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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 (88 ratings)

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Countdown to Zero Day

By: Kim Zetter
Narrated by: Joe Ochman
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Publisher's 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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A Thrilling Eye-Opener

Although we all know about computer viruses, few of us have much of an understanding of how much of a role cyber-warfare plays in international espionage and sabotage.
Countdown to Zero Day does a great job in enlightening us about all levels of cyber attack and defence, focussing on the extraordinary Stuxnet attack interwoven with countless other examples.
With a good balance between intrigue and technical detail, it held my attention the whole time. Well written and well read.

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Great detail - not too technical

Excellent technical analysis of Stuxnet as well as the enabling operations that ensured its success.

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Brilliant recap of the political and tech aspects

Brilliant recap of the political and the technological aspects of stuxnet and the teams behind it

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