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  • Worm

  • The First Digital World War
  • By: Mark Bowden
  • Narrated by: Christopher Lane
  • Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (76 ratings)
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Worm cover art

Worm

By: Mark Bowden
Narrated by: Christopher Lane
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Summary

Worm: The First Digital World War tells the story of the Conficker worm, a potentially devastating piece of malware that has baffled experts and infected more than twelve million computers worldwide. When Conficker was unleashed in November 2008, cybersecurity experts did not know what to make of it. Exploiting security flaws in Microsoft Windows, it grew at an astonishingly rapid rate, infecting millions of computers around the world within weeks. Once the worm infiltrated one system it was able to link it with others to form a single network under illicit outside control known as a “botnet.” This botnet was soon capable of overpowering any of the vital computer networks that control banking, telephones, energy flow, air traffic, health-care information — even the Internet itself. Was it a platform for criminal profit or a weapon controlled by a foreign power or dissident organization?

Surprisingly, the U.S. government was only vaguely aware of the threat that Conficker posed, and the task of mounting resistance to the worm fell to a disparate but gifted group of geeks, Internet entrepreneurs, and computer programmers. But when Conficker’s controllers became aware that their creation was encountering resistance, they began refining the worm’s code to make it more difficult to trace and more powerful, testing the Cabal lock’s unity and resolve. Will the Cabal lock down the worm before it is too late? Game on.

©2011 Mark Bowden (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about Worm

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

An exiting account of a new kind of apocalypse!

Hugely enjoyable, if slightly scary account of the "Confiker worm", which is probably inside your computer (and mine) at this moment, waiting for a command from "the BotMaster" to awake, and create havoc, by comandeering your PC, along with millions of others to target and "pwn" banking, utilities, defense and other essential computer networks of our civilisation's fragile infrastructure.



This is a true story of potential network apocalypse, of huge egos, and huge intelligences, experts in arcane knowledge most of us cannot begin to grasp, evil geniuses and selfless volunteers; real life "X-men"; "white hats" fighting the shadowy "black hats" in a battle of wits, with the fate of our society at stake - the good guys trying to stay just one step ahead. It's all great fun, and brilliantly written and narrated.



Rather worryingly, the people who should be monitoring this kind of thing, the CIA, FBI, MI5 and others, seem to be blissfully unaware of the danger. Hmmm!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

An interesting story of an unknown subject

A dive into a world outside the scope of us boring normal people.
Never knew virus could be this interesting.
Well told, surprisingly catchy story.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Enlightening

Loved this title was great whilst walking the dogs couldn't wait next to hear next chapter

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A real-world techno thriller

Would you listen to Worm again? Why?

Yes. It is brisk, well written and rich with the kind of detail I like in my books. There's stuff there for IT security professionals too

What did you like best about this story?

It zips along at a pace. It could have been dry and functional but Bowden compels the listener to keep up

Have you listened to any of Christopher Lane’s other performances? How does this one compare?

n/a

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

n/a

Any additional comments?

Recommended.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very Good.

If you are at all interested in computer security then this is worth a listen.

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