The new documentary about Stuxnet, 'Zero Days', chronicles the largest US cyber operation targeting Iran. It was called Nitro Zeus and compromised the infrastructure of an entire country. It should be noted that Stuxnet could also be used as a weapon in any future war.
Citing anonymous sources from within the NSA and CIA, the film states that the Nitro Zeus program had infiltrated communications control systems, energy networks, transportation, and financial systems, and remains poised to “disrupt, degrade, and destroy” these infrastructures if a new war with Iran breaks out.
The multi-million dollar program was run inside the NSA. Stuxnet, although active, was only activated when Israel launched an attack on Iran and the US became involved shortly after, according to the film by director Alex Gibney. The film is being shown in the US today.
The Stuxnet worm was discovered in 2010, on infected computers inside an Iranian uranium enrichment facility and had damaged the centrifuges used to clean the ore.
For the more technically savvy, the film contains some riveting interviews with Symantec researchers who dedicated their lives to analyzing Stuxnet's code line by line to understand what it did, how it did it, who created it, and who the target was.
The film contains some very creepy dialogue between the researchers. When they realized that governments were behind the malware, they started to worry for their lives.
One Friday night, Symantec researcher Eric Chien told his partner Liam O Murchu, “I’m not suicidal. If we had to see dead people on Monday, it wouldn’t be me.”
Beyond the technical aspects, the film explores the broader implications of cyberwarfare and how there are some rules that govern it. The use of offensive tactics in cyberspace must be authorized by the president, and it is the only weapon that requires such authorization besides nuclear missiles.
The government, of course, does not acknowledge that it was involved in cyber warfare with specially designed weapons, in an effort to keep their use under control, says Richard Clark in the film. Clark was a former presidential security adviser to Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Former NSA and CIA director General Michael Hayden says these weapons need to be discussed publicly in a mature debate in order to avoid widespread devastation from their use.
"These weapons are top secret," he says in the film.
