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  • Countdown to Zero Day

  • Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon
  • By: Kim Zetter
  • Narrated by: Joe Ochman
  • Length: 13 hrs
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (389 ratings)
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Countdown to Zero Day

By: Kim Zetter
Narrated by: Joe Ochman
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Summary

A top cybersecurity journalist tells the story behind the virus that sabotaged Iran’s nuclear efforts and shows how its existence has ushered in a new age of warfare—one in which a digital attack can have the same destructive capability as a megaton bomb. 

“Immensely enjoyable . . . Zetter turns a complicated and technical cyber story into an engrossing whodunit.”—The Washington Post

The virus now known as Stuxnet was unlike any other piece of malware built before: Rather than simply hijacking targeted computers or stealing information from them, it proved that a piece of code could escape the digital realm and wreak actual, physical destruction—in this case, on an Iranian nuclear facility.

In these chapters, journalist Kim Zetter tells the whole story behind the world’s first cyberweapon, covering its genesis in the corridors of the White House and its effects in Iran—and telling the spectacular, unlikely tale of the security geeks who managed to unravel a top secret sabotage campaign years in the making.

But Countdown to Zero Day also ranges beyond Stuxnet itself, exploring the history of cyberwarfare and its future, showing us what might happen should our infrastructure be targeted by a Stuxnet-style attack, and ultimately, providing a portrait of a world at the edge of a new kind of war.

©2014 Kim Zetter (P)2014 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“An authoritative account of Stuxnet’s spread and discovery . . . [delivers] a sobering message about the vulnerability of the systems—train lines, water-treatment plants, electricity grids—that make modern life possible.”Economist

“Exhaustively researched . . . Zetter gives a full account of this ‘hack of the century,’ as the operation has been called, [but] the book goes well beyond its ostensible subject to offer a hair-raising introduction to the age of cyber warfare.”The Wall Street Journal

“Part detective story, part scary-brilliant treatise on the future of warfare . . . an ambitious, comprehensive, and engrossing book that should be required reading for anyone who cares about the threats that America—and the world—are sure to be facing over the coming years.”—Kevin Mitnick, New York Times bestselling author of Ghost in the Wires and The Art of Intrusion

What listeners say about Countdown to Zero Day

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    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating subject and an amazing story

Well researched, probably bit too much detail for me, but a wake up call if ever there was one. Makes me want to run to the hills .. It's so hard to build 'safe' connected systems. Started listening to security now on twit.tv to try to keep up with the latest what is going on. Any IT person should read/listen to this book and think very hard about what they are doing and how to protect themselves.

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4 people found this helpful

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Intriguing story - well told!

An interesting contemporary subject well researched and told. Great level of detail that doesn't distract the listener from the main context of the story. I enjoyed it very much

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3 people found this helpful

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Scary but informative

This book was brilliant. It reads like a thriller but is the true story of the first cyber warfare attack on Iran. Detailed and meticulous research is coupled with a real understanding of the wider political context of the age. There are some highly technical chapters but I got used to the jargon fairly quickly and didn't worry too much if I didn't understand every aspect of the computing systems.
Narrated in a factual way, clear and at a reasonable pace..
Learnt a great deal by reading this book and will take more notice of virus attacks in the future.

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2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Narrator sounds like Microsoft Text to Speech

The story is good and well detailed, but as other reviews say, a bit too detailed. I am IT trained and have study and work in the field but the way it’s written/read i just found it hard to get hooked. Seemed very slow and drawn out. The story of which it’s about it fascinating though and worth some research into, although unfortunately i don’t think the book does it justice and just couldn’t stay focused.

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Great read!

Have you ever came across a news article and thought, "how on earth did that not start a war?! How was this not headline news all over the whole globe?". This is exactly that. The implications of this type of warfare are truly terrifying.

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USA vs Iran

great for learning about cyber state warfare, this give insight to how things begin

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    4 out of 5 stars

meticulously researched and scary

this is a real eye opener about how sophisticated hacking can be and basically how completely vulnerable to it the world is. the actual story of the stuxnet is a fantastic space age James Bond caper, but the wider implications of all of this: how sophisticated these hacking strategies are, and the fact that small innocent peripherals that were designed before the internet was even a thing can be used to drop physically destructive payloads is really quite sobering

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    4 out of 5 stars

The only 'known' cyberattack, as of writing

I liked how it started, how it described the computational thinking behind the worn. You actually don't even need be tech minded to grasp this. So for me the book has three main focuses: the worm, the team that cracked it, international laws. The international laws part seemed to drag on a bit, but was still necessary to the story.

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brilliant, well researched and narrated book

Really well researched, thought through and insightful book about a watershed moment in cyber security and cyber warfare: "Stuxnet". highly recommend it to anyone interested in information security and the world order!

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  • AS
  • 18-11-20

Good book, but a bit too long

Provides a lot of info, but sometimes dives too much and I failed to see the relevance.

Otherwise, pretty interesting. Reader absolutely ok.

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