Getting ‘GPS signal not found’ error in Pokémon Go? Here’s how to fix it!

Don’t let GPS errors stop you from playing Pokémon Go!

Pokémon Go is everywhere, and that’s great for Android gamers around the world (or at least in the countries the game has launched). But if you’re getting a “GPS signal not found” error when you launch the game, here’s how to fix it!

GPS errors? Make sure it is enabled!

Many Android phones come with their GPS radios turned off by default in order to save battery life, since the technology is very battery-intensive. Here’s how to turn it on.

Note: This example was done on a Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, but these steps should apply to most Android devices running Android 5.0 Lollipop or higher.

Tap on your phone’s Settings icon or access Settings through Quick Settings.
Scroll down to Privacy and safety. Tap on it.

Tap on Location.

Make sure Location toggle is in the on position.
Tap on Locating method. This may also be called Location mode.
Tap GPS, Wi-Fi, and mobile networks. This may also be called High accuracy.

Pokémon Go uses both local Wi-Fi (also known as Assistive GPS), your closest mobile network tower, and GPS satellites to accurately place you in the game world. Turning on just Wi-Fi and mobile network-based location tracking will make your character jump around and less likely to be placed close to Pokémon.

Still getting an error even with GPS enabled?

GPS satellites are finicky things. While the radios inside Android phones have improved significantly over the last few years, they’re still not perfect, and may sometimes have trouble locating you, especially indoors.

If you’re still getting GPS errors even after turning everything on, take a step outside and hold your phone steady for around 30 seconds. That should allow the GPS satellites to lock onto your phone and get things back to normal.

Can you still play the game without GPS?

Yes! If you don’t have a phone with GPS, or are using a Wi-Fi tablet that doesn’t have a GPS radio, it’s still possible to play Pokémon Go. Unfortunately, the experience won’t be as good, since you’ll need to be in areas that have strong Wi-Fi signals, such as restaurants, bars, coffee shops, or other businesses, that you can connect to. Since Pokémon Go relies on having an internet connection, it will be able to locate you with just a Wi-Fi signal — just don’t expect to compete on the same level as your Android phone-wielding friends.

Pokémon Go

• Requirements to play Pokémon Go
• The Ultimate Pokémon Go Game Guide!
• How to play without killing your battery
• Be careful where you download from
• Join our Pokémon Go forums!

Best external battery packs for Pokémon Go

Pokémon Go isn’t just a short-term thing, so you’re going to need a battery pack.

It’s no secret that keeping your phone’s screen, processor, mobile network and GPS ramped up for hours on end is going to kill your battery off pretty quickly, and those are precisely the things you’re doing when out in the wild playing Pokémon Go. If you haven’t had a need for a portable battery pack before, you definitely do now.

Since you’re going out for hours on end, and you’re buying the battery pack just for your gaming sessions, chances are you’re more worried about capacity, ports and charging speed than you are portability and looks. We have a few solid battery packs that will offer you just that, and keep you out there catching new Pokémon without looking for a wall charger.

• CHOETECH 104000 mAh Portable Charger
• Anker PowerCore 10000
• Aukey 16000 mAh Power Bank
• EasyAcc Monster 26000 mAh Power Bank

CHOETECH 10400 mAh Portable Charger

CHOETECH is a name you’ll see around if you’ve been looking at mobile batteries, and this battery pack kind of has it all. Not only do you get a USB port with Quick Charge 3.0 speeds, it also can handle 5V/3A charging for non-Quick Charge devices like the Nexus 6P. Better yet, there’s a second USB port that outputs at a slower 5V/1A (slower, but better than nothing) for your friends when they come along with you.

A real distinct feature here is that there are two charging inputs on the CHOETECH battery — one Micro-USB for use with your stockpile of Android phone chargers, but also one Apple Lightning port, so you have yet another route to juice up the battery even if you don’t have your usual Micro-USB cable with you.

See at Amazon

Anker PowerCore 10000

Anker’s another name most of us know, and the PowerCore 10,000 mAh battery should be on your list if you just need one charging port and have a phone that’s capable of Quick Charge 3.0 speeds. It’s built well with a hard plastic shell, as you’ll know if you’ve used any Anker battery pack, and it keeps things simple with just one USB output. You can also rest assured that you have an investment here, as Anker offers an 18-month warranty.

With this much capacity and Quick Charge on board, you’ll be able to power up your phone a couple times over, even while you’re actively playing Pokémon Go. If you want to go way overboard, there’s a 20,000 mAh version that adds another USB output (and would likely double as a nice self defense device if you get into trouble).

See at Amazon

Aukey 16000 mAh Power Bank

If you don’t have a need for Quick Charge 3.0 support, you can pick up a last-generation battery pack that has just Quick Charge 2.0 and get some better value for your money. This Aukey battery is a perfect example — for the same price as the 10,000 mAh packs above, you can get 16,000 mAh in a good form factor with two USB ports. One port can handle Quick Charge 2.0 speeds, and both can put out up to 5V/2.4A to non-Quick Charge devices as well.

If you’re all about capacity for the dollar and need Quick Charge 2.0 support, this is where you go. You can also save $8 and go with a 10,000 mAh size of the same battery, which is a fantastic deal.

See at Amazon

EasyAcc Monster 26000 mAh Power Bank

Want to be everyone’s best friend when you show up at a Pokémon hotspot? Bring a 26,000 mAh battery pack with four USB ports. This EasyAcc model is nothing special when it comes to output — max of 5V/2.4A, with no Quick Charge support — but where it gets the job done is being able to charge four devices at once, and having a massive amount of juice to fill them all up. There’s even a built-in flashlight if your Pokémon Go excursion takes you into the night.

Normally a battery pack this large would take forever to charge up back at home, but this one smartly has dual Micro-USB inputs, so it can top up twice as fast when you’re at a wall charger. It’ll still take about eight hours to charge up (at a rate of 4A), but we’re going to assume at some point you’ll stop playing Pokémon Go and sleep while it’s charging.

See at Amazon

Pokémon Go

• Requirements to play Pokémon Go
• The Ultimate Pokémon Go Game Guide!
• How to play without killing your battery
• Be careful where you download from
• Join our Pokémon Go forums!

Where to buy the Sony Xperia X in the UK

Looking for deals on Sony’s latest mainstream flagship phone? You’ve got plenty of options.

Sony’s back this year with a fresh take on what a modern Android phone should be. The Xperia X draws a line under the past several years of Z-series phones, with a refreshed metal design, leaner internals and a familiar camera setup. There’s a lot to like, assuming you can find a price point that makes sense for you.

Fortunately we’ve done some of the legwork for you, digging through the major UK mobile networks and retailers to round up the best places to snap up an Xperia X. Read on.

Carphone Warehouse

Carphone Warehouse is selling the Xperia X in black, white, gold and rose gold, with the gold model being exclusive to the retailer. It’s available through Carphone on contracts with EE, O2, Vodafone and its own iD network, with prices starting at £19.99 per month (though that’s with a hefty £199.99 upfront fee.) The cheapest monthly price for a free Xperia X is on a £31 per month, 1GB plan with EE. For the data-hungry, a 24GB plan on Vodafone is on offer for £52 per month with no upfront fee.

It’s also available SIM-free for £469.99.

See at Carphone Warehouse

EE

EE has the Sony Xperia X available in black and rose gold. Prices start at £30.99 per month for a plan with 2GB of data. At the top end, you can grab Xperia X and 20GB of data for £40.99 per month and £49.99 upfront, or £45.99 per month with nothing to pay upfront. All EE’s Xperia X plans include “EE Extra,” which includes the network’s fastest connectivity and cheaper roaming in Europe.

See at EE

Vodafone

Voda has Sony’s latest in black and rose gold, wth prices starting at £24 per month (£150 upfront), which gets you 500MB, 500 minutes and unlimited texts. All Vodafone’s Xperia X plans come with at least a £10 upfront fee, but the cheapest monthly cost at this level is a 6GB plan for £37 per month — that’s along with unlimited calls and texts, and a 500MB inclusive roaming allowance. At the high end, you’re looking at £53 per month for 30GB, which comes with unlimited calls and texts and a a 4GB roaming bundle.

Many of Vodafone’s higher-priced plans also come with free subscriptions to Spotify, Sky Sports Mobile TV or NowTV.

See at Vodafone

O2

O2 offers the Xperia X in black and rose gold, with monthly prices between £29 and £53 per month. At the low end, you can pick up a free Xperia X for £34 per month, with a 500MB data bucket, 500 minutes and unlimited texts. For the data-hungry, O2 offers the Xperia X on its 30GB tariff — for free if you pay £55 per month, or for £50 per month with a hefty £119.99 upfront fee.

See at O2

Three

Three has the phone in the two standard colors — black and rose gold — and currently runs an offer where the first six months of your contract are half-price. Prices start at £27 per month (£99 upfront, £13.50 for the first six months) for an Xperia X with 600 minutes and 500MB. The phone is available with Three’s “All You Can Eat” unlimited data bundle for £51 per month (£19 upfront, £25.50 initially).

See at Three

Amazon UK

Amazon is selling the Xperia X for £411 SIM-free in black, white and rose gold. The retailer is also offering it on contract with O2, with prices starting at £31 per month with no upfront fee.

See at Amazon

BT Mobile

BT is selling the Xperia X in black only, with a discount of £5 off your monthly fee if you’re also a BT broadband customer. Prices for BT customers start at £31 per month and £50 upfront for 500MB and 400 minutes, rising to £46 per month and no upfront fee for a 15GB plan and unlimited minutes.

See at BT

Picking up a Sony Xperia X? Already taken the plunge? Let us know how you’re getting on down in the comments!

How to use a Razz Berry in Pokemon Go

What do I do with all these Pokemon berries I have?

One of the items in Pokemon Go that doesn’t get explained quite as well as it probably should have is the Razz Berry. In the Nintendo games, Razz Berries are used quite differently from how you’re going to use them in Pokemon Go. The good news is it’s actually easier to use Razz Berries in Pokemon Go, and when used correctly can make things a lot easier for you in the game. Here’s what you need to know!

A Razz Berry is used when trying to capture a Pokemon. If you’re having trouble getting a wild Pokemon to stay in the Pokeball, give this a shot:

Tap on your Backpack
Tap on Razz Berry Item listing
Tap on the Razz Berry to send it to the wild Pokemon
Throw another Pokeball

Using a Razz Berry is not a guarantee that your next catch will be successful, but when combined with a Great or Excellent throw — which happen when you throw as the colored ring gets as small as possible — your chances are increased dramatically. Now get out there and have some fun!

Pokémon Go

• Requirements to play Pokémon Go
• The Ultimate Pokémon Go Game Guide!
• How to play without killing your battery
• Be careful where you download from
• Join our Pokémon Go forums!

Honor 8 now official with dual-camera setup, up to 4GB of RAM

Huawei sub-brand Honor has announced its latest phone, the Honor 8. The phone comes with a fingerprint sensor and a dual-lens rear camera setup. The Honor 8 runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow under the EMUI 4.1 custom software layer.

The Honor 8 features a 5.2-inch 1080p display, and is powered by a Kirin 950 processor, with 3GB or 4GB of RAM. It comes with either 32GB or 64GB of internal storage, which can be upgraded with a microSD card. The dual lenses on the back are both 12-megapixel shooters, while the front-facing camera is 8-megapixels. The Honor 8 also has a fingerprint sensor on the back, allowing for easy authentication. The phone has a 3000mAh battery, which can be charged over a USB-C connection.

The Honor 8 is currently available for pre-order from a number of Chinese retailers, with the 32GB option with 3GB of RAM running ¥1,999 (around $300), while the 64GB version with 4GB of RAM costs ¥2,499 (around $375). You can get the Honor 8 in Sunrise Gold, Pearl White, Midnight Black, Sakura Pink, or Sapphire Blue.

Did you manually install Pokémon Go? Re-enable this important Android security setting

We don’t recommend installing APKs from outside the Play Store — but if you do, it’s worth unchecking ‘unknown sources’ afterwards.

Maybe you wanted to play Pokémon Go in a country where it’s not officially available yet. Maybe you installed an APK from somewhere that’s not the Google Play Store to do that. We’re not gonna judge you.

In order to install your illicit Pokémon APK, you’ll have had to enable the “Unknown sources” toggle under Security settings. That’s the switch which is disabled by default on all Android phones and prevents apps from being installed from places other than the Google Play Store.

Some Samsung phones will automatically toggle the “Unknown sources” back off once you’ve installed an APK from elsewhere. But most other Android phones don’t, and it’s a good idea to keep this setting switched off in case a rogue website or message pushes you towards a dodgy APK.

It’s worth noting that toggling this switch won’t do anything to apps you might’ve already installed from outside the Play Store, including Pokémon Go. So if you have downloaded a version infected with malware, the setting won’t help you out — it’ll just block future app installs from outside the Play Store.

To check “Unknown sources” is off, go to Settings > Security (or Settings > Lock screen & security on Samsung phones) and scroll down to find the option.

Now you can get back to scooping up Pokémon and capturing gyms.

Pokémon Go

• Requirements to play Pokémon Go
• The Ultimate Pokémon Go Game Guide!
• How to play without killing your battery
• Be careful where you download from
• Join our Pokémon Go forums!

What is Pokemon Go and why is everyone talking about it?

Pokémon Go fever is sweeping the world, turning people into phone-gazing zombies as they bimble about the place hunting for little cartoon characters with silly names.

So what exactly is going on? Should you join in the fun? Should you be concerned?

Here’s everything you need to know about Pokémon Go.

What is Pokémon Go?

Pokémon Go is a new mobile game from the Pokémon universe for Android and iOS. It is based around Pokémon fundamentals of finding, catching, evolving, training and battling Pokémon. 

In the case of Pokémon Go, this happens on your smartphone and in the real world around you, so you need to go out, search and find Pokémon in real places, rather than just in a game world. 

Why is everyone talking about Pokémon Go?

Pokémon has always been a huge franchise, in gaming, merchandising and on TV, thanks to the cutesy characters like Pikachu. The new game launched in some countries on 6 July, so it’s new and exciting for Pokémon fans.

But it’s not just the fans. The novelty of the game sees it as a breakthrough, mapping the real world and using augmented reality to take the game into a new dimension through mobile devices and making you get out into the real world.

It is highly addictive, it’s fun and it’s just turned into the biggest craze, taking over social media and just about every other conversation.

What’s that about augmented reality?

Augmented reality (AR) is when what you see in the real world is changed by technology. In this case, it uses the camera on the rear of your smartphone and places the characters from the game for you to see on your display, blending the real world and the game world.

That means that the Pokémon appear in real places, rather than a made-up world. This is one of the reasons it’s so exciting, because AR brings the game to life and you’ll find Pokémon down your street, at your local park and so on.

• Pokémon Go: Best, worst and craziest places people have found Pokémon

Does Pokémon Go involve exercise?

Yes it does. Pokémon Go is a game that encourages, nay, demands that you get off your sofa and explore, because that’s the only way you’ll find the Pokémon. 

You can’t move around just by using your thumbs, you have to actually walk to real places on the map, outside, and see what you can find. There are Pokémon to capture, game objects to collect from Poké Stops and Pokémon Gyms to train or battle in, and all these things are in the real world.

So Pokémon Go rewards you for being active?

Yes it does. One of the ways it does this is by letting you find eggs, which you place into an incubator and they only hatch once you’ve walked a certain distance – that might be 2km, it might be 5km. 

You will also get awards for walking distances. Cover 10km in the game and you’ll get an award for that, as well, of course, finding more places with Poké Stops, Gyms and Pokémon to catch. 

Where can I find Poké Stops and Pokémon Gyms?

They’re all over the place, but typically you’ll find a Poké Stop in a place of cultural significance. That might be a statue, historical building, local pub, or some other feature of local importance. You don’t have to go into places, unless they cover a lot of land. Often if you’re close, that’s good enough. 

That means that empty places might have very few Poké Stops, like remote country areas, and some are densely populated with Poké treats, like city centres.

Pokémon Gyms are even bigger locations, like a transport hub, bridge or other significant location. For some good examples, see what we found when exploring the Pokémon Go map around London

• London through the eyes of Pokémon Go

Is Pokémon Go safe?

As safe as the real world can be. The distraction of watching your phone means you’re a risk of walking into things like roads, or worse, driving into things if you’re playing when you’re supposed to be driving your car. We’ve seen a Gym on the other side of a railway and there’s the temptation to stand too close to the tracks, just to access that Gym.

As for encouraging people to explore places they don’t normally go, that could be good and bad. Yes, you find things you might not normally notice in your local town, but at the same time, the pursuit of Pokémon could easily lead you on and on to places you really shouldn’t be.

You can also drop lures and this is one of the contentious issue. These are in-game elements to attract Pokémon to a particular (real) position and other gamers can benefit, by walking into the same (real) place. That’s fun in a park during a day, less fun down a dark alley at night.

The message about the real world remains the same: use your head and if you have kids, make sure you know what they’re doing.

Is the Pokémon Go app secure?

There have been concerns raised about privacy in Pokémon Go in the early days. 

Firstly, with lots of people trying to get access to the game before it’s officially available, there’s plenty of opportunity for fake versions of the app to appear containing malware – especially on Android where installing apps is very easy. If in doubt, don’t do it and wait.

Secondly there have been questions raised over the access that the Pokémon Go asks when you sign in with a Google account – and this affects both iOS and Android users. Some have reported that it’s listed as having granted itself full access to your Google account, which is normally reserved for top-level Google apps. 

We’re sure this latter point will be addressed and clarified, but again, if you’ve any doubt about what’s happening to your data, then just say no and wait until you’re sure.

How much does Pokémon Go cost?

Pokémon Go works on a freemium model. That means the game itself is free, but there are in-app purchases available.

The way this works is offering you a store where you can buy things using coins. These coins can be bought in the app using real money. 

For example: you can buy 200 Poké Balls for 800 coins. You can buy 1,200 coins for £7.99 – that’s real money. Or you can visit lots of Poké Stops and collect Poké Balls for free. If you’re rich and impatient then the world is your oyster.

The longer-term question is whether game progress is hampered by not spending real money. At that point you either have to decide the fun is worth the price, or accept that you’ve reached the limit of playing without paying. This is how freemium games work and one to watch, especially if you have kids using your phone and they are able to make in-app purchases.

What impact does Pokémon Go have on battery life?

Massive. As the game wants the phone to be awake when you are walking around, it’s using the display, data to sync with the game services and the GPS, as well as tracking motion. As it’s a benefit to walk around with your phone awake, as that’s how you find things, it’s all that screen-on time that kills the battery. 

What can you do about battery drain? You can stop playing, or carry an external battery pack.

How can I get Pokémon Go?

Pokémon Go is available as an app to download for Android and iOS. It’s available now in the relative app stores, but the availability is limited.

• Click here to download Pokémon Go for iOS
• Click here to download Pokémon Go for Android

Because of a phased global roll-out, only some territories have official access to the game – like Australia, Japan, New Zealand and USA.

However, eager fans have figured out other ways to get hold of the game and start playing before its official arrival in their countries.

If Pokémon Go is not yet available to you, follow these instructions to get started, but bear in mind that with a game this popular there may be fake versions loaded with malware, so you do so at your own risk. If you’re unsure, you might want to just wait until it’s officially launched. 

When will Pokémon Go launch in the UK?

That’s a good question. At the moment a launch date hasn’t been confirmed, other than to say it will be “soon”, but rumours are already suggesting that Pokémon Go might launch on 14 July in the UK.

Alex Gibney on Stuxnet and why we need to talk about cyberwar

It’s been six years since we’ve discovered Stuxnet, the worm that infected Windows PCs worldwide, and was eventually traced to the US and Israel as a way to attack Iran’s nuclear program. It was the first time a cyberweapon was used to attack a physical location (it disabled uranium enriching centrifuges by causing them to spin out of control), and it sparked a series of cyberattacks from governments all over the world. Alex Gibney, the acclaimed documentarian behind films like Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, and the recent Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, decided to dive into Stuxnet’s legacy with his latest film, Zero Days. I sat down to chat with him about the film, together with Symantec researchers Eric Chien and Liam O’Murchu.

Why make a film about Stuxnet now?

Alex Gibney: I have a habit, I guess, of going in after big stories and trying to find out a little bit more about them; doing a deeper dive. Sometimes, in the kind of of relentless 24-hour news cycle, a simple and easy narrative develops and then you just move on without understanding the broader implications. It seemed to me this story had legs.

What were you hoping to add to the conversation?

Gibney: To really take stock of this idea that it was a crossing of the Rubicon, as [former director of the NSA and CIA] Michael Hayden said. It’s a kind of a moment that changed everything, that launched us into a new era. That’s what I was trying to get at.

Eric and Liam, what convinced you cybersecurity researchers to participate in this film?

Liam O’Murchu: I like the fact that Stuxnet ties into a bigger picture. At the time when we analyzed it, it was a unique beast and we didn’t see too many other [cyber] threats that were driven by governments. Where as now we’re tracking over 100 operations run by governments and we see them all the time. So although Stuxnet is a standalone piece, it’s a beacon of how things have changed and how progressing towards cyber war actually fits into a much bigger threat landscape.

Alex, you’ve covered traditional warfare in your previous films, how is covering cyberwarfare different?

Gibney: There’s an interesting aspect to it, in the sense that some parts of it are very different. This idea that you’re using spyware, and out of that spyware comes the ability to manipulate the physical environment. Once you get to the physical environment, then things are similar. That’s like sabotage. And also, these kinds of attacks are also surrounded by human intelligence. So it’s really interesting because it’s creating damage in the physical world, but it’s a weapon system really coming out of the intelligence world, both in terms of signal and human intelligence.

A technician at the Uranium Conversion Facility in Tehran, Iran.

You’ve related the rise of cyberwarfare in the film to the the rise of nuclear weapons. How is it different?

Gibney: That can be overdrawn. When you drop an atomic weapon on a city, we know from Hiroshima and Nagasaki what’s going to result. And it’s horrific. I think in many ways cyberweapons are not that brutal at all. Nevertheless, once you start talking about messing with critical infrastructure, which can be things like changing controls in a high speed train or poisoning a water filtration system, you have the potential for consequences that are vast even though they don’t have that visceral destructive, explosive capability that atomic weapons do.

Eric and Liam, do we have a decent understanding of cyber weapons at this point?

Eric Chien: The capability will likely grow. Even when we look at Stuxnet, when we began researching it in 2010 we found traces going back to 2006. So already, then, we were potentially four years behind what the known capabilities are. There are likely things out there that haven’t been discovered, that are more advanced.

I think the unfortunate thing, to be frank, is that to cause an impact — to cause potential destruction to critical infrastructure — it doesn’t require any more capabilities than what we have today. The Ukrainian power grid went out in December, and the attack was believed to be from Russia. This is already possible today.

Gibney: I think that one of the surprises for us [was] we started this as a story about Stuxnet. We didn’t know that along the way we would discover Nitro Zeus, which is a much more potent attack which involves basically shutting down a country. As someone says in the film, the cyberwar science fiction scenario is here.

Stuxnet was a massive weapon that we kind of had to let go, we couldn’t exactly control how it acted once it was in the wild. Is that something we have to think about in terms of cyberwarfare, constructing something that hopefully does what you tell it?

Chien: I would hope now that we’ve had Stuxnet that people would make good conscious choices. Stuxnet was a case where someone made a choice and decided we’re going to make this autonomous, more aggressive, and we are willing to have collateral damage. Stuxnet could infect any Windows machine, anywhere in the world that was connected to the internet. That’s a lot of collateral damage to go after a single target.

It’s been six years since you began researching Stuxnet, Eric and Liam. What have we seen since?

O’Murchu: We’re seeing a lot more in that threat landscape of just general government malware infecting all sorts of systems. We see a lot of espionage. actually. We see a lot of particular categories of companies being targeted, like chemical companies, defense contractors, aerospace. We also see preparation, some threats where countries are getting into crucial networks like those control systems and leaving backdoors behind, so that in some point in the future they can come and use that.

Chien: When you come from zero, everything we see now is new. We continue to see things that, to be frank, astound us. You might remember the Swiss bank attacks, where one billion dollars was being attempted to transfer. That’s been traced back to be connected to the Sony wiping attacks, which the US government tied to North Korea. Now you potentially have North Korea potentially transferring one billion dollars to themselves, which would be the first time a nation state just tried to steal money via a cyber attack.

Stuxnet is kind of an open secret: everyone knows who the players were. But the US government hasn’t admitted to it, and hasn’t talked about it. Why do you think that is?

Gibney: The obvious reason is that it was designed originally as a covert operation. It was a CIA and Mossad operation. That’s something I didn’t fully appreciated when I started this story. So by nature it’s covert. But the frustrating part is because of this momentum of over-classification, once the operation was blown it’s the refusal to talk about that that seems so appalling. Because you can’t begin to start talking about the capabilities of these weapons, and what we’re going to do about them in the future.

Even more disquieting than the refusal to talk about Stuxnet, because nations play these games all the time, well if we say we were responsible officially, then the Iranians can hold us to account officially for attacking their critical infrastructure. If we never say it, just like the Israelis have never admitted they have nuclear capabilities, we all know that they do, but at some point it becomes ridiculous, like the Emperor’s New Clothes.

It’s particularly problematic though when you can’t even talk about cyberwar or weapons. So you can’t look on the budget of the American government and see how much we’re spending on cyberweapons, it’s secret. What kind of cyberweapons do we have? It’s secret.

That’s the part that’s disquieting, because you don’t know what kind of risk we’re putting others under, and you assume that other nations have these nations and they’re training them on us, so we don’t know what risk we’re under.

If everything the government does is secret, how is there going to be any accountability?

Alex Gibney

Can you talk further about the need to speak openly about cyberweapons? What do you think we have to gain by opening up the conversation?

Gibney: Rules of the road. Like I said, when we started the Stuxnet story, it was a technical story about a gadget, or a kind of malware. What can it do? But the larger questions that usually remain unanswered are the legal and moral questions. A good analogy can be drones. We can agree that weaponized drones are far more accurate than the bombers we used in the Vietnam war, or even the bombers we have today. But under what conditions are they used? What kind of people are they taking out? Our “signature strikes” are the kind of thing where you see a group of young men together and assume they’re bad guys, so you kill them.

What’s the legal rationale for that, and what’s the blowback? Do other people feel they now have the right to do the same thing we’re doing? So it’s those issues surrounding cyberweapons that haven’t even really begun to be examined, and that’s why you have rules of the road. Seems like [now], well you have a war so, just do whatever damage you can do. But there are rules of war. There are laws of war. They’re there for a reason, to constrain and limit the damage from this kind of thing and prevent, you know, chaos.

Knowing everything you know now about Stuxnet, do you think it was a good idea?

Gibney: Knowing what we know now, no, I don’t think it was a good idea. Having said that, it was a brilliant weapon as it was conceived, in terms of having a limited impact. But so often with these weapons, the immediate fix is what people focus on. That’s the challenge. How do you keep Israel from bombing Iran? Well, how about Stuxnet. How do you keep Iran from developing a bomb? Well, Stuxnet, good idea: It’ll delay them.

But look at what happened afterwards, nobody thinks about the unintended consequences. So the Iranians ratcheted up their nuclear capability. They ratcheted up their cyber capability, and now we have a kind of weapon and a use. That is to say, it was used outside the laws of war, so that now we have chaos.

Do you think the US government has learned anything from this fiasco? That is, partnering with someone to build and use a tool, and it ends up blowing up in their face.

Gibney: It’s hard to know what they’ve learned, because so much is secret. We did have [NSA director] Michael Rogers recently admitting to the use of cyberweapons against ISIS. I find it interesting he admitted it against ISIS, because ISIS is sort of the international pariah, you can do anything to ISIS. But we’re not really admitted the fact we’re putting implants all over the world, or those countries are putting implants here. Those are the kinds of discussions we’re still not having, even as I understand it, with our elected representatives who are supposed to be more in the know.

The Obama administration has talked a lot about transparency, but meanwhile it pushed forward on secrecy and making Stuxnet even worse.

Gibney: The Obama administration on secrecy has just been appalling, absolutely appalling, both in terms of the number of secrets they keep and the punishments being meted out for people who leak. It’s an odd thing. You’d think, if you’re the Obama administration you’d say this stuff is supposed to be secret and we’ll prosecute people. But for a long time there was an intentional balance between secrets and leaks, because that’s part of the democratic process. Because ultimately, if everything the government does is secret, how is there going to be any accountability?

You were able to get fascinating people to talk about Stuxnet, you even got [former NSA/CIA director] Michael Hayden. Was it difficult to convince them to participate?

Gibney: Michael Hayden is becoming increasingly expert at talking about just about anything, but he had some insights that I never expected. Particularly regarding the Bush administration, of which he was very much a part. I found it interesting from the US perspective, he implies, that Stuxnet was developed not to stop Iran from getting the bomb, but to stop Israel from bombing Iran, which inevitably would have embroiled us in a third war in the Middle East.

Despite the Stuxnet blowup, it does seem like a better outcome than Israel trying to attack Iran.

Gibney: Yes, so from that technical standpoint Stuxnet, you could argue was a good idea. It’s just the implications of launching that kind of weapon without thinking about the ramifications down the road, and what kind of precedent it set.

We’re seeing surveillance normalized in society, it almost seems like cyberwarfare is getting there too. Is there a danger in that?

Eric: I think the real danger is that people are mostly unaware. I’m not sure we’re in a position right now where everyone is well aware of it, the impact and are okay with it. I think we’re at a stage well before that, where people simply aren’t aware and aren’t aware what are the possible long term consequences.

Photo credits: Iranian nuclear facility/AP Photo/Vahid Salemi