Alex Gibney‘s latest documentary “Zero Days” focuses on the covert operation by U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials to unleash a malware attack on an Iranian nuclear facility in late 2009 and 2010, destroying up to 1,000 centrifuges.
The cyberattack also had unintended consequences. The malware, known as Stuxnet, spread around the world, and was eventually discovered by computer engineers, but it has never been officially acknowledged by the U.S. or Israeli governments.
“Zero Days” plays like a thriller, but it also raises questions of this new type of warfare. The Stuxnet attack proved that malware can be used not just to destroy computer systems but also to cause physical damage and disasters and threaten human lives.
“I think it is fair to say that the United States may be the most vulnerable country in the world to cyber attacks on critical infrastructure,” Gibney tells Variety‘s “PopPolitics” on SiriusXM. “We are so deeply interconnected. Everything we have is connected to the internet. Toothbrushes are internet capable. You could imagine a toothbrush mounting an attack on you as you are trying to brush your teeth.”
“On the one hand, we are very powerful in this area, but we are also intensive vulnerable,” he adds. “So the idea that we are not interested in proposing international rules of the road as we did with nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons seems extremely defeating and concerning. Why wouldn’t we want to have those in place?”
Popular on Variety
“Zero Days” kicked off the recent AFI Docs festival in Washington at a first night gala screening.
Listen below:
The Conventions: What to Expect
David Bohrman, a media consultant and network news veteran, talks about this year’s political conventions and why they won’t be the “coronations” of cycles past. Even though Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are the presumptive nominees, there are many contentious issues facing both parties, and no one is quite sure what to expect.
Listen below:
Trump Still Tops in Earned Media
Paul Senatori of MediaQuant, an analytics firm, says that Trump is still well ahead in his ability to draw media attention. In June, he topped Clinton when it comes to the value of his media coverage.
Listen below:
Trump and the Star
David Cohen of Variety and Nikki Schwab of Daily Mail talk about Trump’s defense of his use of a six-pointed Star of David in a tweet, and of Clinton’s ability to move beyond the email controversy.
Listen below:
“PopPolitics,” hosted by Ted Johnson, airs Thursdays from 2-3 p.m. ET/11-noon PT on SiriusXM’s political channel POTUS. It also is available on demand.
