Zero
Days
Directed
by: Alex
Gibney.
Written
by:
Alex Gibney.
Alex Gibney is one of the most
prolific documentary filmmakers working today – as hardly a year goes by when
he doesn’t have at least one, and sometimes two or three, movies opening. While
his interests are wide ranging, he often does go directly into the political.
In films like Client 9, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room or We Steal
Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks, Gibney doesn’t so much uncover a bunch of
shocking information about his subjects, as he is able to assemble all the
information we do know in one, two hour package that acts as a smart overview
of a complex subject. Zero Days is somewhat different – at least for me –
because it tells a story that I wasn’t overly familiar with – but has huge
ramifications, even if people are not much talking about it. Sooner or later,
we will.
Zero Days is about the STUXNET malware
virus – described as the most destructive piece of Malware ever created. In the
wake of America’s invasion of Iraq – and the disastrous consequences that
followed – President George W. Bush faced another challenge – the threat of
Iran getting nuclear weapons, and Israel’s intent to bomb Iran to get them to
stop. No matter scenario American intelligence came up, it all ended the same
way – they would have to get involved in another war in a Middle Eastern
country, because Israel couldn’t win this one on their own. Bush didn’t like
that he – and future Presidents – only seemed to have two options when it came
to Iran – an Iran with nuclear weapons, or an Iran that America had to nuke.
Intelligence eventually gave him another option – cyber warfare. What the
Stuxnet malware did was infect the Iranian nuclear system – causing their centrifuge’s
to spin either too fast or too slow – and self-destruct to get what was
necessary. The virus worked – but it wasn’t really a success. After all, it didn’t
stop Iran – it just slowed them down. And it introduced Cyber Warfare into the
mix – something that countries are using on each other – perhaps in more and
more damaging ways, as they find ways to escalate to scarier and scarier
levels.
What’s frustrating about Gibney’s
doc – to him more than anyone – is that no one involved will actually talk to
him about Stuxnet – or anything else. Person after person – from American or
Israeli intelligence – comes onto the screen basically to say that they don’t know
anything about it, and even if they did, they cannot talk about it. This is
true even though Stuxnet happened years ago – started in the Bush years, and
continued into the Obama years – but it remains “over” classified. While most
would think it reasonable that the government keep some secrets from its
citizens when it comes to intelligence gathering and National Security, etc. –
what Zero Days makes clear is that government wants to keep this so secret that
even though it’s in the public domain in some ways, they will not allow anyone
involved to talk about it. This not only stifles debate – but makes it
virtually impossible. How can citizens or elected officials know what is being
done in their name, if no one will talk about it?
The consequences, of course,
can be severe. Iran has already retaliated against America. Russia hacked into
the DNC computers for the express purpose of swaying an American Presidential
election (whether it was those e-mails or not that helped Trump win, I don’t know
– but it sure didn’t help Clinton). Everyone had a big laugh about Trump’s
comment at the debate about not knowing if it was Russia or China or some 400
pound guy in his parent’s basement – but this is serious and scary stuff. And
now Trump, who seems to have no idea what the hell he’s talking about when it
comes to Cyber Warfare (among other things) will be in charge – a thought that
should scare us all.
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