Sitting in a pitch-dark forensics laboratory, Abby Sciuto (played by Pauley Perrette) and Timothy McGee (played by Sean Murray) must fight off a cybercriminal who is trying to steal information about the investigation.
Amid a series of incomprehensible words (`He burned through the firewall! That’s DOD level 9 encryption!`), the duo began to counterattack.
Find a chair and prepare to hack
Such scenes have shown us the absurdity of the film and entertainment industry in its depiction of hacking.
Reality happened much more smoothly.
Forget the breathtaking confrontations between hackers like in the movie NCIS;
These automated systems exist because the number of specifically targeted attacks is very small.
Most human involvement in hacks usually takes place after the security layer has been breached.
Of course this process is not entertaining at all.
Capture the Flag (CTF)
Occasionally, hackers will confront each other in real time, however, these are usually `performances` and not for tactical purposes.
We are talking about `Capture the Flags` (CTF) competitions, which take place at information security conferences, such as BSides events.
There are two types of CTF competitions.
The second type of competition is Red Team versus Blue Team (red team versus blue team), in which Blue Team plays a defensive role.
Each event includes different challenges, but they are often designed to test the skills security professionals use every day, including programming and exploiting known vulnerabilities in systems.
Although CTF events are quite competitive, animosity is rarely present.
Remote CTF
Sometimes CTF competitions are forced to be held remotely.
Sites like CTFTime round up upcoming CTF events.
If you prefer to wait until events reopen, you can participate in solo hacking challenges.
Another option, if you don’t mind creating a hacking environment right on your PC, is Damn Vulnerable Web Application (DVWA).
Just remember one thing: everyone uses their own keyboard!