Overzealous editing and lifeless reading

Joe! Ochman! likes! to end every! few! words! with an exclamation! This makes listening! to him very! very! tiresome!

I'll skip over his mispronunciation of names and uncommon English words.

Now, the book. Ms. Zetter put together an incredible and horrifying account of the deployment, discovery, reverse-engineering, and aftermath of Stuxnet. I found her political analysis to be very, very good — not surprising, given her background and experience. It left more informed, and yes, more uneasy about the world we live in.

The book was marred by what appears to be an overzealous editing process. Some common technical terms and concepts are explained in unnecessary depth (complete with tortuous, eye-rolling analogies,) while less common terms are used without explanation. I have a feeling that the over-explanations were added after the fact, perhaps by a nervous editor? The book most definitely does not need them, and anyone who is reading a book about Stuxnet can be assumed to have a basic grasp of what, e.g., a worm is.

7 people found this helpful

Engrossing cyber whodunit

What did you love best about Countdown to Zero Day?

This is an utterly engrossing true life tale of the coders who unraveled the where when's and how's of the Stuxnet virus. Part cyber detective story, part geopolitical thriller, Countdown to Zero Day deftly takes the listener through the efforts of a small group of private cybersecurity experts who stumbled upon the virus and through dogged effort began to unravel its components to discover its true purpose. Wisely, the author reveals this piecemeal, mirroring the experiences of the cyber sleuths as they slowly crack the multidimensional virus. There are no big or juicy revelations here - anyone who has followed Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons technology will have heard about Stuxnet and the alleged role the US and Israel played in it. Rather, Countdown intrigues in an All the President's Men sort of way - how intrepid doggedness on the part of ordinary people (substitute coders for reporter) can uncover the darkest and most hidden reaches of power.

6 people found this helpful

Well researched

The amount of research put into this book is incredible. This was very, very good. Also, I almost didn’t get this because of reviewers complaining about the narrator. I’m glad I went for it. I think that the complaints are unfounded. The performance was on point.

2 people found this helpful

WOW! It will open your eyes

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes! specially now that the Sony hacked is in the news!
Most of us are blind to the back door of all the things we do online. This books explains how mayor hacks are possible and how easy they can take place.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes!

1 person found this helpful

Interesting Story, Terrible Production Quality

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

No. I would recommend the physical book, but not the audio book. It is terribly produced.

What did you like best about this story?

The story presented a speculated account of the Stuxnet virus and the first time the United States has ever used a digital weapon against a country. Note the US has not publicy acknowledged credit for this attack however based on the accounts of a variety of sources the author explains in excellent detail, the events surrounding this attack.

What didn’t you like about Joe Ochman’s performance?

It wasn't Joe's performance that was bad. It was the Production team who produced the book, and some of the decisions they made. First the reading of a book very obviously written by a woman by a male reader was kind of an odd choice. If you read or listen to a lot of books you can usually distinguish writing styles and descriptions which can be very distinctly male or female. There are points in the book where Kim, the author pretty much gushes over one of her sources, Ralph Langner. The way she describes him as a rock star and how he is portrayed in the book comes across a little silly when read by a man. Not to say that males don't gush over other males, but knowing this book was written by a woman makes it odd. I swear you can hear Joe(the reader) smile during some of these descriptions and phrases.Second the use of Acronyms in audio books is difficult. This book uses a TON of acronyms and in a physical book it is ok to define the acronym once then use the acronym letters for the rest of the book. However in an audio book it sounds ridiculous and is terrible to the point of laughing out loud, to skipping ahead, to uncomfortably struggling to listen to. That and if you don't listen to the book in one sitting you have no idea what the acronym stands for anymore. Good producers know how to assist in creating continuity by either spelling out the acronym each time, which is ok or working with the author to augment the book for an audio book reading. This comes across as lazy and unbearable at points.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

The whole book was very interesting. Kim takes a very technical topic and provides an insight to a topic that normal or non technical people can understand.

Any additional comments?

Overall the book was very good and I recommend reading it in place of listening as this audio book was not produced very well.

8 people found this helpful

Amazingly detailed, sober and above all, damning

Digital warfare generally conjures up bad science fiction imagery and seems more fanciful fiction than reality... However, that changed when Stuxnet was discovered, a carefully multiple pronged attack against Iran's secretive nuclear weapons program.

"Countdown to Zero Day" chronicles the discovery Stuxnet from its origins in Belarus, and follows the painstakingly detailed researched conduncted by a truly international cast, from Symantec researchers in the United States, Kaspersky Labs in Russia and security firms in India.

Kim Zetter carefully introduces the mystery of who wrote the Stuxnet virus and takes plenty of intermissions to explain the instability and insecurity of industrial control systems, and the very real threats they yield, as told by real world incidents, controlled tests and government experts assessment.

The book is measured, and isn't written as a fear-mongering piece, advocating more security but rather how the United States rushed head first into a new domain of espionage and war without ever fully considering the ramifications. It's painfully damning George Bush Jr and Barrack Obama's administrations.

Joe Ochman is almost a non-entity, transparently blending into the content and I mean this as a positive. I barely registered him as I was lost within the content. He's exceptionally easy to listen to, and never distracting. For a book that requires mostly narration, he's a great match.

Kim Zetter is extremely versed in his technology, and painstakingly details each major reveal in the case of Stuxnet as a hodgepodge of global researchers chase the rabbit continually further down the hole.Zetter isn't afraid to critique, often using quotes between security firms and government representatives to express the problematic nature of our digital platform. Towards the end, Zetter quotes and deconstructs the mantra, NOBUS (Nobody but us) used by the NSA, as an inherently flawed and naive view of cyber-security. Essentially, the inaction of government agencies to report weaknesses, flaws and glitches to save as a goodie bag for the United States puts everyone at risk as its arrogant to assume the United States will be the only ones who can use an exploit, and the "digital missiles" can be caught, deconstructed and fired back. In digital warfare.

Having read, Mark Bowden's Worm, about Conficker, Zetter avoids pandering and cuts into the technical aspects without apology. It's sure to alienate less technical readers. Those unfamiliar with patch Tuesday and the significance of out-of-band updates from Microsoft, or even what a zero-day exploit is, may want to start with Worm as a primer.

This book isn't for everyone due to the technical nature of it. I could easily see an average reader getting lost or eyes glazing over at times. As someone who's livelihood is tied web development, and followed stuxnet in the news, this book is fascinating. I remember clearly being blown away when the MD5 collision attack was discovered as it essentially confirmed that Stuxnet was made by nation-state actors.

In the end, it's wild ride, stranger than fiction journey that involves international conspiracies, assassinations, wildly intelligent researchers across the entire globe. By the end, while you never learn who the faces are behind Stuxnet, you'll have zero doubts about which nations were behind it.

12 people found this helpful

Enjoyed it

I read the other negative reviews and because of those initially stayed away.
The book was extremely technically detailed and well researched (which is what I was looking for).
I did not find any issues with the narrator or presentation. A complete non-issue from my perspective.
If you want to learn about this story in detail, this is a good source.

Ok

Very interesting and eye opening to read about cyber warfare and understand the potentially precarious state of our critical infrastructure.

The author frequently uses bad analogies as if the reader were too stupid to pay attention to the facts without pretending like it's a blockbuster action film. I found it distracting and unnecessary. Also, the word "kinetic" is frequently used to mean "physical." Probably just a pet peeve of mine, but it's used so often, and is such an egregious misuse (evidently because the word kinetic sounds cooler?) that it made me doubt the author's credibility as a competent speaker of the English language.

Want to know about Stuxnet this is the book.

excellent book, very detailed, as such it was a little difficult to listen to at times. bit definitely worth the listen and read..

In-depth research but very biased

Enjoyed this book as it stays true to the theory of targeting in cyber operations.
Unfortunately as many western liberal authors, it harps way too much on evils of the “system” and uncle sam.

Author even goes as far to paint snowdon as a hero.

Its really unfortunate the author couldn’t see beyond her own bias and self righteous.

Zero research regards to any Russian, Chinese, or any NATO nations about their cyber capabilities.