Review
of the Book Countdown to Zero Day by
Kim Zetter
I found Kim Zetter’s ‘Countdown
to Zero Day’ to be an extraordinarily challenging read because of the
implications in what is written. Zetter
is an outstanding writer who keeps the reader in suspense in her telling of all
that happened in the series of Stuxnet cyber-attacks.
The most chilling
observation comes in the way she talks about ‘firsts.’ The same country that launched the world into
the age of atomic weapons is the one who launched the world into the age of
cyber warfare. And it was done as an
attempt to cutoff future nuclear conflicts.
The irony would be worthy of an eye-roll if the implications weren’t so
ominous.
As wonderful as Zetter’s
writing was, I did at points find myself bogged down in the technical details
of computer code and computer viruses. In
the acknowledgements at the end of the book, she notes the difficulty of
composing a compelling tale and at the same time being true to the necessity of
comprehensive technical description. I
appreciated her transparency in the challenge of accomplishing both (a
well-written story and one that would satisfy people who know about code, which
I do not). I think she accomplished the
goal. It was easy for me to skim the
portions that were beyond my capacity regarding technical description. It did not detract from me getting into the
narrative she shared.
The bottom line is this
book makes me feel a bit less secure about the future of international
conflict. This book is another in the line
of works that show how the computer age is a dangerous equalizer. For me the first such book was Friedman’s ‘The
World is Flat.’ Zetter’s work shows the
next logical step in the flattening of the world.
I hope someone overly
talented programmer with serious emotional imbalance in his life doesn’t launch
a virus or other type of attack that destroys crucial systems nationwide. I hope that type of catastrophe doesn’t
happen. After reading ‘Countdown to Zero
Day,’ I kind of think it will. And that
is scary.
Disclaimer
- I
received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.
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