Zero Days
The potential for cyber security to be compromised has become the planet’s newest weapon of mass destruction. The documentary Zero Days explores the increasing concern over the breakdown of online security that has led to a perceived danger in the form of physical harm. Our entire power supply can be disrupted at any time, a voice that is both menacing and concerned informs us near the beginning of the film. Our systems can be transferred. Hospitals that lacked power would stop functioning. It’s not what, but when.”
The title of the movie is derived from the often debilitating vulnerabilities that can be exploited by seasoned hackers. As documented in the documentary, the phenomenon of the hacker became popular in the 1980s, originally as innocuous computer enthusiasts implanted malware on innocent victims. However, it began as a minor annoyance and has since grown significantly more destructive over the intervening years as these hackers have found a profitable niche in which to utilize their considerable expertise.
Hackers can now take the personal information of numerous individuals worldwide. They can disable infrastructure, cause suspicion between government agencies, and instigate panic in the populace. They can take thousands of credit card numbers during a busy holiday season, or manipulate the controls of a nuclear power plant.
The world’s most talented technology enthusiasts are devoted to developing intricate firewalls and encryption, but the threat continues to evolve. These individuals that promote cyber threats sell their services to the highest bidders. While they’re located underground, their owners can be the most obvious of entities. Governments have employed hackers in order to obtain information or to inflict damage on their adversaries.
There is no simple answer to this situation. Zero Days depicts a frightening portrait of a cyber world that is growing larger and faster than necessary, it also expands. The bottom line is that we’re putting so much vulnerable, hackable, and connected technology into so many different places that this makes us vulnerable to the will of any potential adversary or foe,” says computer security activist Joshua Corman. A cyber war that is expected will have a basis in our dependence on the systems that were intended to harm us.
