Kim Zetter

A forefront cybersecurity journalist presents the story of the complex computer virus responsible for destroying Iran's nuclear centrifuges in January 2010, offering insight into how digital weapons are changing the face of warfare. 40,000 first printing.

Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon

Countdown to Zero Day

As others have said, super interesting topic, but it quickly becomes (a) repetitive and (b) tonally dissonant as the author switches between the story of Stuxnet and editorializing about the dangers of cyber warfare.

I think the original Ars article about this story is more than enough to satisfy any curiosity: 

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/07/how-digital-detectives-deciphered-stuxnet-the-most-menacing-malware-in-history/

Aaron Bach

As others have said, super interesting topic, but it quickly becomes (a) repetitive and (b) tonally dissonant as the author switches between the story of Stuxnet and editorializing about the dangers of cyber warfare.

I think the original Ars article about this story is more than enough to satisfy any curiosity: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/07/how-digital-detectives-deciphered-stuxnet-the-most-menacing-malware-in-history/

Top cybersecurity journalist Kim Zetter 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. In January 2010, inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency noticed that centrifuges at an Iranian uranium enrichment plant were failing at an unprecedented rate. The cause was a complete mystery—apparently as much to the technicians replacing the centrifuges as to the inspectors observing them. Then, five months later, a seemingly unrelated event occurred: A computer security firm in Belarus was called in to troubleshoot some computers in Iran that were crashing and rebooting repeatedly. At first, the firm’s programmers believed the malicious code on the machines was a simple, routine piece of malware. But as they and other experts around the world investigated, they discovered a mysterious virus of unparalleled complexity. They had, they soon learned, stumbled upon the world’s first digital weapon. For Stuxnet, as it came to be known, was unlike any other virus or worm built before: Rather than simply hijacking targeted computers or stealing information from them, it escaped the digital realm to wreak actual, physical destruction on a nuclear facility. In these pages, Wired journalist Kim Zetter draws on her extensive sources and expertise to tell the story behind Stuxnet’s planning, execution, and discovery, covering its genesis in the corridors of Bush’s White House and its unleashing on systems in Iran—and telling the spectacular, unlikely tale of the security geeks who managed to unravel a sabotage campaign years in the making. But Countdown to Zero Day ranges far beyond Stuxnet itself. Here, Zetter shows us how digital warfare developed in the US. She takes us inside today’s flourishing zero-day “grey markets,” in which intelligence agencies and militaries pay huge sums for the malicious code they need to carry out infiltrations and attacks. She reveals just how vulnerable many of our own critical systems are to Stuxnet-like strikes, from nation-state adversaries and anonymous hackers alike—and shows us just what might happen should our infrastructure be targeted by such an attack. Propelled by Zetter’s unique knowledge and access, and filled with eye-opening explanations of the technologies involved, Countdown to Zero Day is a comprehensive and prescient portrait of a world at the edge of a new kind of war.

Bouke van der Bijl

Thrilling book, with a lot of terrifying information about the Iran nuclear program, and the ‘cyber’ capabilities of the US and Israel. Unfortunately the book got more and more repetitive as it went on, up to a point where I could just start skipping whole paragraphs because it was just rehashed information.

as someone who grew up hearing about stuxnet all the time on hackernews and various tech publications, this was a solid deep vibe into probably one of the most interestingly crafted state-sponsored cyber attacks

Adam Goehrig-Bawany

Wynn Netherland

An eye-opening look at the vulnerabilities inherent in a connected world, this book tells the story of the first large scale cyberweapon (that we know of) through the eyes of those that discovered it. It's a sober reminder for those of us who write software for a living that what we create can also be co-opted for destructive purposes. It's also a call to contemplate the implications of our software-controlled economy and how it is changing the landscape of warfare.

Countdown to Zero Day Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon

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