Category: Books

READ: Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon

Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon [Kim Zetter]

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.

Source: Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon: Kim Zetter: 9780770436193: Amazon.com: Books

 

 

This book served as an excellent guide to understanding the timeline of Stuxnet. It goes deeper into the possible implications of *why* Stuxnet was as insidious as I always suspected. I learned more about the cyber weapon from this book than I did in 5 years of reading anecdotes and articles online. Sometimes nothing beats great research and a well written book.

Read: Faster – The Acceleration of Just About Everything

Faster
James Gleick; Random House Audio 1999

 

I have to recommend this book for the purpose of it’s current ability to cause reflection on the 15 years since it was written. The exact causes cited in the book are woefully outdated and don’t capture the revolutions that have happened since the year 2000.

What is relevant about the content is recognition about how correct the assumptions were as laid out in the book. Everything really is getting faster. My first favorite portion of this book is the enchanting description of Time in the very beginning. I have never felt such a deep understanding of Time before.

My second favorite portion of the book consists of the journey through what does 24 hours really look like and where does the time really go. Outdated as the book is, I found it very easy to examine the statistics the author uses to describe the hours of the day, and easily adjust for all the modern wonders and how much faster our lives are today.

I couldn’t imagine taking the time to read this book as the only thing I do, perhaps it was only appropriate that I listened to this while drinking my coffee on my way to work over the course of a few weeks.

Read: Kevin Mitnick – Ghost in the Wires

Ghost in the Wires
Kevin D. Mitnick; Little, Brown and Company 2011

 

I was aware of Kevin Mitnick’s status as the most wanted hacker since my first year in college. The book is an excellent narrative on how he became the world’s most wanted hacker.

I have no issues whatsoever with his incessant need to hack as a way to understand computers and systems. I also understand his belief that each new challenge was not for profit, but simply to see if he could do something.

The book is a great reminder to me, and for anyone that reads it that the weakest link in computer security is the human sitting in the chair. There is nothing as exploitable as each other. And this is really where the separation for White hat vs. Black Hat comes in, social engineering is a devious and nefarious activity. Unless specifically hired for a company to do pen-testing, any use of social engineering is in my mind highly unethical.

I lack the drive necessary to take advantage of the trust people place in me. I still believe that technology is meant to help humanity, and can’t bring myself to exploit for personal gain. And perhaps that is why I will never be the world’s most wanted hacker.