Zero Days – Documentary About Cyber War

zero-daysWe 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.

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About the Author:

I am a cybersecurity and IT instructor, cybersecurity analyst, pen-tester, trainer, and speaker. I am an owner of the WyzCo Group Inc. In addition to consulting on security products and services, I also conduct security audits, compliance audits, vulnerability assessments and penetration tests. I also teach Cybersecurity Awareness Training classes. I work as an information technology and cybersecurity instructor for several training and certification organizations. I have worked in corporate, military, government, and workforce development training environments I am a frequent speaker at professional conferences such as the Minnesota Bloggers Conference, Secure360 Security Conference in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, the (ISC)2 World Congress 2016, and the ISSA International Conference 2017, and many local community organizations, including Chambers of Commerce, SCORE, and several school districts. I have been blogging on cybersecurity since 2006 at http://wyzguyscybersecurity.com

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