BeginnerGeopoliticsThreat IntelNarrative

This World: The Cyber Arms Race

3 / 5

Single-episode BBC documentary by Jane Corbin, broadcast 2018, on the early-2010s Stuxnet aftermath and the wider state-on-state cyberweapons trade.

Creators
Jane Corbin
Years
2018–2018
Seasons
1 season
Episodes
1 episode
Status
Ended
Language
English

Available on

BBC iPlayer

Watch this if

Viewers who want a one-hour BBC-style briefing on the state of the cyberweapons market circa 2018, anchored by Corbin's reporter access to former NSA and Israeli officials. Useful as a single-sitting introduction.

Skip this if

Anyone who has watched Zero Days (Gibney) or read Countdown to Zero Day (Zetter); the documentary covers the same ground at lower depth. Specialists will find it cursory.

Key takeaways

  • Corbin's interview with Gabi Ashkenazi (former IDF Chief of Staff) is the strongest single piece of source material in the documentary and worth the runtime alone.
  • The 2018 framing means the documentary now reads as a prelude to NotPetya and Sandworm-era operations rather than current state-of-the-art.
  • Best as a primer for non-specialists who don't have time for the Gibney film.

Notes

Pair with Zero Days (Gibney) for the deeper Stuxnet documentary and with The Perfect Weapon (Maggio) for the post-Stuxnet decade. BBC's broader This World documentary strand is worth searching for adjacent geopolitical content. A useful one-hour brief; not a replacement for the longer-form sources.