'Zero Days' - Hidden World of Cyber Warfare

Oscar-winner Alex Gibney flawlessly spins what could have been a tech-talk heavy bore into an enthralling espionage thriller complete with the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists and an arsenal of bits and bytes every bit as lethal as terrorists packing bombs and AR-15s.

New from the crazy uncle who unwittingly armed his enemies in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan comes Stuxnet, the computer worm that just might replace the H-bomb as the thing we fear more than fear itself. 

Oscar-winner Alex Gibney, whose chilling documentary, “Zero Days,” rivetingly chronicles how Uncle Sam outsmarted himself by inadvertently providing our enemies a new weapon to turn against us. Who knew binary code could be so deadly?

Certainly not the folk at NSA, CIA and the various US alphabet agencies who conspired with Israeli “intelligence” to design, code and unleash the self-replicating Stuxnet malware on enough computers for it to eventually be intercepted and turned right back on our nation’s fragile cyber infrastructures. In other words, giving our not-so-good friends in Russia, Iran, China and North Korea the power to wipe out our power grids, financial systems and air-traffic controls with a few dozen strategic keystrokes.

Panic might be a little premature, but it won’t be if we don’t start treating cyberwarfare the same way we do nukes by forging treaties and setting rules of engagement. That’s the hope of prominent U.S. spymasters like Richard Clarke and Gen. Michael Hayden, the former chief of both the CIA and NSA. They are among the dozen or so experts Gibney interviews in his quest to root out the origins of Stuxnet, its untimely unfurling and its long-term effects on how we might wage war in the 21st century.

Their observations, and those of a spooky Max Headroom-type hologram collectively dishing out top-secret info leaked by a smattering of unnamed whistle-blowers inside the NSA, will scare the bejesus out of you. But the beauty of Gibney, the genius behind classic docs like “Taxi to the Dark Side,” “Going Clear,” “Steve Jobs,” “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” and “Client 9,” is his ability to make his relentless muckraking shamefully entertaining, even generating laughs among the doomsday predictions. Even better is his brilliant use of pictures and graphics to make an incredibly complex subject almost easy to understand, particularly in how Stuxnet was devised to anonymously attack the rapidly spinning centrifuges in Iran’s heavily fortified fuel-enrichment plant in Natanz.

No digital clock counting down? Not with Stuxnet and its even more powerful successor, Nitro Zeus. They are malware that frighteningly strike silently and without warning.

The first thing Gibney’s array of experts stress is moving cyber-warfare out of the shadows and into the light, by having Western intelligence organizations admit that such programs exist and then open a worldwide dialogue on controlling it so – like nukes – we don’t end up on the verge of destroying Earth.

As General Hayden says, like 1945, we’ve opened a Pandora’s Box, and there’s no chance of ever putting the lid back. No thanks to the Stuxnet inventors, we must learn to live with it. And how we choose to do that will greatly determine if we live free, or at the mercy of these “cyber armies” who could well be the deaths of us all.

Ein News

« Ransomware Victims Run Into Millions
Improved Security For The Internet-of-Things »

CyberSecurity Jobsite
Perimeter 81

Directory of Suppliers

FT Cyber Resilience Summit: Europe

FT Cyber Resilience Summit: Europe

27 November 2024 | In-Person & Digital | 22 Bishopsgate, London. Business leaders, Innovators & Experts address evolving cybersecurity risks.

CSI Consulting Services

CSI Consulting Services

Get Advice From The Experts: * Training * Penetration Testing * Data Governance * GDPR Compliance. Connecting you to the best in the business.

Syxsense

Syxsense

Syxsense brings together endpoint management and security for greater efficiency and collaboration between IT management and security teams.

Perimeter 81 / How to Select the Right ZTNA Solution

Perimeter 81 / How to Select the Right ZTNA Solution

Gartner insights into How to Select the Right ZTNA offering. Download this FREE report for a limited time only.

Resecurity, Inc.

Resecurity, Inc.

Resecurity is a cybersecurity company that delivers a unified platform for endpoint protection, risk management, and cyber threat intelligence.

Qualitèsoft Technology

Qualitèsoft Technology

Qualitèsoft Technology is a leading Software Development and Quality Assurance organization. We specialize in Custom Development, Mobile Application, Software Testing and Quality Assurance.

enSilo

enSilo

enSilo secures customers data on premise or in the cloud. Regardless of the where the threat comes from, enSilo can protect your data.

Adroit Technologies

Adroit Technologies

Adroit Technologies has been developing award winning real-time software for the industrial automation markets for over 25 years.

CyberPoint

CyberPoint

CyberPoint delivers innovative, leading-edge cyber security products, solutions, and services to customers worldwide.

HudsonCyber

HudsonCyber

HudsonCyber, part of HudsonAnalytix, provides leading cyber risk management services for the global maritime transportation industry.

LiveVault

LiveVault

LiveVault delivers fully automated, turnkey, backup over the Internet or a private network connection for uninterrupted remote data protection.

Bird & Bird

Bird & Bird

Bird & Bird is an international law firm with a focus on helping organisations being changed by technology and the digital world. Areas of expertise include cyber security.

SEPPmail

SEPPmail

SEPPmail is a patented e-mail encryption solution to secure your electronic communication.

BioConnect

BioConnect

BioConnect provide biometric access control solutions to verify a person’s identity across physical, IOT and digital applications.

NOW Insurance

NOW Insurance

NOW Insurance provides small business owners and other professional classes with a seamless purchasing experience for general liability, professional liability, and cybersecurity insurance coverage.

Inpher

Inpher

Inpher has pioneered cryptographic Secret Computing® that enables advanced analytics and machine learning while keeping data private, secure, and distributed.

Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre (CSCRC)

Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre (CSCRC)

The CSCRC provides frank and fearless research and in-depth analysis of cyber security systems, the cyber ecosystem and cyber threats.

OnSecurity

OnSecurity

OnSecurity replaces the overhead of traditional penetration testing firms with a simple online interface, making it easy to book tests as and when needed.

Probity

Probity

Probity Inc. is a certified software development and systems engineering company, providing support to federal government and national defense related clients.

Crypto Legal

Crypto Legal

Crypto Legal is a leading UK-based law firm specialising in blockchain forensics and legal services.

Clango

Clango

Clango employs an identity-centric approach to optimizing your cybersecurity investment while minimizing risk.