KILL CHAIN: THE CYBER WAR ON AMERICA'S ELECTIONS

US, 2020, 91 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Simon Ardizzone, Russell Michaels, Sarah Teale.

This is a topical HBO documentary for 2020.

There has been talk for more than 20 years about the possibility for hacking into computers, especially those used for elections and voting, this came to a head during and after the 2016 American elections, especially the into investigation into Russian hacking, the attack on Hillary Clinton…

In fact, the central investigator in this film, the Finnish expert, Harry Hursti, made a film criticising the Diebold industries in 2005 with the company trying to get the film banned. There is information here that some of the machines that were under critique at the time were still being used by 2018, some of them in prospect for the 2020 elections.

This is a documentary that would foster the fears of so many people that elections can be hacked, rigged.

Harry Hursti, from Finland and seen there discussing his precocious abilities with his mother, remembering his interventions and inventions while still a child and a teenager. He spends a great deal of his time in the United States, showing the possibilities for hacking and illustrating it with alarming results, being on hand during various elections in the US, especially that of the governor of Georgia in 2018. He is a persuasive witness to illustrate the ease with which hackers can develop their methods and have access to all kinds of information, and the possibility of altering the information.

There are a number of other experts seen as talking heads in the film, especially another friend from Finland. There are also a number of North American experts as well as journalists who investigated hacking.

There are some political commentators, representative Senator from the Republicans as well as representative Senator from the Democrats.

While this kind of expose can be alarming for the general public, the documentary was badly received by more conservative audiences, especially those who place Donald Trump on a pedestal, decrying the film as conspiracy theory.

As with some stories about conspiracy theories, and some of the films from directors like Michael Moore, if only half the material presented proved to be true, this is still very alarming.