A top cybersecurity journalist 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. “Immensely enjoyable . . . Zetter turns a complicated and technical cyber story into an engrossing whodunit.”—The Washington Post The virus now known as Stuxnet was unlike any other piece of malware built before: Rather than simply hijacking targeted computers or stealing information from them, it proved that a piece of code could escape the digital realm and wreak actual, physical destruction—in this case, on an Iranian nuclear facility. In these pages, journalist Kim Zetter tells the whole story behind the world’s first cyberweapon, covering its genesis in the corridors of the White House and its effects in Iran—and telling the spectacular, unlikely tale of the security geeks who managed to unravel a top secret sabotage campaign years in the making. But Countdown to Zero Day also ranges beyond Stuxnet itself, exploring the history of cyberwarfare and its future, showing us what might happen should our infrastructure be targeted by a Stuxnet-style attack, and ultimately, providing a portrait of a world at the edge of a new kind of war.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 In 2010, Sergey Ulasen, head of the antivirus division of a small computer security firm in Belarus, found a computer virus that used a rootkit to cloak itself and make it invisible to antivirus engines. It used a shrewd zero-day exploit to spread from machine to machine. #2 The mystery files came to the attention of VirusBlokAda when a reseller in Iran reported a persistent problem with a customer’s machine. The computer was caught in a reboot loop, crashing and rebooting repeatedly while defying the efforts of technicians to control it. #3 The two hackers found a rootkit on the system in Iran that was designed to hide four malicious. LNK files. The malware appeared to be using an exploit to spread itself via infected USB flash drives. The rootkit prevented the. LNK files from being seen on the flash drive. #4 The LNK exploit attacked a fundamental feature of Windows systems, and was much more severe than Autorun exploits. It was discovered by a security firm that had never heard of VirusBlokAda. The drivers that were dropped onto targeted machines were signed with a legitimate digital certificate from a company called RealTek Semiconductor.

A cybersecurity expert and former Google privacy analyst’s urgent call to protect devices and networks against malicious hackers and misinformed policymakers New technologies have provided both incredible convenience and new threats. The same kinds of digital networks that allow you to hail a ride using your smartphone let power grid operators control a country’s electricity—and these personal, corporate, and government systems are all vulnerable. In Ukraine, unknown hackers shut off electricity to nearly 230,000 people for six hours. North Korean hackers destroyed networks at Sony Pictures in retaliation for a film that mocked Kim Jong-un. And Russian cyberattackers leaked Democratic National Committee emails in an attempt to sway a U.S. presidential election. And yet despite such documented risks, government agencies, whose investigations and surveillance are stymied by encryption, push for a weakening of protections. In this accessible and riveting read, Susan Landau makes a compelling case for the need to secure our data, explaining how we must maintain cybersecurity in an insecure age.

In 2013, Edward Snowden released a trove of documents revealing the extent of government electronic surveillance. Since then, we have been inundated with reports of vicious malware attacks, election hacking, data breaches, potential cyberwars, fights over Net Neutrality, and fake internet news. Where once discussion of cyberspace was full of hope of incredible potential benefits for humanity and global connection, it has become the domain of fear, anxiety, conflict, and authoritarian impulses. As the cloud of the Net darkens into a storm, are there insights from Christian theology about our online existence? Is the divine present in this phenomenon known as cyberspace? Is it a realm of fear or a realm of hope? In The Cyberdimension, Eric Trozzo engages these questions, seeking not only a theological means of speaking about cyberspace in its ambiguity, but also how the spiritual dimension of life provokes resistance to the reduction of life to what can be calculated. Rather than focusing on the content available online, he looks to the structure of cyberspace itself to find a chastened yet still expectant vision of divinity amidst the political, economic, and social forces at play in the cyber realm.

From Anonymous to the Dark Web, a dizzying account of hacking—past, present, and future. “Brilliantly researched and written.”—Jon Snow, Channel 4 News “A comprehensive and intelligible account of the elusive world of hacking and cybercrime over the last two decades. . . . Lively, insightful, and, often, alarming.”—Ewen MacAskill, Guardian On May 4, 2000, an email that read “kindly check the attached LOVELETTER” was sent from a computer in the Philippines. Attached was a virus, the Love Bug, and within days it had been circulated across the globe, paralyzing banks, broadcasters, and businesses in its wake, and extending as far as the UK Parliament and, reportedly, the Pentagon. The outbreak presaged a new era of online mayhem: the age of Crime Dot Com. In this book, investigative journalist Geoff White charts the astonishing development of hacking, from its conception in the United States’ hippy tech community in the 1970s, through its childhood among the ruins of the Eastern Bloc, to its coming of age as one of the most dangerous and pervasive threats to our connected world. He takes us inside the workings of real-life cybercrimes, drawing on interviews with those behind the most devastating hacks and revealing how the tactics employed by high-tech crooks to make millions are being harnessed by nation states to target voters, cripple power networks, and even prepare for cyber-war. From Anonymous to the Dark Web, Ashley Madison to election rigging, Crime Dot Com is a thrilling, dizzying, and terrifying account of hacking, past and present, what the future has in store, and how we might protect ourselves from it.

This reference work examines how sophisticated cyber-attacks and innovative use of social media have changed conflict in the digital realm, while new military technologies such as drones and robotic weaponry continue to have an impact on modern warfare. Cyber warfare, social media, and the latest military weapons are transforming the character of modern conflicts. This book explains how, through overview essays written by an award-winning author of military history and technology topics; in addition to more than 200 entries dealing with specific examples of digital and physical technologies, categorized by their relationship to cyber warfare, social media, and physical technology areas. Individually, these technologies are having a profound impact on modern conflicts; cumulatively, they are dynamically transforming the character of conflicts in the modern world. The book begins with a comprehensive overview essay on cyber warfare and a large section of A–Z reference entries related to this topic. The same detailed coverage is given to both social media and technology as they relate to conflict in the 21st century. Each of the three sections also includes an expansive bibliography that serves as a gateway for further research on these topics. The book ends with a detailed chronology that helps readers place all the key events in these areas.

"With the nuance of a reporter and the pace of a thriller writer, Andy Greenberg gives us a glimpse of the cyberwars of the future while at the same time placing his story in the long arc of Russian and Ukrainian history." —Anne Applebaum, bestselling author of Twilight of Democracy The true story of the most devastating act of cyberwarfare in history and the desperate hunt to identify and track the elite Russian agents behind it: "[A] chilling account of a Kremlin-led cyberattack, a new front in global conflict" (Financial Times). In 2014, the world witnessed the start of a mysterious series of cyberattacks. Targeting American utility companies, NATO, and electric grids in Eastern Europe, the strikes grew ever more brazen. They culminated in the summer of 2017, when the malware known as NotPetya was unleashed, penetrating, disrupting, and paralyzing some of the world's largest businesses—from drug manufacturers to software developers to shipping companies. At the attack's epicenter in Ukraine, ATMs froze. The railway and postal systems shut down. Hospitals went dark. NotPetya spread around the world, inflicting an unprecedented ten billion dollars in damage—the largest, most destructive cyberattack the world had ever seen. The hackers behind these attacks are quickly gaining a reputation as the most dangerous team of cyberwarriors in history: a group known as Sandworm. Working in the service of Russia's military intelligence agency, they represent a persistent, highly skilled force, one whose talents are matched by their willingness to launch broad, unrestrained attacks on the most critical infrastructure of their adversaries. They target government and private sector, military and civilians alike. A chilling, globe-spanning detective story, Sandworm considers the danger this force poses to our national security and stability. As the Kremlin's role in foreign government manipulation comes into greater focus, Sandworm exposes the realities not just of Russia's global digital offensive, but of an era where warfare ceases to be waged on the battlefield. It reveals how the lines between digital and physical conflict, between wartime and peacetime, have begun to blur—with world-shaking implications.

This book is written to be a comprehensive guide to cybersecurity and cyberwar policy and strategy, developed for a one- or two-semester class for students of public policy (including political science, law, business, etc.). Although written from a U.S. perspective, most of its contents are globally relevant. It is written essentially in four sections. The first (chapters 1 - 5) describes how compromises of computers and networks permit unauthorized parties to extract information from such systems (cyber-espionage), and/or to force these systems to misbehave in ways that disrupt their operations or corrupt their workings. The section examines notable hacks of systems, fundamental challenges to cybersecurity (e.g., the lack of forced entry, the measure-countermeasure relationship) including the role of malware, and various broad approaches to cybersecurity. The second (chapters 6 - 9) describes what government policies can, and, as importantly, cannot be expected to do to improve a nation’s cybersecurity thereby leaving leave countries less susceptible to cyberattack by others. Among its focus areas are approaches to countering nation-scale attacks, the cost to victims of broad-scale cyberespionage, and how to balance intelligence and cybersecurity needs. The third (chapters 10 - 15) looks at cyberwar in the context of military operations. Describing cyberspace as the 5th domain of warfare feeds the notion that lessons learned from other domains (e.g., land, sea) apply to cyberspace. In reality, cyberwar (a campaign of disrupting/corrupting computers/networks) is quite different: it rarely breaks things, can only be useful against a sophisticated adversary, competes against cyber-espionage, and has many first-strike characteristics. The fourth (chapters 16 – 35) examines strategic cyberwar within the context of state-on-state relations. It examines what strategic cyberwar (and threats thereof) can do against whom – and how countries can respond. It then considers the possibility and limitations of a deterrence strategy to modulate such threats, covering credibility, attribution, thresholds, and punishment (as well as whether denial can deter). It continues by examining sub rosa attacks (where neither the effects nor the attacker are obvious to the public); the role of proxy cyberwar; the scope for brandishing cyberattack capabilities (including in a nuclear context); the role of narrative and signals in a conflict in cyberspace; questions of strategic stability; and norms for conduct in cyberspace (particularly in the context of Sino-U.S. relations) and the role played by international law. The last chapter considers the future of cyberwar.

Where will Muslim societies be tomorrow? The world is increasingly and constantly changing, making it hard to keep up. This makes the state much more dire and troublesome for those already marginalised – particularly Muslim societies. Normal is no longer capable of upholding the promise of tomorrow’s certainty. These are postnormal times. In this storm of ignorance and uncertainty, Muslim societies stand to lose the most. But this is not destiny. In the cultivation of a new type of literacy – futures literacy – there resides a hope. Muslim Societies in Postnormal Times offers an alternative where we can ‘rescue’ and decolonise our futures. Sardar, Serra, and Jordan take an open and plural approach to the future revealing the true potentials that lie before us. Through detailed analysis of contemporary trends, the road to destruction is revealed. Through identifying and exploring emerging issues, agency through options can allow for positive change. And in the extrapolation of these ideas into scenarios, the authors pave the way for us to navigate our own preferred futures. Their study challenges the reader to think about the future in a new way, redefining the monolithic future as three tomorrows (Extended Present, Familiar Futures, and Unthought Futures), along the way ever watchful for Black Swans, Black Elephants, and the illustrious Black Jellyfish that could disrupt the path ahead. The authors pull no punches in critically evaluating the possibilities and nightmares that could potentially befall Muslim societies. Through a display of creativity and imagination, this book looks beyond the conventional to illuminate impacts in the context of the complex, interconnected world we find ourselves in. This informative and enlightening text will push readers to see beyond popular, yet native notions of present and future. In the exposition of the reader’s ignorance and uncertainty, they will begin to look for the unthought and take agency in recolonising and navigating their preferred tomorrow.

Why do nations break into one another's most important computer networks? There is an obvious answer: to steal valuable information or to attack. But this isn't the full story. This book draws on often-overlooked documents leaked by Edward Snowden, real-world case studies of cyber operations, and policymaker perspectives to show that intruding into other countries' networks has enormous defensive value as well. Two nations, neither of which seeks to harm the other but neither of which trusts the other, will often find it prudent to launch intrusions. This general problem, in which a nation's means of securing itself threatens the security of others and risks escalating tension, is a bedrock concept in international relations and is called the 'security dilemma'. This book shows not only that the security dilemma applies to cyber operations, but also that the particular characteristics of the digital domain mean that the effects are deeply pronounced. The cybersecurity dilemma is both a vital concern of modern statecraft and a means of accessibly understanding the essential components of cyber operations.