I eagerly tuned in for the television program 60 Minutes in March when they advertised a segment titled “The Internet is Infected,” hosted by broadcast journalist Lesley Stahl. The segment began with her interview of a vice president with technology company Symantec — giving an overview of recent cyber-threats and demonstrating some data capture techniques used by digital thieves. It was informative if rather dull. Let’s face it, having an uber-geek computer whiz pointing out activities on a scrolling computer screen doesn’t exactly provide riveting television drama. It soon became obvious the producers of the segment knew this as well.

Stahl next introduced a young security researcher from a company that provides managed internet security services. Apparently, security researcher is a nebulous title, so Stahl suggested to the interviewee that he was a “hacker tracker.” I am not sure if she thought up this alliterative appellation on the spot or had prepared to use it, but the interviewee happily acceded. I remember commenting to my wife at this point on his clean cut youthfulness.

During this part of the segment, the young man spoke of dastardly Russian hackers bent on stealing identities and purloining the financial assets of the viewing audience. To boost his argument, he produced a picture of some of these evil Russian hackers. It showed a group of young people standing outside a building. It was obviously chilly there in Russia as they all wore coats. He pointed out one of the taller kids and explained to Stahl that he was a Russian youth not yet old enough to drive, but having the nom de guerre in cyberspace as “Tempest.” He was identified by this ersatz security expert as a ring leader among Russian cyber-criminals.

The final part of the segment featured an interview with an average Jane Sixpack who claimed to have been robbed by cyber-thieves. She explained that her online bank account had been compromised, and she personally witnessed the decrement in real-time while she was online with her bank. She had called the bank. Bank security personnel identified the vulnerability, fixed it, and returned her money within hours.

You could easily see the format the producers wanted to use for this segment. The technology guru starts the show explaining how the technology exploits work, the “hacker tracker” then explains the source of these attacks complete with pictorial “evidence,” and the finale shows how this all can impact John and Jane Viewer. Unfortunately, some of it simply wasn’t accurate.