson, Mark Simon
Additional audio: Shaun Baker, David Grogan, Ray McKinney
Director of post production: Vito Tattoli
Manager and chief photographer: Angel Perez
Global creative director: Victoria Todis
Senior animator: Jacqueline Dessel
Lead designer/animator: Peter Kourkoumelis
Interns: Kate Zabinsky
China producers: Eric Baculiano, Joy Leli
Media coordinator: Richard Marko
Special thanks: NBC News Foreign Desk, NBC News Beijing Bureau
Senior vice president, long form programming: Ray Borelli