Kevin B. O'Brien reviewed Zero Day by Mark E. Russinovich
Review of 'Zero Day' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Mark Russinovich is the developer of the Sysinternals suite, and moved to Microsoft when his company was purchased by the Redmond Behemoth. And this matters because this is a techno-thriller where accuracy matters, at least to those of us who understand how this works. Hollywood thinks you can just type "Override' on any green monochrome terminal and get instant access to any computer system. But Mark knows how things actually work, and it shows in this book. Everything in it is plausible and believable.
As you might infer from the title, the plot hinges on a deadly computer virus/malware that has no known "antidote" when first encountered. It has seriously bad effects on computer systems, and is responsible for multiple deaths because those systems control so much of of our infrastructure today. That is one of the things this book really brings home, how vulnerable we are to a properly …
Mark Russinovich is the developer of the Sysinternals suite, and moved to Microsoft when his company was purchased by the Redmond Behemoth. And this matters because this is a techno-thriller where accuracy matters, at least to those of us who understand how this works. Hollywood thinks you can just type "Override' on any green monochrome terminal and get instant access to any computer system. But Mark knows how things actually work, and it shows in this book. Everything in it is plausible and believable.
As you might infer from the title, the plot hinges on a deadly computer virus/malware that has no known "antidote" when first encountered. It has seriously bad effects on computer systems, and is responsible for multiple deaths because those systems control so much of of our infrastructure today. That is one of the things this book really brings home, how vulnerable we are to a properly crafted piece of code that can turn our systems against us.
But who is behind this malware? And how do they plan to benefit from this? That is what you need to read the book to find out, I don't plan to give any spoilers.
This is part of series involving the main character, but it is the only one I have read so far.
