WyzGuys Tech Talk

We have written about Stuxnet a couple of times.  (Here and here)  My fascination with this incredible piece of malware writing is that it represents the first documented case of cyber war between nation-states.  As we now know, Iran, specifically the nuclear facility at Natanz, was attacked by the United States, and our ally Israel.  I recently watched a documentary film titled  “Zero Days” on Comcast On-Demand which covers this event in a very thorough manner.  It is also available on Amazon Prime.

This was a difficult film to make because so many of the key players were not willing to speak about it on the record.  Most of them are covered by on or more non-disclosure agreements, and since the entire episode is still classified, very few were willing to provide any details.

The software was apparently a masterwork, very lean, no superfluous code.  Every bit was doing something.  It was originally designed to be self-terminating, but due to some over ambitious updates and modifications by our Israeli allies, it was able to escape into the wild and infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide.

There were some really terrifying issues that were explored.  Like what happens if during a cyber war someone turns off the lights?  How long before total chaos ensues?  This type of attack occurred in the Ukraine last December, and was suspected to be the work of the Russian Cyber Army.

Nevertheless, I found the film riveting, but then I am a computer and cybersecurity nerd, so why wouldn’t I?  I am still willing to recommend it to my readership.  Anyway, check it out some evening.