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NOVA: Rise Of The Hackers

Cyber-security experts Eric Chien and Liam O Murchu, Symantec. Their job is to investigate the viruses that pop up on your computer. They stumbled across and investigated the stuxnet cyber weapon.
Courtesy of Paul Cooke/© BBC
Cyber-security experts Eric Chien and Liam O Murchu, Symantec. Their job is to investigate the viruses that pop up on your computer. They stumbled across and investigated the stuxnet cyber weapon.

Airs Wed., May 20, 2015 at 9 p.m. & Sun., May 24 at 2 p.m. on KPBS TV

The Cybersecurity Lab

Take cybersecurity into your own hands. In this Lab, you’ll defend a company that is the target of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. Your task is to strengthen your cyber defenses and thwart the attackers by completing a series of cybersecurity challenges. You’ll crack passwords, craft code, and defeat malicious hackers.

Inside an Identity Theft

Thieves employ sophisticated techniques to steal identities, from phone number spoofing to database hacking. Read the article, "My Identity Was Stolen. Here’s How They Did It," by Phil McKenna.

Cyber War Games

Researchers from all over the world can use DETER, a practice Internet, to discover the best ways to combat hackers and prevent a “Cyber Pearl Harbor.” Host David Pogue met with cyber security experts at DETER, who taught him about a common attack called the Distributed Denial of Service, or DDoS, attack. Watch the video

Our lives are going digital. We shop, bank and even date online. Computers hold our treasured photographs, private emails, and all of our personal information. This data is precious — and cybercriminals want it.

In "Rise Of The Hackers," NOVA goes behind the scenes of the fast-paced world of cryptography to meet the scientists battling to keep our data safe. They are experts in extreme physics, math and a new field called “ultra-paranoid computing,” all working to forge unbreakable codes and build ultra-fast computers.

From the two men who uncovered the world’s most advanced cyber weapon to the computer expert who worked out how to hack into cash machines and scientists who believe they can store a password in your unconscious brain, NOVA investigates how a new global geek squad is harnessing cutting-edge science — all to stay one step ahead of the hackers.

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Past episodes of NOVA are available for online viewing. NOVA is on Facebook, and you can follow @novapbs on Twitter.