Director hopes 'Zero Days' will spark debate on cyberwarfare
When machines at a nuclear plant in Iran suddenly began spinning out of control six years ago, suspicion quickly fell on the United States and Israel, especially after a sophisticated virus was found that appeared to have been tailored to sabotage a key process in the enrichment of weapons-grade uranium.
Computer security experts dubbed the virus Stuxnet, describing it as the most powerful cyberweapon the world had yet seen. While the attack on the Natanz plant appeared to have met its immediate objective — to disrupt Iran's nuclear weapons program — the emergence of Stuxnet was soon compared to the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945 for its ability to change the course of warfare.
A broad public debate about the use of cyberweapons has yet to happen, however, although every modern society is vulnerable to attacks on its critical infrastructure, says Alex Gibney, an Academy Award-winning documentary maker who spent years investigating the Stuxnet case for his new film, "Zero Days."
