Syfy is making a reality show about hackers

By Katie Rife | January 5, 2015 | 9:24pm

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The Sony hacking scandal may have been a massive, embarrassing mess with wide-reaching financial and even diplomatic implications, but it had “heat,” as we say when we pretend to be members of the “biz.” And the story continues to unfold, with the U.S. Treasury issuing sanctions against North Korea for its role in the Sony hack as some people question whether this story is really as it appears. Money can’t buy this kind of publicity (OR CAN IT?!), and in what is either a lucky coincidence or some quick work on a producer’s part, Syfy announced today that it is developing a reality show about hackers.

Few details are available about the as-yet-untitled show, except that it will take viewers “deep inside the shadowy and dangerous world of high-tech hackers” by interviewing convicted cyber-criminals and the law enforcement officials who caught them. It will also take viewers inside the ’Net with “experiential ‘hacking’ scene(s)” that will use on-screen graphics to show what it looks like when a computer system is hacked, an experience that will presumably look something like this. Whether the Comcast-owned network plans to make an episode on its rival’s hacker troubles remains unknown.