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1. Great insight into the first shots of the cyber warefare
   This book is very well written. You can tell that Kim Zetter has a strong background in investigative journalism, and that she worked very hard to compile a thorough and well thought out narrative. This book is also very well edited, which is helpful when slogging through a somewhat dense topic like this.One thing I will say up front is that this book isn’t quite so much about the Iranian nuclear program and the sabotage thereof as it is about a specific area of cyber warfare that uses the Iranian program as a backdrop. If you are keen to read technical details about other countries covert uranium enrichment and weaponization processes, there are better books out there for that. But, if you want a good timeline and summary on how the world reacted to the Iranian program and dealt with it on many levels – something along the lines of a good Frontline episode – then this is your book.But perhaps the even more praise-worthy aspect of this book is it’s description of how cyber warfare blossomed from it’s furtive beginnings in the 80’s to what we see today. The description of the book’s namesake – zero day exploits – is excellent. I thought I knew the material well enough for a layman, but Ms. Zetter explained it out in great if not scary detail. Then she takes that topic as first introduced with the Stuxnet virus launched against the Iranian nuclear program and relates it to the world’s infrastructure that is controlled by SCADA systems – a truly scary situation we are all in. She also provides a history of earlier, less destructive cyber attacks around the world and how we first tested how a virus could manifest into a physical act of destruction. And finally some insight how the white hats and black hats of the hacker world work today, including those in our government.This book is also a good investigation story. We see how researchers with Symantec and Kaspersky (and some smaller firms) all battled this virus, probing it, dissecting it, until they unlocked it’s method and then it’s purpose. Very informative, very logical – like a good detective story. And then right when you think they got this thing – you find out that Stuxnet was just the tip of the iceberg! Duqu and Flame come into the light and a whole new chapter on the Iranian sabotage unfolds.And finally, I would say that if you have absolutely no knowledge at all about how computers works – for example if the terms root kit or buffer overflow or *.dll files all are utterly foreign to you – then you might want to find another book on this topic. That being said, it is written towards the general computer user so I think most people can get the gist of the more technical details.

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2. Thriving Market for Zero-Day Vulnerabilities and Exploits: Blessing or Curse?
   Kim Zetter uses Stuxnet, the world’s first digital weapon used against Iran’s nuclear program, to make her audience aware of the challenges and opportunities that zero-day vulnerabilities and exploits represent for the nations with the greatest connectivity. Critical infrastructures represent a juicy target not only for cyber criminals (a.k.a. the black market), but also for law enforcement and intelligent agencies (a.k.a. the gray market) around the world. Ms. Zetter clearly highlights the numerous challenges that the software makers and web site owners (a.k.a. the white market) experience in trying to make their offerings as secure as possible. To her credit, she strikes the right balance between telling a riveting story accessible to a wide audience and offering much technical detail in the footnotes of her book. Furthermore, Ms. Zetter demonstrates with much clarity that the legal and policy issues surrounding the use of zero-day vulnerabilities and exploits have not been appropriately addressed in public in the United States. Like other countries involved with cyber warfare, the United States has to play both defense and offense in order to secure its interests. My only regret is that the author does not deal with the fast-growing Internet of Things. “Big Data” is a juicy target for the black, gray, and white markets mentioned above. In summary, Ms. Zetter succeeds with much talent in making an arcane subject understandable to a lay audience while simultaneously satisfying the appetite of a more tech-savvy audience.

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3. Absolutely astonishing book
   I took this book in an attempt to understand what Stuxnet is and to understand its inner workings, but I have learned much more by picking it up.I’ve learned some things about how the process of creating nuclear bombs look like. I’ve learned about the security implications of digital weapons. I’ve learned about what goes on in order to actually get permission to use a digital weapon. I now have a clearer picture of what the Iranian nuclear deal developed. I have a clearer picture of what could happen next in cyber warfare.And while the technical explanation of what Stuxnet is and how it behaved was dispersed over the different chapters, I’ve accomplished the original goal. It will still take me some time to have a full understanding of it, but this book gave me a clear direction on where to look at.I compared it to Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress a couple of times in the last couple of days and I stay behind that comparison. This book is basically Digital Fortress that has actually happened. That alone makes this book even more amazing than it already was.I highly recommend it to everyone interested in cyberspace. Stuxnet changed the course of war for good and this book does an amazing job of portraying that. It also shows you all the drawbacks that Stuxnet had and problems it encountered on its way. At the end, it tells you how the researchers opened the Pandora’s box after discovering it, proving that it wasn’t a one-time thing and telling you about the entire system of malware Stuxnet was a part of.I rarely write book reviews, but this book deserves it. I highly recommend it and will continue recommending it for a long time in the future.I’ve started following Kim’s work after grabbing this book and will continue following it for a long time. I really hope she’ll find some other topic worth writing about and cover it in such great details as she did in this one. If (or when) she does that, I’ll be grabbing it on day one. This book was perfectly paced, each chapter was worth reading, and all together, it portrayed a beautiful analysis about the topic.

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4. “Countdown to Zero Day” by Kim Zetter is an eye-opening book that reads like a thriller, but it’s all true! The book dives into the story of Stuxnet, the world’s first digital weapon, which was used to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.What I loved most about this book is how it highlights the real-world impact of digital weapons. It’s not just about computers and code; it’s about how these tools can affect countries and international politics.If you’re interested in technology, cybersecurity, or just love a good non-fiction thriller, “Countdown to Zero Day” is a must-read. It’s informative, engaging, and incredibly relevant in today’s digital age.

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5. Muito instigante. Uma historia muito legal, vale a pena.

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6. The book is superbly researched and well told.Do not expect technical details, though.One example: “But the digital warheads used an obscure programming language, unique to teh Siemens PLC, called STL.” Well, STL is Siemens’ dialect of IL (Instruction List), one of the five programming language for PLCs defined by IEC 61131-3.

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7. Just pages and pages of light comments about the investigation of different antivirus companies in the technical content of the virus with some link to what was going on in Iran, some pages with a very rough description of the structure of Stuxnet and a final bunch of pages about the risks of someone launching an updated version of Stuxnet …

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8. Best read of recent times. The author has taken great efforts to gather the information and present it for non technical readers who do not have an industrial automation background or work experience in that field.This book is based on true story and so perhaps that’s what makes this book really exciting, intriguing and interesting.Hats off to the author once again for pulling this one. Best.

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