this is "nightline." >> tonight, life hacked. eater one of the largest data ce br are in las vegas where the hackers convene, stealing passwords and sneakg imachines. >> this was used in the november election? >> yeah. >> you're saying it can be n ha ten years ago. >> some claiming they can hack your network through your fridge. is your identity safe? the life of spice. >> i made mistakes, there's no question, i think we all do. >> famously combative former press secretary sean spicer getting real about his tumultuous time serving the president. >> did the president ever ask you to lie or to manipulate the truth? >> his brief and tumultuous history with the man who was communications director for ten days, anthony sc i would work

well with him. >> what the president told him about his emmy awards cameo. first here tonight, the "nightline 5." endless shrimp is back at red lobster. we went all-out to bring you even more incredible shrimp and new flavors. like new nashville hot shrimp drizzled with sweet amber honey. new grilled mediterranean shrimp finished with aor av sle byonio herbs. feeling hungry yet? good, there's plenty more where these came from. garlic shrimp scampi and other classics you want. as much as you want, however you want them. hurry, endless shrimp

♪ the best things in life they're free ♪ ♪ stars belong to everyone ♪ ♪ they cling there for you and for me ♪ ♪ flowers in spring ♪ the robins that sing ♪ the sunbeams that shine ♪ they're yours and their mine ♪ love can come to everyone ♪ the best things in life they're free ♪ ♪ good evenin bank accounts, steal your car off the road, even shut down a nuclear

power plant. all without leaving the couch. in the age of connectivity, hackers are becoming the most dangerous criminals in the world. th ptolyoneople them, other hackers. tonight abc's nick watt takes us to las vegas and what may be the supebowl of hacking. >> massive security breach -- >> hackers targeting credit-monitoring company equifax -- >> reporter: hackers want your financial information. abuy sccit, where it's for sal >> hackers came on episodes of several hit shows including "game of thrones." >> reporter: they're hacking our entertainment. >> we noticed that hack swiftly. >> reporter: hacking our social media. >> a massive and coordinated hack -- >> reporter: some interfering in elections overseas. >> the fbi investigating accusations vladimir putin and the russians were trying to sway the election -- >> reporter: and right here t a continues to dominate the headlines -- >> reporter: threatening arguably the most stable decracy on earth. hacking may be the headline of

our times. that equifax hack put the personal details of 143 million people, more than half of adult americans, at risk. >> companies like equifax and other banks and financial services companies are stewards of our information. they hold some of our most sensitive data. so a breach like this is a wake-up call. >> reporter: power grids, telecom systems, nuclear plants, transport networks, even life-saving medical devices in hospitals are at risk. >> these pumps have a firewall that's there, but it's very easy to turn off. and then once the firewall's turned off we're going to connect to the pump and send a command. if this were connected to a patient the it would dump all the drugs into a patient. it's almost as if the pump has a life of its own. >> reporter: we've come to vegas to meet the troops in the trenchesig fginht t cyber war. a pair of back-to-back hacker conventions. >> 60% of our audience that we polled were concerned that there

would be an attack on a credit infrastructure in the u.s. >> the bottom line is that attackers are getting better. >> reporter: in vegas we're warned to protect ourselves before even walking through the door. >> they told us before we got here to shut off wi-fi and blue tooth. so i've done that. they've said don't use the atms, ved as sooou yas change all your passwords. are there bad guys floating around here? >> there very well could be. we have no way of telling that. >> reporter: day one is black hat starring the more strait-laced cyber security experts like steve wily. thf o ndees at black cat are world. >> reporter: day two, def con for the edgy who sneak out the soft spots for bug bounty awards some companies offer for bragging rights, for prizes. >> whoever wins the competition gets that truck. >> that's a nice truck. >> i don't know how they're going to get it home, i assume drive it. they've taken a bunch of car

parts out of a car and put it up on a board. this is normally inside of a car. this is part of the hacking challenge. >> the good guys are coming up with the vulnerabilities and telling everyone about them so they can fix them before the bad guys get to them. >> this is probably going to happen tomorrow -- herster, a good guy, security expert from finland, our guide to the voting machine. >> every method we have here has been hacked. >> reporter: right here, to in under two hours. da they're the real deal, bought on ebay or at government auctions. this was used in the november election? >> yes. >> you're saying it can be hacked? >> it has been hacked already, ten years ago. i personally was part of the team. >> rip it apart, see how it works. exactly, the joy of discovery. that is operator's manual for that system. >> reporter: the fbi claims in 2016, russia targeted election systems in up to 39 states. no evidence that any votes were actually changed. >> it's called ibotronic --

>> reporter: he says all the machines here were hacked in around 90 minutes. >> engineer and figure it out from scratch with no manual, no instruction -- >> reporter: the manufacturer of one of the devices tells us, in part, we make security a cornerstone. our voting systems are subjected to rigorous and thorough test campaigns. the validity of hacking attempts that do not properly recognize the utilization of real-world security practices established by law and regyatuled every voting jurisdiction in the nation is problematic." >> iunnamed foreign party wanted to hack this machine, what could they actually achieve by hacking this machine? >> change the outcome of the election. >> reporter: lawmakers in virginia just voted to no longer use touch screen only machines. they will use backup paper ballots as well. a direct result of the holes exposed right here in this room. >> these are actually very useful opportunities for the

security community to come together. it's the same people who understand how to break into these systems that are in the best position to defend against the criminals. >> unhackable systems don't exist. it's a bedtime story. >> reporter: hackers are their way into toasters, refrigerators, et cetera. who cares? on your network, you put mputer security updates on it. but you bought a refrigerator that's not doing updates so an attacker can get to the refrigerator and then go to the rest of your network. >> reporter: greg smith is primarily an expert in hacking transportation. >> is there a possibility that a rogue nation could hack into a plane or train and take control of that? >> there's absolutely a threat of that. we find out where the weaknesses before that happens. this is an acu -- >> reporter: today these researchers are trying to find chinks in auto armor before the bad guys. the truck is the prize. >> say you have this huge attack

surface -- >> reporter: the hackers weigh in potentially to all the info in your phone and to record your conversations. >> there's a microphone in a blue tooth. so if somebody has control of that device, they can turn on the microphone. or they could control the car, control steering, control fuel. >> this is part of the hacking challenge. >> reporter: all you can do, turn off your car's blue tooth and wi-fi when not in use, reduce your attack surface. all right, we found an empty conference room for our own experiment. >> if i popjohn nam--n i >> reporter: john is the social media-savvy millennial producer of this piece. he's filming right now. >> for example, it's very easy to find his account. you can pull together information. for example, i was able to sech pthasroswugorhd breach database and find a university of connecticut address with his name. the password hash that's in the same database you can crack and convert back into the original password. >> reporter: mike in minutes

traced an old e-mail address for john and found the password. silly john uses a variation on that password. he might as well be naked. >> taylor swift, kylie jenner, internet ceos like sandar of facebook, facebook's marc zuckerbergplgoahol o. eo ordsassw pand lo and behold it worked o their facebook, twitter, whatever. >> what is john's password? you better have changed that by now. >> reporter: make yourself hack-proof as possible, use different passwords, change them often. avoid using public wi-fi, it's an easy way into your phone. would you ever use the public wi-fi in a place like this? >> not recommended. >> reporter: enable privacy settings. the less enfoe you put out there to see, the less hackers have to work with. >> through facebook you discovered my sister is called pip. you may send up a fake pip and

e-mail me. >> yeah, exactly. >> reporter: some things are out of your hands. >> the fact is we are on own own when it comes to protecting our personal data. when we turn over information to companies, which we have to do in the modern world, we are losing control of that data. >> whatever device you have, they'll figure out a way through it. >> reporter: nothing is unhandleable. that's a fairy tale land in which we no longer live. i'm nick watt for "nightline" ln the former press secretary sean spicer, known for his battles with the media. how does he handle our tough questions?

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if the president has been at war with the media, sean spicer has been both his sword and his shield. the former white house press secretary is famous for his confrontational style and unflinching commitment to the president's narrative. now in his first interview sce longer speaking for his boss but for himself. paula faris. >> did you always tell the truth from the podium? >> to the best of my ability, absolutely. >> did the president ask you to lie or manipulate the truth? >> no. >> reporter: front and center for the tumultuous first six months of the trump administration, white house press secretary sean spicer. >> i walked out every day with the facts that i could gather that i had at the time and tried to do the best i could every day. >> reporter: it was a contentious relationship from the get-go. >> sean! >> sean! >> sean! >> reporter: spicer setting the tone by chastising the press corps about the crowd size at

president trump's inauguration. >> this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period. >> the photographic evidence was contradictory. >> i think it might have been better to be a lot more specific with what we were talking about in terms of the universe, not focused so much on photographic evidence, et cetera. so, yes, from that standpoint, i think i could have probably had hand and been more articulate in describing, you know, the entirety of what that day was about. >> did the president ask you to defend the crowd size? or was that your idea? >> he didn't ask me to defend it. i think he wanted to make sure we set the record straight. again, people were looking at photographs, making vast judgments as to how many people were attending. >> reporter: a rocky start that never seemed to improve. >> i'm sorry, please stop shaking your head again. okay, you don't get to just yell questions. we're going to raise our hands like big boys and girls. that's the silliest thing i ever heard. okay, next -- >> reporter: spicer stands by his work in the white house. >> sometimes we can disagree with the facts.

>> you said, "if you lose the respect and trust of the press corps, you've got nothing." do you feel you lost the trust of the press corps? >> some of them. again, i knew -- >> do you understand why? >> in some cases i do. again, i also think it's amazing what a one-way street it is. >> reporter: perhaps the most famous and infamous press secretary in history, portrayed on "saturday night live" by melissa mccarthy. >> i would like to begin today by apologizing on behalf of you, to me. >> reporter: and having a demanding boss didn't make spicer's job any easier. let's just talk about president trump. th em atsttweets, the veracity definitely been challenged. was he ever tough to defend? >> he's always said, and he means it, and he's right that he's always his best spokesperson. he knows what he wants to say, how to say it. >> that makes it tough for a spokesperson. >> sure it does, absolutely. no one said this was going to be al.ly, though? >> no one knows until you take

the job. the scrutiny and a lot of the other stuff that comes in with it. i would probably argue the stress level. donald trump's been the same individual for 71 years. i knew who he was, how he communicated. and it all came with the job. >> you said one of the challenges of being press secretary is the president felt he's his best spokesman. i would imagine he probably at times guided you on what he wanted you to say. >> absolutely. >> absolutely? marching orders, he's the boss. >>s e' h thiethnk that you've g to remember what the world -- the job is to speak on his behalf. and to share with the press corps and the american people what the president's thinking. and so my -- the first rule is to make sure that i'm getting that right from him. >> reporter: his stint in the white house was marked by a string of controversies. >> let's talk about one serious allegation, the travel ban. you said thatui ivocally wasn't a travel ban, president trump as you know tweeded, this is a travel ban no matter what anybody says. why did you never correct that?

>> i would definitely say i wish we'd been more consistent from the beginning in we use and goals we're trying to achieve. >> you'd like a do-over on that? >> sure, i'll take a mulligan on that one. >> reporter: the unexpected firing of fbi director james comey. >> breaking developments. the fallout now after of fbi director james comey. >> terminated by president trump with this letter. comey was leading the investigation over trump's campaign in russia -- >> reporter: contradicting stories as to why comey had been let go. >> the president over the last several months lost confidence in director comey. >> regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story, it's an excuse. e o the>>nc truth behind what was really going on, why didn't you set recd straight? you don't feel you have an obligation to set the record straight? >> he set it straight. my job is to help give voice to what his thinking when is he can't do it himself. in that case he did it himself.

>> reporter: the firing led to the apoint of special counsel robert mueller. >> let's talk about the russia su reached out to you at all? >> i'm not going to discuss that issue. >> have you hired a lawyer? >> i'm not going to discuss that issue. >> have you been subpoenaed? >> i'm not going to discuss that issue. >> have you heard in the white house fueler is going to be fired? >> i'm not going to discuss that issue. y>>l the wouhite house has beey clear they're going to be cooperative as possible. >> you're not under the auspices >> undstan thabuthi tan hhesereu an issue of executive privilege and as long as that's not invoked i will do everything to further do my part to further this investigation coming to a swift conclusion. >> reporter: through it all spicer weathered the plil call storms. until anthony scaramucci was named the new communicas ironti for leaving? >> yes. >> why? >> i've noemp known anthony for a while. not close. anthony wanted to be involved in the administration in some

capacity. he had been a strong advocate for the president and wanted a position. just don't think that he had th qualifications and the background to play a leading role crafting the communication. i did not think that i would work well with him. >> reporter: scaramucci lasted only ten days. spicer, another month. he is now evaluating new offers and even made a cameo at the emmy awards. >> this will be the largest audience to witness an emmys, period! >> have you spokenhurithe tcame? >> i have. >> and what did he say? >> he was very supportive. he thought i did a great reassu >> some argue the reason you did it is because this is step one in trying to rehab your image. >> i feel very good with my many man. i'm very happy with myself. i am able to go out and explain a lot of things now. but i'm not on a tour, i'm out having some fun. >> reporter: it might be fun for spicer, but for his many critics

it is too soon to celebrate someone who they believe has not been honest with the american people. people have hard feelings toward you. >> i understand that. >> they feel you lied to the american people. have you ever lied to the american people? >> i don't think so. >> you don't think so? >> no, i don't cheat on my taxes -- >> unequivocally you can say no? agn,ouant to find something -- i've not knowingly done anything to do that, no. >> any regrets about the combative relationship with the press corps? >> i've made mistakes, i think new year's no question we all do. some of theme i've tried to own very publicly. in some cases there were things i did that until somebody brought it up, gosh, i didn't realize that was a mistake, i'm sorry about that. but to watch person tacks, questioning my integrity, questioning what my intentions were, i think were really over the top. >> reporter: to his detractors still unfinished business. so many americans feel they deserve an apology from sean spicer. are they ever going to get one? >> i think that there are things that i did during my time there

that i needed to go out and correct, i did that. where there were mistakes made that i got something wrong, i think i've owned that. i know there's some folks that no matter what we say or do, everything we do was wrong and want a blanket apology, that's not happening. >> for "nightline" i'm paula faris in alexandra, virginia. >> our thanks to paula faris. and we'll be right back. (dog) mmm. this new beneful grain free is so healthy... oh! farm-raised chicken! mmm...that's some really good chicken. i don't think i've ever tasted chicken like this. what!? here come the accents. blueberries and pumpkin. wow. that was my favorite bite so far. not even kidding. i mean that was... that's like three super foods. pretty, uh, well...super. now i got kind of a pumpkin, chicken thing going on... ...whoop! time to wrestle. (avo) new beneful grain free. out with the grain, in with the farm-raised chicken. healthful. flavorful. beneful.

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