Zero Days

Zero Days

2015, Technology  -   12 Comments
8.46
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Ratings: 8.46/10 from 195 users.

The threat of compromised cyber security has become our planet's new weapon of mass destruction. The documentary Zero Days explores the growing concern that the disintegration of online safety has set the stage for potential physical dangers as well. "Our entire power supply can be cut off," a foreboding voice informs us near the opening of the film. "Our systems can be taken over. Hospitals deprived of power would cease to function. It's not if, it's when."

The title of the film refers to the oftentimes debilitating vulnerabilities that can be exploited by the seasoned hacker. As outlined in the documentary, the phenomenon of the hacker rose to prominence in the 1980's, as generally innocuous computer nerds made mischief by implanted malware on unsuspecting victims. But what began as little more than a minor annoyance has grown considerably more sophisticated and destructive over the intervening years as these hackers have found a profitable niche in which to employ their considerable skills.

Hackers now have the capacity to snatch the personal information of countless millions throughout the globe. They can cripple infrastructure, inspire suspicion between government agencies, and incite hysteria among the masses. They can steal thousands of credit card numbers during a busy holiday season, or manipulate the controls of a nuclear power plant.

The world's top technological wizards are working around the clock to devise powerful firewalls and encryption, but the threat continues to evolve. These merchants of cyber menace offer their services to the highest bidders. While they exist underground, their employers can be the most public of entities. Governments have been known to utilize the services of hackers in their attempts to gain intelligence or inflict damage on neighboring countries.

There is no easy fix to this crisis. Zero Days paints a frightening portrait of a cyber world that is growing far too large and expanding too rapidly to contain. "The bottom line is we are putting so much vulnerable, hackable, connected technology into so many places that this makes us prone to the willpower of any potential adversary or foe," says interview subject and computer security activist Joshua Corman. An impending cyber war will certainly find nourishment from our reliance on the very systems deployed to attack us.

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Bob Farrell
Bob Farrell
3 years ago

So why don't we have a computer that is hooked into the web, but then transmits scrambled info received into a side by side computer that unscrambles the code, with codes that can be changed daily. I used to be in communications in secret crypto.

milan
milan
6 years ago

o.k. white hat, gray hat ask for and Order, black hat war the gray hat and crime the other site is right

Mark Weber
Mark Weber
6 years ago

Very interesting, yet frightening at the same time. Attacks are like a nuclear war that only kills machines!

flybow
flybow
7 years ago

The hackers you need to worry about are in you own governments

Jason
Jason
7 years ago

not bad ...the best part is the film shows you the hacking books to use in order to achieve what some school kid did by earning 200 grand for hacking a site with a simple sql injection from the book they show you .

Joe
Joe
7 years ago

Where can i watch it?

Richard
Richard
7 years ago

Where can I buy it/watch it?

Viper
Viper
8 years ago

A good documentary I definitely recommend it. it does a good job in intertwining politics and technology without it becoming to political.

sam
sam
8 years ago

People finding fulnerablities is the new age town bully. Instead of the law of the jungle being strength and brawn over weaklings; it's 'I can out smart you with electrical impulses' but it boils down to the same ole thing...people taking advantage of a situation to prove their worthiness to themselves or just plain 'showing out'...hey look at me and what I can do...ain't I something? Doing it to do good is one thing doing it to do harm to me is a weakness of the brain.

ubonny
ubonny
8 years ago

gives you a book to read to be like the people in the movie. That is a gift. jw is prejudice. :)

jw
jw
8 years ago

why can't they read the translation in English??? we can't all see well enough to read the text.

Mudja
Mudja
8 years ago

Interesting documentary giving an overview of 0-days.