History YMMV / CSICyber

* CriticalResearchFailure: The writers obviously don't understand much about coding or the Internet. Almost all "code" is just HTML, for example.
** And specifically, in "Crowd Sourced", Brody and Krumitz give a howlingly inaccurate description of what IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is and how it works, in order to explain how they plan to disarm a bomb.
** In the show, the Deep Web is a magical land that only the super computer savvy can even access. In RealLife it's mostly sites that don't easily show up in search engines, hard to find but easy if you know the URL or even just the name. The show also treats the Deep Web as if it's a distinct zone of the internet with a specific border. One episode in particular has the web represented as a sea with the "Deep Web" being anything underwater. In all fairness, however, what the characters are usually describing are the Hidden Services of Tor. Not hard to access, but their existence isn't common knowledge. Furthermore, what the generally refers to as the "Deep Web" is more technically known as "Dark Web," with the Deep Web being a different term entirely. While the Dark Web is ''part'' of the Deep Web and is sometimes incorrectly referred to as that, causing confusion, the show really shouldn't be adding to that confusion. The show treats the Deep Web as something entirely bad. It's only used for criminal activity, weird sex things, etc... Completely forgetting there are plenty of legitimate use for unlisted sites to exist (Such as private pages/tools used only by members of an organization/company, for example) and such sites in fact make up the vast majority for the deep web. As an example most schools have sites that can only be accessed by students and databases that can only be accessed while on campus.
** [[http://www.wired.com/2015/05/csi-cyber-tech-talk/ Wired]] had an article calling out the first season's terrible {{Technobabble}}.
** How bad is it? Look at [[http://i.imgur.com/JJxFGbG.png this picture]] and see everything that's wrong in this ''single image''[[note]]The list is by no means exhaustive because we could fill the entire page with just things wrong in this screenshot[[/note]] and then imagine how much wrong they can get in a 45 min episode if a single screenshot makes so little sense:
*** The IP address is listed as [=IPv6=]. It is however in the [=IPv4=] standard.
*** [=IPv4=] addresses do not have digits higher than 255.
*** The IP address is not in the same subnet as its gateway address.
*** MAC addresses are hexadecimal (Meaning 0 to 9, A to F). The one here includes both a G and a Z.
*** They are trying to find another device's MAC address via its IP. ipconfig (Which is a command that shouldn't be capitalized) returns the user's own current IP address, not the one of another device on the network.
*** The command to find the MAC is incorrect. "ipconfig /all" would give them their own mac address to begin with, and if they insisted on using an extra step, "arp -a" will let them find it from the IP address.
** The Gyroscopes/Motion Sensors in the phones in "The Evil Twin" make an [=XBox=] Kinect look lame by comparison. They give out ludicrous amount of info they should not be able to give - such as limb movements and nearby objects, all while in someone's pocket. The show also believe they keep a several days long history of every motion and movement they've had, separate from the phone's main memory.
** One episode presented Digital Murder as a completely new problem and one that can only be done by a hacker, its been a problem for years and often happens by complete accident.
** The show doesn't understand how GPS works. It often treats anything with a GPS as having 2 way communication and that a GPS "broadcasts" his location. A GPS functions by listening to radio signals from satellite and calculating its distance from each satellite based on the signals time info, and then using three of these distances to triangulate its position. On its own a GPS does not ''transmit'' anything, it's merely a receiver that does mat. Now a GPS-enable device CAN transmit its location via other means once the GPS has calculated (for example, a Cellphone can broadcast the location its GPS calculated).

** Played with in the case of the "Freezing computer [[UsefulNotes/RandomAccessMemory RAM]]" trick. It is actually possible under certain circumstances to [[https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/new-research-result-cold-boot-attacks-disk-encryption/ halt or slow the randomization of RAM contents]] by exposing a DRAM module to cold temperatures. However, the data degrades within minutes, not hours or days like it's implied.

* DownerEnding: In "Fit-And-Run", the team arrives too late to stop a victim's kidneys getting forcibly removed and transplanted into a dying woman.

* UnfortunateImplications: The only two non-white team members, Brody and Raven, are also the two with criminal backgrounds. Every other team member is white and from a law enforcement background.

* CompleteMonster: [[SnakesAreSinister Python]], real name [[TheCracker Dante Wilkerson]], is one of the world's most wanted hackers. A figure born with reptilian skin, he would run a website where he sells faulty guns and drugs in the hope of creating [[ForTheEvulz anarchy]]. When cornered by the authorities, he would brutally torture and kill any agents sent against him. He would also hack various government agencies and release the information to criminals. Becoming obsessed with Agent Avery Ryan, he would kidnap, torture and even, just to mess with her, would give drugs to Avery's friend. About to be captured, he threatened to use his tech skills to overdose the friend if they don’t [[CriminalMindGames solve his riddles]], but later [[ILied attempts to kill her anyway]]. After failing, he tracks Avery down and kills the agents guarding her in the sick hope that if she kills him, she would become just like him. Python mixes cold sociopathy and vindictiveness and stands out as one of the most wicked of the franchise has ever produced.

* CompleteMonster ("Python" & "Python's Revenge"): [[SnakesAreSinister Python]], real name [[TheCracker Dante Wilkerson]], is one of the world's most wanted hackers. A figure born with reptilian skin, he would run a website where he sells faulty guns and drugs in the hope of creating [[ForTheEvulz anarchy]]. When cornered by the authorities, he would brutally torture and kill any agents sent against him. He would also hack various government agencies and release the information to criminals. Becoming obsessed with Agent Avery Ryan, he would kidnap, torture and even, just to mess with her, would give drugs to Avery's friend. About to be captured, he threatened to use his tech skills to overdose the friend if they don’t [[CriminalMindGames solve his riddles]], but later [[ILied attempts to kill her anyway]]. After failing, he tracks Avery down and kills the agents guarding her in the sick hope that if she kills him, she would become just like him. Python mixes cold sociopathy and vindictiveness and stands out as one of the most wicked of the franchise has ever produced.

* GeniusBonus: In "Fire Code", the villain has a code that can cause printers to burst into flames. In real life, there's an obscure, semi-obsolete error message in Unix and Linux systems, lp0 on Fire (more commonly known as Printer on Fire).
** There are moments where, among technobabble, the show will get something technical correct but even explain it in an illustrative, comprehensible way. This often serves to make the stuff they get wrong all the more maddening. For example their explanation of how a Kinect works (projecting a grid of infrared dots across the room and tracking how it sees them to detect user movements) is correct. This is followed by them saying that a Wiimote-like motion controlled video game controller has a GPS (And using said GPS to find the remote across town)... which is wrong.

* CompleteMonster: [[SnakesAreSinister Python]], real name [[TheCracker Dante Wilkerson]], is one of the world's most wanted hackers. A figure born with reptilian skin, he would run a website where he sells faulty guns and drugs in the hope of creating [[ForTheEvulz anarchy]]. When cornered by the authorities, he would brutally torture and kill any agents sent against him. He would also hack various government agencies and release the information to criminals. Becoming obsessed with Agent Avery Ryan, he would kidnap, torture and even, just to mess with her, would give drugs to Avery's friend. About to be captured, he threatened to use his tech skills to overdose the friend if they don’t [[CriminalMindGames solve his riddles]], but later [[ILied attempts to kill her anyway]]. After failing, he tracks Avery down and kills the agents guarding her in the sick hope that if she kills him, she would become just like him. Python mixes cold sociopathy and vindictiveness and stands out as one of the most wicked of the franchise has ever produced.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Avery points out in "Evil Twin" that "Even when women get the courage to leave abusive relationships, sometimes they still get killed."