PrettyLittleLiars
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High-tech TV: How realistic is the hacking in prime-time shows?
A group of five impeccably dressed high school girls are almost murdered dozens of times by the same, mysterious stalker and the police in their idyllic small town are either corrupt or too incompetent to care. How do the girls fight back? Hacking, of course. At least, that's one way they do it on Pretty Little Liars. "Hacking" is the deus ex machina in plenty of scenarios on Pretty Little Liars and other mainstream programs, allowing people to easily track, harass, defend and stalk each other 30 to 60 minutes at a time. But how real is it? To determine the feasibility of the hacks presented on shows like Pretty Little Liars, Sherlock, Scandal, Arrow, CSI: Cyber and Agents of SHIELD, I spoke to Patrick Nielsen, senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab.
Screen Grabs: Pretty Little Liars is TV's newest home to egregious product placement (video)
Scene: Impossibly mature high school "girls" mingling in front of a locker. Action! Bitter Barbie: "What are you doing? Is that a new phone?" Bland Barbie: "Yeah, I'm checking my Kin. I'll just write on Hannah's wall from here." End scene. Yes, ABC's new Pretty Little Liars show is the future of American television, where entertainment morphs into infotainment and bakes the minds of an entire generation into a lovely pie of corporate servitude. We blame TiVo. Oh, and just because Palm quit making creepy commercials doesn't mean that they've given up on promoting its Pre to women. Looks like Roger McNamee was right about that backside mirror's appeal. See what we mean in the PLL episode 3 embeds posted after the break. [Thanks, Dave]
