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 pages, 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.
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“Cyberwarfare catapulted from science fiction into reality in 2010, when a
previously unknown military-grade computer virus attacked centrifuges
in Iran that were allegedly being used to enrich uranium for nuclear
bombs. Zetter, a senior writer for Wired magazine,
details how a series of clues led a small but intrepid group of computer
security specialists from around the world to discover Stuxnet, the
world’s first ‘zero-day exploit,’ a virus without a patch…Even readers who can’t tell a PLC from iPad will learn much from
Zetter’s accessible, expertly crafted account, which unpacks this
complex issue with the panache of a spy thriller.”
—
Publishers Weekly (starred review)