Zero Day (Jeff Aiken #1)
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...more
Hardcover, 328 pages
Published
March 15th 2011
by Thomas Dunne Books
(first published March 2011)
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A little disappointed. I've heard a lot of hype about this book, but it had some issues. I found the flow awkward and some of the characters seemed silted. Is the premise believable? Yeah. Did the solution make sense? Not really sure. [return][return]The technology descriptions also seemed out of place and didn't flow well. I'm not sure they would have done much for someone who didn't know the lingo, and those who did would find some of the descriptions strange and over-simplistic.[return][retur...more
This is the second of the technology themed first novels that I listened to this month. Russinovich is a fairly well known programmer at Microsoft, which is to say that he is very well known in the tech community but not so much in the "real" world. This book has been raved about among techies and was reputed to be "timely". I feel bad for the guy. Really. However, you really should read an actual novel before you decide to write one. I don't mean a graphic novel or something by Elmore Leonard,...more
Jan 08, 2013
John Straffin
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Nobody
This has to have been the most painful book I have ever finished listening to. Filled with pointless detail, racial stereotyping, and gratuitous smut, the book is bad enough, but the audio-book makes it all worse by not accounting for the change in media. The phrase "spelled 'Superphreak' instead of 'Superfreak'" makes perfect sense when seen. When read aloud, not so much. When reading an e-mail represented in the book, must the reader *really* spell out every bit of the line "From: Xhugo1101 <xhugo1101@msn.com>"...more
Avoid like an .exe found on a pop-up.
'Zero Day' is a thriller so by-the-numbers that if you had told me that Mark Russinovich had written a computer program that had produced it I would be neither surprised or impressed such is the quality of the finished product. I read the early chapters in shock that it had been published. After the shock wore off I ploughed on dead-eyed in a manner that now in retrospect resembles nothing more than acute self-harm.
'Zero Day' opens in the style of 'World War...more
'Zero Day' is a thriller so by-the-numbers that if you had told me that Mark Russinovich had written a computer program that had produced it I would be neither surprised or impressed such is the quality of the finished product. I read the early chapters in shock that it had been published. After the shock wore off I ploughed on dead-eyed in a manner that now in retrospect resembles nothing more than acute self-harm.
'Zero Day' opens in the style of 'World War...more
I agree with all the criticism of the other readers and I support those who liked the book.
My expectations were not met, but given that this is Mark's first novel - I would say the start isn't that bad.
Now, I would like to highlight a few things that other readers did not:
- In Russian, the short version of "Vladimir" is "Vova", rather than "Vlad" (which corresponds to "Vladislav"), the author didn't get this part right.
- Mark makes a reference to "kuyrdak" - I honestly had no clue such a thing e...more
My expectations were not met, but given that this is Mark's first novel - I would say the start isn't that bad.
Now, I would like to highlight a few things that other readers did not:
- In Russian, the short version of "Vladimir" is "Vova", rather than "Vlad" (which corresponds to "Vladislav"), the author didn't get this part right.
- Mark makes a reference to "kuyrdak" - I honestly had no clue such a thing e...more
Being in the IT field, I was excited to read this book, both for the subject matter and considering the Russinovich’s accomplished experience in the field. Plus, I’m a sucker for a good thriller. Unfortunately, maybe my IT background was also what made it somewhat disappointing to me, with certain plot details and even writing styles being a bit annoying to me.
One incredibly irritating example so divorced from reality that cropped up again and again was how everyone—EVERYONE—seems to be so sore...more
One incredibly irritating example so divorced from reality that cropped up again and again was how everyone—EVERYONE—seems to be so sore...more
A singularly bad novel. The writing is unbearable. The plot is predictable and unoriginal. The entire book is technically inaccurate. Russinovich is a respected expert in the field of windows operating system internals, but he clearly has no real idea about real malware, exploitation and the underground. It seems that his perspective is completely skewed, and he attempts to write with technical confidence about areas which are clearly outside his field of expertise. I honestly believe that any h...more
The premise is good: Terrorists are planning and quietly executing a computer attack against the West using stealthy, time-activated viruses hidden by cleverly-written rootkits. Can the good guys prevent a cataclysmic day when all the computers die simultaneously?
The characters are stale: Must the good guy be handsome and prescient and clever and kind and sexy and stylish? Must every woman be sexy and young and horny and wily and well-dressed and smart? Must the bad guys be smarmy and zealous an...more
The characters are stale: Must the good guy be handsome and prescient and clever and kind and sexy and stylish? Must every woman be sexy and young and horny and wily and well-dressed and smart? Must the bad guys be smarmy and zealous an...more
One of the more annoying and frustrating books have read.
The author is an experienced IT professional painting a picture of some of the pitfalls of relying to much on modern technology. Sounds basic premise. And in other hands would have been a thought provoking and well written book.
However he writes with a heavy hand with scenarios over the top and generic characters that seem stolen from a movie of the week.
If he had turned down some of the scenarios he laid out would have helped but sound...more
The author is an experienced IT professional painting a picture of some of the pitfalls of relying to much on modern technology. Sounds basic premise. And in other hands would have been a thought provoking and well written book.
However he writes with a heavy hand with scenarios over the top and generic characters that seem stolen from a movie of the week.
If he had turned down some of the scenarios he laid out would have helped but sound...more
I was eager to read Zero Day following an enthusiastic recommendation from Steve Gibson of the Security Now podcast. The author, Mark Russinovich, is employed as a senior technical resource at Microsoft, is recognised as an expert in the Windows operating system, and was cofounder of Wininternls, a small company that released a suite of highly respected low-level administration and debugging tools.
The premise of the book is both sound and scary. A small terrorist group coordinates the developmen...more
The premise of the book is both sound and scary. A small terrorist group coordinates the developmen...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This book is an easy read for anyone who has ever used a computer connected to the internet. The book is even more interesting and compelling if you have ever installed an anti-virus product on a PC. So, there you go; this book will be a good read for almost anyone who picks it up.
The plot is all to believable. A group is creating a storm of worms and viruses to invade the computer systems that control our banking, airlines, power generation – you know, every part of our life. This threat as bee
...more
The name Mark Russinovich should be familiar to anyone in the IT industry. He’s the co-founder of Winternals (which operated the Sysinternals website), now owned by Microsoft. Mark is a co-author of the Windows Internals books, and the creator of such tools as Process Explorer, Autoruns and Process Monitor, which are just a small subset of the Sysinternals tools arsenal, which is being used daily by programmers, IT and computer forensics experts around the world.
I first heard about “Zero Day: A...more
I first heard about “Zero Day: A...more
This debut technothriller by one of Microsoft's technical gurus features al-Qaeda, cyber-terrorism on a global scale, a network security hero who lost his lady in 9/11 (which, he happened to predict while working for the CIA, only to be ignored), and not one, but two other exceedingly attractive female IT people. What else does one need to know? While the author posits some fairly evocative set pieces illustrating how the world's economy can be brought to a standstill by a few relatively clever...more
Mar 13, 2011
Misha
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery-suspense-thriller
*Rating is 3.5*
Mark Russinovich works at Microsoft in one of the senior-most technical positions. Considering the background of the author, the premise of Zero Day becomes even more compelling.
Zero Day has a thrilling start. Several seemingly unrelated incidents take place all over the world, all involving computer failures. The controls of a British Airways flight fails. So do the computers in a highly reputed firm based in NYC. A glitch in the computer databases in various hospitals causes m...more
Mark Russinovich works at Microsoft in one of the senior-most technical positions. Considering the background of the author, the premise of Zero Day becomes even more compelling.
Zero Day has a thrilling start. Several seemingly unrelated incidents take place all over the world, all involving computer failures. The controls of a British Airways flight fails. So do the computers in a highly reputed firm based in NYC. A glitch in the computer databases in various hospitals causes m...more
Last summer, news of the Stuxnet worm, suspected of being crafted by a nation state to attack Iran’s nuclear program, became the first public example of a virus created specifically to destroy infrastructure systems. More recently, cyber-attacks in support of Wikileaks that disabled high-profile web sites like Visa and Mastercard underscore the ease with which cyber armies can be enlisted and called upon to wreak havoc.
Author Mark Russinovich, Technical Fellow at Microsoft (Microsoft’s highest...more
Author Mark Russinovich, Technical Fellow at Microsoft (Microsoft’s highest...more
My first though on this book was "If I get the opportunity to push the sale of any book, this is the book I would choose, for the simple fact that we need to be educated in cyber terrorism." A thought provoking thriller, Zero Day is by far one of the most exciting yet terrifying books I have ever read. In our generation, there is no where you can look that is not controlled by computers in some capacity. Just think about it for a minute. Online banking, your power at home, the airplane that you...more
Aug 03, 2012
aPriL MEOWS often with scratching
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Shelves:
mysteries-suspense-thrillers
I picked this one up because I listen to a podcast by Steve Gibson called 'Security Now'. He has recommended other books which have been excellent. However, this was a big disappointment. It sucked. The sad thing is it really shouldn't have. The plot was terrific. Terrorists decide to take down the Western World via the computers which now control every aspect of business from customer records to payroll to billing to factory machine control. Airplanes are flown by computers, and nuclear reactor...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Impressive - & scary - debut "cyberspace" novel from a high-ranking Microsoft tech. This story is very much in the vein of a doomsday scenario: runaway viruses impeding the free world, airplanes losing control in the air, financial institutions crumbling, etc. However, I do think this book does that familiar trope better, in that it ties the viruses to attacks being coordinated by terrorists. Furthermore, the attacks even tie in to 9/11. It's all very authentic-sounding, courtesy of Russinov...more
Nice idea and Mark definitely knows his security (he should, he's one of the foremost experts on MS Windows), but I think he generally sort of blew this one. The story is intriguing, but it's somewhat predictable and it's full of stereotypes and cliches. The hackers are Russian, cynical and ready to do anything for money. The Arab terrorists are the ones behind the attacks and they want to kill us all, because they hate our freedom. If you are into this kind of stuff you can just watch conservat...more
Zero Day explores what could happen if some hackers are turned to true evil by terrorists. It examines what could happen if a doomsday virus is sent to almost every computer in the western world and wonders if we are truly too dependent on them. Jeff, a computer analyst, leaves his government job after they fail to act on intelligence that could have prevented 9/11. He is called to help a law firm where a the doomsday virus has been triggered a month early by a wrong date in the system. Realizin...more
This book is a first novel by a computer expert with a number of non-fiction computer books to his name, and this book has a definite agenda to it (ie People don't pay enough attention to protecting computers from malicious code).
Arab terrorists want to start a new 9-11, except now they are using viruses to attack western computers. A few computers (with their system dates set wrong) start crashing, and in some cases people die as a result. The hero and the heroine are on the track of these viru...more
Arab terrorists want to start a new 9-11, except now they are using viruses to attack western computers. A few computers (with their system dates set wrong) start crashing, and in some cases people die as a result. The hero and the heroine are on the track of these viru...more
Zero Day is a thrill-ride that is scary and yet you can't quit turning the pages either. I enjoyed this possibly plausible techno-thriller from Mr. Russinovich from start to finish.
I really liked the characters. For a suspense/thriller that is really plot-based, a fair amount of character development went into the main character of Jeff. The rest of the characters aren't as fleshed out, but their motives and reasons for doing what they do and who they are aren't as integral to the plot. Jeff was...more
I really liked the characters. For a suspense/thriller that is really plot-based, a fair amount of character development went into the main character of Jeff. The rest of the characters aren't as fleshed out, but their motives and reasons for doing what they do and who they are aren't as integral to the plot. Jeff was...more
Mark Russinovich's first novel was an enjoyable read for me. Not great literature, but far from mediocre. The short chapters helped create flow and kept me wanting to turn to the next page. The events in the story are plausible, which I appreciate as so often many thrillers require one to completely suspend belief. Everything in the book is technically possible, improbable in some cases, but not impossible.
The excessive use of alternate spellings and abbreviations in the instant messaging texts...more
The excessive use of alternate spellings and abbreviations in the instant messaging texts...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
The story was decent, but nothing to write home about. People on Amazon seem to love it, so I might just be a party-pooper on this type of story. I'm curious if I'd still enjoy Dan Brown books like I did in high school.
The mission of the book is awesome. As a software engineer, this book has changed the way I think about computer security. It's a big deal! I'm glad I read this book because it shifted me from thinking of security as an inconvenience to being a top priority.
The fact that the book...more
The mission of the book is awesome. As a software engineer, this book has changed the way I think about computer security. It's a big deal! I'm glad I read this book because it shifted me from thinking of security as an inconvenience to being a top priority.
The fact that the book...more
When I first saw the movie, THE NET, I thought that was the worst that could ever happen with computer technology but ZERO DAY proves creative people can always find ways to use their talents to cause harm. The anniversary of 9/11 is approaching and chilling events are taking place. An airliner’s onboard computer fails to respond, same at a nuclear plant, an oil tanker, and even a hospital where a computer gives out the wrong dose of medicine killing several people. Jeff Aiken lost a fiancée in...more
This was one of the worst books I've ever read. I obviously wasn't expecting great literature when I picked this up, but this was miles away from being even a decent thriller. There wasn't even any interesting discussion of computer security involved - which was the main reason I was interested, considering the author's credentials - it was all very high level and vague, clearly toned down to broaden the appeal. Characters were entirely black or white; every female was a beautiful, oversexed god...more
I started this thinking it was another high tech thriller (Crichton, Daniel Suarez) and what I got was 250 pages of Network Security for Dummies and 50 pages of some of network TV quality action.
The book is a fairly easy read. For his first Fiction novel, author Mark Russinovich does show a lot of promise. The plot was very predictable and I found few surprises, but despite this he managed to keep the story moving. This kept me from ever considering setting the book aside for something else.
I al...more
The book is a fairly easy read. For his first Fiction novel, author Mark Russinovich does show a lot of promise. The plot was very predictable and I found few surprises, but despite this he managed to keep the story moving. This kept me from ever considering setting the book aside for something else.
I al...more
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Aka Mark E. Russinovich.
Mark Russinovich is a Technical Fellow in Windows Azure, Microsoft's cloud operating system group. Russinovich is a widely recognized expert in Windows operating system internals as well as operating system architecture and design.
Russinovich joined Microsoft when Microsoft acquired Winternals software, the company he cofounded in 1996 and where he worked as Chief Software...more
More about Mark Russinovich...
Mark Russinovich is a Technical Fellow in Windows Azure, Microsoft's cloud operating system group. Russinovich is a widely recognized expert in Windows operating system internals as well as operating system architecture and design.
Russinovich joined Microsoft when Microsoft acquired Winternals software, the company he cofounded in 1996 and where he worked as Chief Software...more
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updated Nov 10, 2012 11:59pm