A recap of season 1 episode 1 of CSI: Cyber TV show.

The episode starts off in Baltimore Maryland at 1:37 am when a couple is awakened from voices coming out of a baby-cam monitor that was apparently hacked and the infant (Caleb Reynolds) kidnapped. It was later discovered the foreign voices were from individuals bidding on the baby in an illegal auction.

This has actually occurred to a Houston Nanny taking care of an infant. The nanny changing a diaper heard an unfamiliar voice come out of the family baby monitor. “That’s a really poopy diaper,”, apparently watching Ashley Stanley, the nanny, and little Samantha.

https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/nanny-freaks-as-baby-monitor-is-hacked-109405425022.html

The scene quickly shifts to Washington, DC where special agent Avery Ryan played by Patricia Arquette is surfing the web and receives an instant message about the Baltimore kidnapping. She meets with her boss Simon Sifter played by Peter MacNicol asking that the case be assigned to her group; Sifter states that the case has already been assigned to major crimes. Avery responds by saying:

Ryan: “Any crime involving electronic devices is by definition, cyber”

At this point Sifter gives in and states he would transfer the case to the cyber team.

In the next scene Agent Elijah Mundo played by James Van Der Beek is introduced while playing a first person shooter video game called “Assassins” which he cleverly use later in the show to make a vital connection with a teenage boy to obtain critical information about the kidnapping. While playing the game Mundo receives a call from Ryan.

Ryan: ”Wake up solider boy, duty calls.”

This also provides some background into Agent Mundo’s character assuming that he is former military personnel. The next scene provides additional information pertaining to Agent Mundo’s character traits as he provides Ryan with updates about to the case as they are walking to join the rest of the team in the Cyber Threat Operation Center (CTOC).

Mundo: “I put Caleb Reynolds’ photo out on the wire, notified TSA, contacted Baltimore PD, it took me a bit, finally got detective Cho on the wire. CSI has already process the parameter, he’s going to hold the rest of the crime scene for us…. So he says. State police highway patrol already mobilized check points already and amber alerts have been issued as well.”

The CTOC is the nerve center equipped with a lot of hi-tech devices; this is where the rest of the team is introduced (Daniel Krumitz played by Charley Koontz and Raven Ramirez played by Hayley Kiyoko) including Brody Nelson a black hat hacker that is working with the team played by Shad Moss aka Bow Wow.

Det. Cho of the Baltimore PD updates the team, when Ryan asked about the status of the baby-cam, Det. Cho stated, “it was unplugged and secured”. Here is where we get a taste of Krumitz personality as he stated

Krumitz: “Unplugged? That’s the quickest way to lost all the data.”

After hearing about the baby-cam being unplugged Ryan states:

Ryan: ”Please treat all hardware including the baby-cam like a dead body. Don’t touch it, don’t move it until we get there.”

Then the team heads to Baltimore

Once in Baltimore Ryan ask Krumitz to team up with Nelson

Krumitz: “What…? You’re sticking me with newbie Nelson?” The guy I busted?

Nelson: “Hey Chubby, keep my name out of your mouth, I’m not your braces”

Ryan: “Enough… Nelson, zip it! Krumitz, game face!”

This scene explained many things about the show and the team dynamics

1. How Nelson ended up working on to the team
2. Ryan’s role as she will try to keep things on track
3. Nelson’s wittiness
4. Krumitz being referred to as the best white hat hacker in the world
5. And that Nelson would be doing jail time if Ryan didn’t ask the judge to have him work with her.

Ryan: “One mistake federal pen five years…”

In the house Krumitz and Nelson have a small exchange

Nelson: Hey man what’s you problem?

Krumitz: You are my problem man. It is bad enough that Avery heads up the “It takes a hacker to catch a hacker program.” I only support it because she is my boss and I love my job, doesn’t mean I believe in it.

Nelson: Okay, look I don’t want to get in any more trouble than I already am because of you.

Krumitz: Then learn the job, ask questions, listen to intelligent answers.

From here the show takes us through numerous events such as the kidnappers being tracked down, they did not find baby Caleb, but they did find a lot of money in the trunk of the car they were driving. Before the team could interrogate the kidnappers, they were shot by a sniper, which Agent Mundo eventual killed. They were lucky enough to find evidence that led to additional information on locating the whereabouts of baby Caleb.

The show took us thought provoking interviews, holographic autopsy and a few additional shootouts. Every member of the team was able to solve various pieces of the puzzle to help advance the case until they were able to solve the crime at the end and rescue baby Caleb from a submerged car in the lake.

At the end, Nelson asked Ryan why is she helping him. Ryan responded by stating she wanted to help hackers become better people as she had been hacked before when she was a behavioral psychologist. The hacker released all her patient’s files which led to one of them getting killed. Ryan then revealed that after every case she goes to a place where thinks about how she will catch that hacker that stole her files. That place ended up being the Lincoln Memorial and that is how the show ended.

Overall, I think the first episode did a great job in introducing the various characters. I look forward to additional character development and learning more about how each member got to where they are and what they do on their spare time. I do have a bit of a problem with Patricia Arquette’s role; she seems very emotionless and bland. I am hoping that will change over time.

I also think this show can bring many information security, privacy and Internet safety issues we face in real life to the forefront and assist with overall user awareness.

We give this week’s episode a 3 1/2 Orb out of 5.

CSI: Cyber comes every Wednesday night at 10:00 p.m. eastern time on CBS. Follow @SecurityOrb on twitter for live tweets during the show.

Did you see CSI: Cyber, what did you think about it? Please share with us, leave a comment.