A hacking offence

How a British cyber-thriller from the maker of Wolf Hall cracked the code to make it feel authentic.

- RUSSELL BROWN

THE UNDECLARED WAR, TVNZ+, from Wednesday, August 17

Plausibility runs through The Undeclared War, a thriller about a future cyberwar that is, in many respects, already under way in the real world.

Its Bafta-winning creator, Peter Kosminsky, recently emphasised to the Radio Times that “there’s nothing in this show that either hasn’t happened or is not being sort of ‘war-gamed’ by the people here and in other countries who try to prepare for this kind of thing. There are no techniques shown or strategies described that aren’t happening and aren’t real.”

The show depicts the mechanics of IT security and the threats it seeks to blunt as authentically as any mainstream TV production ever has. When its GCHQ experts anxiously dissect the source code of an exploit that has taken down half of Britain’s internet, crippling banks and grounding airlines, they use real tools. Where the exploration of that text becomes unfilmable, its narrative diverts into allegorical sequences that are, on their own terms, also authentic. Yes, intrusive hacking really is about metaphorically poking around cubbyholes, finding notes, trying locks and using a screwdriver to open hatches.