Prescient Warnings for a Post-Stuxnet World

The 2016 documentary Zero Days concerns the 2010 US-Israeli covert cyberattack Operation Olympic Games directed against Iranʼs nuclear program using the Stuxnet computer virus. The film assembles an array of cybersecurity experts, former US and Israeli intelligence officials, and even CIA and NSA leakers to examine the attackʼs implications for the escalating destructive potential of cyberwarfare. Gibney informatively and entertainingly details the planning and implementation of the Stuxnet attack, and his interviewees convincingly argue that greater transparency and international regulations on the use of cyberweapons are necessary to avert catastrophic outcomes. The filmʼs greatest flaw is its use of stylistic gimmicks that sometimes undermine the interviews' engaging substance. Nevertheless, Zero Days is an informative account of Operation Olympic Games and a farsighted exploration of its ramifications for the future of cyberwarfare.