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Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon Paperback – September 1, 2015

4.6 out of 5 stars 260 customer reviews

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Product Details

  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Broadway Books; Reprint edition (September 1, 2015)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0770436196
  • ISBN-13: 978-0770436193
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (260 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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By Matt Morgan TOP 500 REVIEWER on September 23, 2014
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Being in the IT field (in particular working with OS design and administration) I took an interest when Stuxnet came to light a few years back. The last time I remembered such a stir created in the media about propagating malware was when the Morris worm surfaced in the late 1980’s. I did not know too much about Stuxnet other than what was shared in news reports so I was eager to learn more. This book definitely delivers the goods.

Instead of a dry, factual presentation that just leaves the reader bored, this book reads more like a novel – except that it’s true. It starts with a fascinating account of how Stuxnet was first discovered and describes in some detail how it exploited the operating system, what mechanisms it used to replicate itself, how it targeted the systems it was designed to find and it gives a fair estimate of just how much damage it caused before it was ultimately uncovered. The book goes on from there to discuss the implications Stuxnet has had on the digital world and how it has helped to redefine modern warfare.

The main text is written very much like a novel, but it makes heavy use of footnotes. These footnotes inject interesting facts relating to the point being made but would otherwise mar the chain of thought for the reader. This was a smart editing decision as it makes taking the side tracks optional.

One thought kept coming to mind as I got deeper into the material and learned more about the birth of this malware and how it all came into being – I had absolutely no clue just how deep the rabbit hole went, both militarily and politically.

For those interested in cybersecurity, those with an interest in electronic warfare or even those who are just downright curious about what is without question the most complex and sophisticated digital weapon known to date, this book is full of interesting information and because it’s written almost like fiction it’s a fast and engrossing read.
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Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
I know quite a few of the researchers that were involved in reverse engineering Stuxnet and Flame - so I was able to watch the story unfold with a behind the scenes view - what's presented in here is a very accurate, and insightful view of one of the most important security discoveries in recent years.

Stuxnet, et. al. presented the security industry with a huge problem - and the implications are still being sorted out to this day. Government use of malware, and how the industry should handle it when discovered are topics that are still being debated on a daily basis. Kim does a great job on explaining the issues, and giving readers plenty to think about.

From a technical perspective, the book goes into enough detail so that those of us familiar with the topic know exactly what is being discussed and it's implications, while not going overboard and overloading non-technical users with incomprehensible details. The book has a good narrative style, while covering technical detail and including details on the sources for information. Throughout the book are footnotes that list source information, additional notes that explain context, or provide additional details that don't fit in the narrative telling - I strongly suggest that you read the footnotes, as they offer very useful information.

All in all, I strongly recommend the book, well worth it.
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Format: Hardcover
A word to describe Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw was hyperbole. While the general storyline from the 1996 book was accurate, filler was written that created the legend of Kevin Mitnick. This in turn makes the book a near work of historical fiction.

Much has changed in nearly 20 years and Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon has certainly upped the ante for accurate computer security journalism.

The book is a fascinating read and author Kim Zetter's attention to detail and accuracy is superb. In the inside cover of the book, Kevin Mitnick describes this as an ambitious, comprehensive and engrossing book. The irony is not lost in that Mitnick was dogged by misrepresentations in Markoff’s book.

For those that want to know the basics about Stuxnet, its Wikipedia entry will suffice. For a deeper look, the book take a detailed look at how the Stuxnet worm of 2010 came to be, how it was written, discovered and deciphered, and what it means for the future.

The book provides nearly everything that can be known to date about Stuxnet. The need to create Stuxnet was the understanding that a nuclear Iran was dangerous to the world. The book notes that it just wasn’t the US and Israel that wanted a nuclear-free Iran; Egypt and Saudi Arabia were highly concerned about the dangers a nuclear Iran would bring to the region.
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Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
While software viruses and worms have existed in some form since the 1950’s, the attack on Iran’s uranium enrichment facility at Natanz by the Stuxnet worm is acknowledged as the first instance of state-sponsored cyberwar resulting in physical destruction of industrial infrastructure.

Whether it remains, like 9/11, a ‘once in a generation’ event is debatable, but what’s not is the digital arms race it ushered in with little public discussion of the consequences as our internet of Windows-dominated PCs evolves towards an internet of things, and automated control systems play increasingly larger roles in our lives.

The opening chapters of ‘Countdown to Zero Day’ are as riveting as any techno thriller I’ve read – with the added element of being true and portending an all-too-plausible future of government – and non-state actor - sponsored cyberwar, provocation, and surveillance we’re in part already living in.

There’s no actually code in the book, per se, but enough discussion of drivers, reverse engineering, cryptographic hashing, hooking of APIs, DLLs and CAB files, ladder stacks, and certificate authorities to feel credible to anyone who has coded Windows and embedded systems such as Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) at the C and assembler levels.
If you haven’t, fortunately, Zetter’s writing is especially clear and crisp and the book by no means requires a technical background - although a ‘technical inclination’ will serve readers well. On balance this isn’t high-level executive summary stuff.
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