Zero Day

A Jeff Aiken Novel

By: Mark Russinovich

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

A technothriller for the malware and Stuxnet era

An airliner’s controls abruptly fail mid-flight over the Atlantic. An oil tanker runs aground in Japan when its navigational system suddenly stops dead. Hospitals everywhere have to abandon their computer databases when patients die after being administered incorrect dosages of their medicine. In the Midwest, a nuclear power plant nearly becomes the next Chernobyl when its cooling systems malfunction.

At first, these random computer failures seem like unrelated events. But Jeff Aiken, a former government analyst who quit in disgust after witnessing the gross errors that led up to 9/11, thinks otherwise. Jeff fears a more serious cyber terrorism attack targeting the United States computer infrastructure is already under way. And as other menacing computer malfunctions pop up around the world, some with deadly results, he realizes that there isn’t much time if he hopes to prevent an international catastrophe.

Written by a global authority on cyber security, Zero Day presents a chilling “what if” scenario that, in a world completely reliant on technology, is more than possible today - it’s a cataclysmic disaster just waiting to happen.

©2011 Mark Russinovich (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

great book

Great book. Will definitely follow through any subsequent titles! This was the first book in the series

Went the wrong way

I feel like the really interesting part of this idea, all the problems that follow on a failure of the digital world and computerized systems, was glazed over in favor of how viruses work and a poorly written ethno-political motivation of digital attack.

wake up call

Would you listen to Zero Day again? Why?

the action is thrilling - the threat is real

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

details were up to date and correct

It's okay

It's an interesting subject and the premise is plausible but I found it a little long for the story to unravel. The ending was not as dramatic as it could / should be and this left me a little flat at the end.

Outstanding Technothriller

probably my 2nd favorite technothriller author behind Matthew Mather. Marks understanding of computers is far more comprehensive than Matt's and hes a phenomenal writer but Matt is better at character building, creating suspense, describing horror and has more action scenes.

gripping tale

I loved this book and how close to real life it could be. I hope there will be more!

Action Packed Techno Thriller

“Zero Day” is an action-packed technology thriller closely resembling potential events of cyber terrorism; it also does not fail to entertain and engage the reader. With a society that is now almost one-hundred percent dependent on technology and digital communications. You may not think your day-to-day activities are digitally focused, but think of all the banking, shopping, research, and other events requiring the use of digital data. What would happen if all of this was disrupted by a piece of malware developed and distributed by a rogue group of people; or even a rogue nation state.

This book show you the importance and concerns around digital terrorism and how it can wreak havoc on nearly every aspect of your lives while also bringing fear to the population. For example, what if a virus was able to prevent pilots from flying an aircraft, or taking full control making it go where they want? What if train engineers were unable to stop trains from running wild on the crowed rails. What if trucking and shipping, our supply chains, were disrupted for any length of time, society would quickly be impacted. Lastly, what if the lifesaving machines in every hospital was reprogrammed to kill instead of heal, all of this would have a global impact. Zero Day helps the reader understand all of these concerns and how difficult it actually is to track down and remediate something so widely deployed. When a piece of malware is installed over time, and then activated all at once, tracking it down becomes difficult.

This is where our main character and information security hero, Jeff Aiken, comes into the story. It is his role to locate, investigate, and attempt to pinpoint the people who developed it and their intended purpose. Again, all of these are very hard things to accomplish in real life, yet this book at times makes these difficult tasks appear simple. If you are in the computer security field, you will notice a few scenes where Hollywood has been used to make the tasks seem exciting and action packed, whereas in real lift they would not. Similar to the author’s second book in the series (Trojan Horse), one needs to remember this is a piece of action fiction and not to be used as an information security primer or educational text. It is intended to be something to be enjoyed as entertainment.

You do not need to have a great deal of technical or security knowledge to enjoy this book, but having this allows one to enjoy it even more. I did want to say that there is a sexual scene in the beginning of the book that could have been removed without impacting any part of the story. It just seemed odd in this type of story, and more used to hook the reader by using sex. There are also chapters that contain a good amount of vulgar language and also discussions of sex or sexual content. The book also contains some graphic scenes of violence that may make the book overall unacceptable for younger readers.

The book’s narration is done by Johnny Heller who has narrated the other two books in the Aiken series. I found the narration of this book average compared to other books I have listened too in audio format; it was not excellent but it was better than others. Mr. Heller has narrated hundreds of other books on Audible which have received numerous four and five star ratings. For those who have said they do not like his reading style in this book, it may partially be the text being read itself. There are a few sections in the book where source code is described which can become tedious to those who may not know what is bring described. These items are much easier to understand in written and not audio format.

I would recommend this book to others that like the technothriller genre or are involved in the information security industry. It is a great piece of action fiction and also gives one a better understanding of what events like those taking place in the book can do to our digital dependency.

Not to be listened to

It is interesting to read about cybersecurity. Some of the first scenes were suspenseful. However, I think it is not a good idea to listen to this book in audio form since the narrator reads every character when reading a snippet of encrypted code, for instance...

Seems a bit dated

What did you like best about Zero Day? What did you like least?

I find cyber-security interesting, which drew me to the story, but the technical details seemed out of date; I found myself checking the publication date to see how long ago it was written. I'd expected to learn about threats that I hadn't already heard about; I didn't.

Any additional comments?

I felt the author was trying to make us all aware of the security risks of the Internet, but the whole plot was based around a single "good idea" (not to spoil it), and didn't have additional good ideas to give the book depth.

An eye opener for the non-technical

If you could sum up Zero Day in three words, what would they be?

Dangerous technology

What other book might you compare Zero Day to and why?

Daemon by Daniel Suarez both are eye opening books that show what could happen with the technology we already have.

What does Johnny Heller bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

A wonderful narrator who keeps you in the story and doesn't let you escape.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

A real eye opener for how an attack really happens and how even doing everything right doesn't provide sufficient protection when you are targeted for attack.

Any additional comments?

A great book for those of us who know and love technology. An even better book for those who do not understand what is possible with today's technology and how open to attack we really are.