Click (TV programme)

Last updated

Click
BBC Click logo.png
Also known asClick Online(2000–05)
GenreReview show
Presented by Spencer Kelly and Lara Lewington
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes1,000 (as of 6 July 2019)
Production
Production locations BBC Pacific Quay, Glasgow
Running time30 minutes (approx.)
Production company BBC News
Original release
Network BBC News (UK feed)
BBC News (international feed)
BBC Two
Release6 April 2000 (2000-04-06) 
present
Related
Digital Planet

Click (formerly Click Online) is a weekly BBC television programme covering technology news and recent developments in the world of technology and the Internet, presented by Spencer Kelly and Lara Lewington. It was created by then BBC presenter Stephen Cole.

Contents

Since its debut in April 2000, it has broadcast a new episode every week, marking its 1,000th episode on 6 July 2019. [1]

Format

Each episode is introduced by the hosts, Spencer Kelly and Lara Lewington, and features reports about technology developments all over the world by a group of BBC contributors. Reports cover a variety of 'tech' subjects, including consumer technologies and issues, social impact of emerging technologies, video games, and innovations in mobile technology.

The show currently features a "Week in Tech" segment, compiling the week's biggest news in the technology area.

The programme previously included Webscape, a closing segment hosted by Kate Russell recommending new and useful websites. This segment was dropped but Russell continued doing general reporting for the show.

There are different editions of the programme, two 30-minute programmes (shown on UK feed of BBC News channel), a global edition (international feed of BBC News channel), and a 15-minute version (BBC One and UK feed of BBC News channel during BBC Breakfast ). A four-minute version also appears on BBC World News at varying times of the week.

BBC World Service broadcasts a weekly sister radio show, Digital Planet , which, for a time, shared the same name. It is presented by Gareth Mitchell and contributors Bill Thompson, Ghislaine Boddington and Angelica Mari.

Local versions

Persian-speakers can also watch BBC Persian Click online and on BBC Persian TV presented by Nima Akbarpour. [2] Further local versions are due to launch from Autumn 2018, including Click Tamil in October 2018, with the aim of having the show broadcast in up to 20 languages. [3]

History

The show started as Click Online in April 2000, hosted by Stephen Cole, and featured reports focused on the rise of the Internet and related technologies. [1] Thursday, 29 December 2005 marked the last edition of Click Online, as the show was previously known, coinciding with the departure of Stephen Cole after 295 shows. The programme was thereafter renamed Click, with new music and titles, and with Spencer Kelly, an existing reporter and producer on the show who also compiled reports for The Gadget Show on Channel 5, as the new host. Since then it has expanded its "online" focus, now featuring reports on technology developments from all over the world. Since April 2020, existing reporter Lara Lewington has become co-host.

Episode 774 was the world's first programme to be shot and edited entirely on mobile devices. [1]

The 12 March 2016 programme (#827) was broadcast in 360 degrees, and is the first entire episode of a TV programme to be broadcast as such. [4]

On 6 July 2019 the show's 1000th episode was broadcast. It consisted of an interactive episode where viewers could decide what to watch next. [1]

In March 2021, the BBC announced that the technology department, including Click, would be relocating to Pacific Quay in Glasgow. [5] The show stopped producing new episodes during April 2022 to facilitate the move, with repeats shown, and aired the first episode produced on Glasgow on 7 May 2022. [6]

Botnet controversy

In 2009 the show and the BBC created some controversy when it aired a special episode highlighting the dangers of botnets and how easy it was to get caught in one. The show bought control of a botnet of some 22,000 infected computers (for "a few thousand dollars") [7] from a Russian hacker, and used it to send spam to an email address set up for the experiment and to perform a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on a website set up by Prev-X (an internet security company that provided technical support for the show). [8] After the programme was made the computers on the botnet were sent a piece of software to remove the malware and a warning was sent to them telling the users what had happened and that they were vulnerable.

The response was mixed with the show receiving many emails both for and against the programme along with some negative press. [9] [10] The BBC was criticized by some legal consulting organisations as well as computer security companies. Computer security expert and senior technology consultant at Sophos, Graham Cluley, asked in his blog whether the BBC was breaking the Computer Misuse Act - which makes it an offence in the UK to access or modify a third-party computer without the owner's consent. [11] However internet security commentator Melih Abdulhayoğlu, founder of international computer security company Comodo Group, made a video in support of the BBC. [12] Click rebutted criticisms by stating in its Twitter posts that:

We would not put out a show like this one without having taken legal advice.

Presenters and reporters

In addition to presenters Kelly and Lewington, reporters include LJ Rich, Paul Carter, Marc Cieslak, Zoe Kleinman, Nick Kwek, Shiona McCallum, [13] Alasdair Keane [14] and Kitty Knowles. [15] Former reporters include Dan Simmons, Omar Mehtab, Jen Copestake and Chris Fox.

Previous presenters of the show have included Stephen Cole who left the BBC to work for Al Jazeera International. Kate Russell left in August 2020 after 14 years being part of the Click team. [16]

Other BBC journalists occasionally present segments of the programme. [17]

Related Research Articles

BBC Radio 4 Extra is a British digital radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the principal broadcaster of the BBC's spoken-word archive, and as a result the majority of its programming originates from that archive. It also broadcasts extended and companion programmes to those broadcast on Radio 4, and provides a "catch-up" service for certain programmes.

Tomorrow's World is a former British television series about contemporary developments in science and technology. First transmitted on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. The Tomorrow's World title was revived in 2017 as an umbrella brand for BBC science programming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Botnet</span> Collection of compromised internet-connected devices controlled by a third party

A botnet is a group of Internet-connected devices, each of which runs one or more bots. Botnets can be used to perform Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, steal data, send spam, and allow the attacker to access the device and its connection. The owner can control the botnet using command and control (C&C) software. The word "botnet" is a portmanteau of the words "robot" and "network". The term is usually used with a negative or malicious connotation.

<i>Digital Planet</i>

Digital Planet was a radio programme broadcast on the BBC World Service presented by Gareth Mitchell. Alternating as contributors are Bill Thompson, Ghislaine Boddington and Angelica Mari, who comment on items in the programme and discuss them with Mitchell. The show, broadcast weekly, covered technology stories and news from around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Cole (broadcaster)</span> British broadcast journalist

Stephen Joseph Samuel Cole is a British journalist, producer, news anchor and television presenter. He was the creative force behind BBC Click and its first host from 2000-2006. Cole was also part of the original launch lineup for Sky News in 1989, the revamped CNN International in 1995 and the launch of Al Jazeera English in 2006, as well as anchoring for BBC World News, from 1996-2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spencer Kelly</span> British journalist

Spencer Kelly is the presenter of the BBC's technology programme Click, broadcast on the BBC World News and the BBC News Channel in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maggie Philbin</span> English television presenter

Margaret Elizabeth Philbin OBE is an English radio and television presenter whose credits include Tomorrow's World, Multi-Coloured Swap Shop and latterly Bang Goes the Theory.

CNET Video is a San Francisco and New York based network showing original programming catering to the niche market of technology enthusiasts, operated by Red Ventures through their CNET brand. CNET Video originated as the television program production arm of CNET Networks in the United States, producing programs starting in the mid-to-late 1990s. It was CNET Networks' first project. Technology-themed television shows produced by CNET Video also aired on G4 in Canada. CNET Video is a 2012 Technology People's Voice Webby Award Winner. On July 24, 2013, CNET Video launched a new CNET Video+ app for iOS, Android and Xbox SmartGlass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lara Lewington</span> British television presenter

Lara Lewington born 10 May 1979 in Chichester, West Sussex is a British television presenter, journalist and former weather presenter. She co-presents the BBC's technology programme Click.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Storm Worm</span> Backdoor Trojan horse found in Windows

The Storm Worm is a phishing backdoor Trojan horse that affects computers using Microsoft operating systems, discovered on January 17, 2007. The worm is also known as:

Torpig, also known as Anserin or Sinowal is a type of botnet spread through systems compromised by the Mebroot rootkit by a variety of trojan horses for the purpose of collecting sensitive personal and corporate data such as bank account and credit card information. It targets computers that use Microsoft Windows, recruiting a network of zombies for the botnet. Torpig circumvents antivirus software through the use of rootkit technology and scans the infected system for credentials, accounts and passwords as well as potentially allowing attackers full access to the computer. It is also purportedly capable of modifying data on the computer, and can perform man-in-the-browser attacks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Storm botnet</span> Computer botnet

The Storm botnet or Storm worm botnet was a remotely controlled network of "zombie" computers that had been linked by the Storm Worm, a Trojan horse spread through e-mail spam. At its height in September 2007, the Storm botnet was running on anywhere from 1 million to 50 million computer systems, and accounted for 8% of all malware on Microsoft Windows computers. It was first identified around January 2007, having been distributed by email with subjects such as "230 dead as storm batters Europe," giving it its well-known name. The botnet began to decline in late 2007, and by mid-2008 had been reduced to infecting about 85,000 computers, far less than it had infected a year earlier.

Srizbi BotNet is considered one of the world's largest botnets, and responsible for sending out more than half of all the spam being sent by all the major botnets combined. The botnets consist of computers infected by the Srizbi trojan, which sent spam on command. Srizbi suffered a massive setback in November 2008 when hosting provider Janka Cartel was taken down; global spam volumes reduced up to 93% as a result of this action.

Zeus is a Trojan horse malware package that runs on versions of Microsoft Windows. It is often used to steal banking information by man-in-the-browser keystroke logging and form grabbing. Zeus is spread mainly through drive-by downloads and phishing schemes. First identified in July 2007 when it was used to steal information from the United States Department of Transportation, it became more widespread in March 2009. In June 2009 security company Prevx discovered that Zeus had compromised over 74,000 FTP accounts on websites of such companies as the Bank of America, NASA, Monster.com, ABC, Oracle, Play.com, Cisco, Amazon, and BusinessWeek. Similarly to Koobface, Zeus has also been used to trick victims of technical support scams into giving the scam artists money through pop-up messages that claim the user has a virus, when in reality they might have no viruses at all. The scammers may use programs such as Command prompt or Event viewer to make the user believe that their computer is infected.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waseem Mirza</span> British actor

Waseem Mirza born in Peterborough, England, is a British actor, who transitioned to acting from a career as a broadcast TV News Presenter and Sci-Tech Journalist. Prior to his role on the DC Entertainment series, Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman's Butler, he had won industry recognition for his work in British Television Journalism. As an Actor, he portrayed the physician Dr. Hamid in the 21 minute narrative: Beyond Belief - Talking to the Dead (2021). The film garnered awards in two categories at the Crownwood International Film Festival in July 2021. The awards were Best Director and Best Supporting Male Actor, awarded to Haider Zafar and Scott Samain respectively. Since then, the film has won further acclaim at The British Shorts Awards, LiftOff London and The White Deer Film Festival.

The Mariposa botnet, discovered December 2008, is a botnet mainly involved in cyberscamming and denial-of-service attacks. Before the botnet itself was dismantled on 23 December 2009, it consisted of up to 12 million unique IP addresses or up to 1 million individual zombie computers infected with the "Butterfly Bot", making it one of the largest known botnets.

Waledac, also known by its aliases Waled and Waledpak, was a botnet mostly involved in e-mail spam and malware. In March 2010 the botnet was taken down by Microsoft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malvertising</span> Use of online advertisement or advertising to spread malware

Malvertising is the use of online advertising to spread malware. It typically involves injecting malicious or malware-laden advertisements into legitimate online advertising networks and webpages. Because advertising content can be inserted into high-profile and reputable websites, malvertising provides malefactors an opportunity to push their attacks to web users who might not otherwise see the ads, due to firewalls, more safety precautions, or the like. Malvertising is "attractive to attackers because they 'can be easily spread across a large number of legitimate websites without directly compromising those websites'."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit</span>

The Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) is a Microsoft sponsored team of international legal and internet security experts employing the latest tools and technologies to stop or interfere with cybercrime and cyber threats. The Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit was assembled in 2008. In 2013, a Cybercrime center for the DCU was opened in Redmond, Washington. There are about 100 members of the DCU stationed just in Redmond, Washington at the original Cybercrime Center. Members of the DCU include lawyers, data scientists, investigators, forensic analysts, and engineers. The DCU has international offices located in major cities such as: Beijing, Berlin, Bogota, Delhi, Dublin, Hong Kong, Sydney, and Washington, D.C. The DCU's main focuses are child protection, copyright infringement and malware crimes. The DCU must work closely with law enforcement to ensure the perpetrators are punished to the full extent of the law. The DCU has taken down many major botnets such as the Citadel, Rustock, and Zeus. Around the world malware has cost users about $113 billion and the DCU's jobs is to shut them down in accordance with the law.

Top Gear is a British motoring magazine and entertainment television programme. It is a revival by Jeremy Clarkson and Andy Wilman of the 1977–2001 show of the same name for the BBC, and premiered on 20 October 2002. The programme focuses on the examination and reviewing of motor vehicles, primarily cars, though this was expanded upon after the broadcast of its earlier series to incorporate films featuring motoring-based challenges, special races, timed laps of notable cars, and celebrity timed laps on a course specially-designed for the relaunched programme. The programme drew acclaim for its visual and presentation style since its launch, which focused on being generally entertaining to viewers, as well as criticism over the controversial nature of its content. The show was also praised for its occasionally-controversial humour and lore existing in not just the automotive community but in the form of internet memes and jokes. The programme was aired on BBC Two until it was moved to BBC One for its twenty-ninth series in 2020.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Click 1000 - The Future of Television , retrieved 8 July 2019
  2. "About the programme". BBC News. 23 July 2010. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  3. Click - Live in India , retrieved 22 September 2018
  4. "Click: Watch a full show in 360 degrees". BBC News.
  5. "BBC set to move jobs to Glasgow in biggest change in decades". Glasgow Times. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  6. @bbcclick [@BBCClick] (5 May 2022). "They've rolled up their sleeves, and after a few weeks of repeats, the show's back on the road. Do tune in! https://t.co/K34Lsr7KKB" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 4 December 2022. Retrieved 4 December 2022 via Twitter.
  7. "Gaining access to a hacker's world". BBC News. 13 March 2009. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  8. Mills, Elinor (12 March 2009). "BBC buys, uses botnet to show dangers to PCs". CNET News. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  9. Leyden, John (16 March 2009). "BBC Click paid cybercrooks to buy botnet". The Register. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  10. "BBC cybercrime probe backfires". Stuff.co.nz. 16 March 2009. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  11. "Did BBC break the law by using a botnet to send spam?". Naked Security. Sophos. 12 March 2009. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  12. "Well Done, BBC". 16 March 2009. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2013 via YouTube.
  13. "Shiona McCallum Makes the move to BBC Click". responsesource.com. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  14. @bbcclick [@BBCClick] (8 October 2022). "This week on @bbcclick ⁦@alasdairkeano⁩'s debut report on efforts to digitally persevere Ukraine, @spenley explores the latest flexible screens, @annaholligan creates a digital model of herself and @laralewington tried on some virtual fashion https://t.co/nyFWmCZF8M" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 15 October 2022. Retrieved 4 December 2022 via Twitter.
  15. "The week in tech". BBC News. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  16. Kate Russell #standswithUkraine🇺🇦 #MashaAmini [@katerussell] (8 August 2020). "After 14 years of covering tech for @BBCClick, I have decided it is time to retire from the show to work on a new media venture. https://t.co/39neRodnfs - combining my 3 loves of tech, broadcasting and animals! Thank you SO much to all who have followed my career and supported me" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 9 April 2022. Retrieved 4 December 2022 via Twitter.
  17. "About Click". BBC News. 6 January 2006. Retrieved 5 March 2013.