Cyber Wars. The Hacker as Hero

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Description

The term once suggested a lone troublemaker in search of attention and self-enrichment, but today, "hacker" might also mean a covert foot soldier in the service of his or her country - put to work in top-secret quarters and backed by budgets that exceed hundreds of millions of dollars. This film looks at the kind of combat for which skilled hackers are recruited and which they often pursue with every bit of energy and resourcefulness asked of more traditional military personnel. Viewers get an up-front look at the Israeli Stuxnet attack, which severely undermined the Iranian nuclear program; Russia's botnet war waged against Estonia and Georgia, which unleashed a network of hundreds of thousands of hacked computers; and the brewing cyber hostilities between the United States and China - an ongoing conflict full of offensives and counteroffensives. Finally, the program examines major policy changes that have emerged from this new arena of warfare.