The new documentary for Stuxnet, 'Zero Days', recounts the largest US enterprise in cyberspace targeting Iran. It was called Nitro Zeus and threatened the infrastructure of a whole country. Here, to mention that Stuxnet could also be used as a weapon in any future war.
Citing unnamed sources inside the NSA and CIA, the film states that the Nitro Zeus program had penetrated communications control systems, networks energy, transportation and financial systems, and remains ready to “disrupt, degrade and destroy” these infrastructures if another war breaks out with Iran.
The program is worth millions of dollars and it has run within the NSA. Although Stuxnet was active, it came into force when Israel launched an attack on Iran and immediately afterwards the United States was involved, according to film director Alex Gibney. The film is being screened today in the US.
The Stuxnet worm discovered 2010 on infected computers inside an Iranian uranium enrichment plant and damaged the centrifugal cleaners of the ore.
For the more technically minded, the film contains some riveting interviews with the Symantec researchers who devoted their lives to analyzing the Stuxnet code line line by line to understand what it did, how it did it, who created it and what the goal was.
The film contains very frightening dialogues among the researchers. When they realized that behind the malware there were governments began to worry about their lives.
One Friday night, Symantec researcher Eric Chien told his partner Liam O Murchu, "I'm not suicidal. If we had to see the dead on Monday, it would not be me. "
Apart from the technical aspects, the film explores the broader consequences of cyberwar and some rules that govern it. The use of aggressive tactics in cyberspace should be approved by the president, and it is the only weapon that requires such a license in addition to nuclear missiles.
The government, of course, does not recognize that it has engaged in cyberwarfare with purpose-built weapons in its effort to keep their use under control, Richard Clark says in the film. Clark was a former presidential security adviser to presidents George HW Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Former NSA director and CIA General Michael Hayden said these weapons should be publicly discussed in a mature debate to avoid extensive disasters from their use.
"These weapons are top secret," he said in the film.
