Worm: The First Digital World War

Worm: The First Digital World War [Hardcover]

  • Author by Bowden, Mark

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Editorial Reviews

Bowden, a bestselling author, has delivered a dramatic cyber-crime story that explores the Conficker Computer Worm, a potentially devastating computer virus that has baffled experts and infected as many as 12 million computers to date. Bowden has gained unprecedented access to the key players in the story and produced what could be his most important story to date.

Reviews

From Booklist
The malicious bundle of digital code known as the Conficker worm first invaded the Internet in November 2008, quickly putting computer security specialists worldwide on high alert. Unlike viruses, which are configured to cripple their computer hosts, worms are designed to take control of a PC's operating system and use it as a drone for nefarious purposes. Bowden, acclaimed author of Black Hawk Down (1999), which described a disastrous U.S. military raid in Somalia, gives this account of the computer world's efforts to neutralize the Conficker worm the flavor of a riveting report from the digital battlefield's front lines. The featured heroes are members of a loose group of computer security experts dubbed the Cabal, which includes digital crimes experts T. J. Campana of Microsoft and Phil Porras of California-based SRI. Bowden provides lucid explanations of computer-related concepts while narrating an edge-of-the-seat account of the Cabal's efforts to isolate and neutralize the worm. A nerve-racking but first-rate inside peek into the world of cybercrime and its vigilant adversaries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)
From Publishers Weekly
Bestselling Black Hawk Down author Bowden follows a group of white-hat computer experts who came together to fight Conficker, malware that surfaced in late 2008 and appeared poised to take over millions of computers running Windows Operating System on April 1, 2009. Bowden shows how The Cabal struggled to stay ahead of the Conficker worm as it evolved in the course of four months into ever more threatening incarnations. The author takes readers behind the scenes, showing the security specialists increasing frenzy, not to mention occasional infighting, as they worked to defeat the worm. Along the way, the author lucidly explains how malware can take over computers as well as how the very openness of the Internet makes it vulnerable to attack. If no one is ultimately responsible for the Internet, then how do you police and defend it? he asks. But while Bowden presents the Cabals efforts to defeat Conficker as an epic good vs. evil battle, the actual stakes are never entirely clear. Even the computer researchers have no way of knowing whether Conficker will set off Cybarmageddon, or will amount to no more than an elaborate April Fools joke. (Oct.) Copyright 2011 Reed Business Information.

Quote Reviews

  • What the Experts are Saying about the Conficker Worm:
    "If you're looking for a digital Pearl Harbor, we now have the Japanese ships steering toward us on the horizon."--Rick Wesson, Support Intelligence, CEO
    "This thing has proven . . . that it is rock-solid, and that the good guys, and the anti-virus guys and the Microsoft guys can't do sh*t. It is the Holy Grail of a botnet."--Rodney Joffe, Neustar, Security Chief
    "These [security] problems have been here so long that the only way I've been able to function at all is by learning to ignore them. Or else I would be in a constant state of panic, unable to think or act constructively. We have been one command away from catastrophe for a long time now."--Paul Vixie, Board of Trustees of the American Registry for Internet Numbers
    "It's . . . clear that we're not as prepared as we should be, as a government or as a country. . . . Just as we failed in the past to invest in our physical infrastructure--our roads, s
  • "Worm" is worth attention. Government officials up to and including President Obama have taken notice of Conficker and begun to address some of the issues it raised."--"Bloomberg"
    "When Mark Bowden writes, smart readers pay attention. . . . Bowden is a deserved brand name - a superb reporter and compelling narrative writer, whether his subject is war in a forlorn land ("Black Hawk Down," set in Somalia) or a variety of others in seven other books (Killing Pablo," "Guests of the Ayatollah," etc.). And now we have the current masterpiece, "Worm.""--"The Philadelphia Inquirer"
    "The author takes readers behind the scenes, showing the security specialists' increasing frenzy, not to mention occasional infighting, as they worked to defeat the worm. Along the way, the author lucidly explains how malware can take over computers as well as how the very openness of the Internet makes it vulnerable to attack."--"Publishers Weekly"
    "From the author of Black Hawk Down," a differ
Product Detail
ISBN: 0802119832
EAN: 9780802119834
Media: Book
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Publication Date: 09-2011
Language: English
Pages: 245
Dimensions: 9.10 x 6.20 x 1.10
Weight: 1.15
Categories: