Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This book is terrifying and enthralling at the same if you work in high tech and are interested in security.
The author does an excellent job in delivering a well researched book and you start thinking about the content and the world around us.
It's strongly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This is one of the most engaging non-fiction books that I have read in a while. The book is perfectly pitched so that you can understand what a zero-day is and it's history. I really liked the author's decision to start by explaining zero-days in America and to then take us on a little history trip to USSR to see how they hacked the available 'systems' to spy.

This book places zero-days into international focus and we see what different actors and countries are using zero-days for. It also introduces the concept of boomeranging and how USA and NSA lost control of their zero-day attacks (e.g. the Iranians worked out the code used in Stuxnet for the Olympic Games) are now these zero-day attacks are being used US interests.

The reader from any background will get a clear understanding of who is doing what, how they have come to do that and what the risks of their actions are. I hope this book is read by policy makers and the wider public as it has great potential to influence decision-makers.

My only recommendation would be to include a timeline of the main developments and attacks. I noticed that we went back and forth in time, which is understandable as the narrative was themed by actors, but I feel it would make an excellent summary.

I have already recommended this book to friends!

A fantastically rich analysis of the current state of cyber intelligence, this extremely timely book is a must read for anyone concerned (or curious) about how nation states, private corporations, and individuals are facing off to control their information and ours.

New York Times cyber security reporter, Nicole Perlroth, gives us a frightening look at the new kind of global warfare - hacking. Hackers have actually been around for more than a century. In the 1870’s, a group of teenagers were caught tampering with their country’s telephone system. However, things have moved on considerably since then, and it makes for a terrifying read.

At the heart of this tale is a scary software bug known as Zero Day. This little demon enables hackers to break in to computer networks around the world. It’s invisible until discovered, and amongst other things, it can tap into any iPhone, and is capable of shutting down the power of a whole nation, as the Ukraine discovered to its cost.

Some years ago, two security researchers, actually discovered one Zero-day exploit in the Jeep Cherokee, which allowed them to seize control of the steering wheel, disable the brakes, screw with the headlights, indicators, wipers, and radio, and even cut the engine from a remote computer thousands of miles away! And that’s just one example of its capabilities.

An extensive and illuminating look into the darkest corners of the internet, where the click of a button can utterly decimate both countries, and people alike. I’ll never look at technology in the same way ever again

The author was recruited by the New York Times to write about cybersecurity. She knew little about the subject however that was 10 years ago. In that time she has learnt a lot and this book gives some insight into her learning journey. While her knowledge might not have been great, in the early days, the issues she was finding out about were quite primitive too. By the end of this period - 2020 - both the sophistication of attacks and the players involved had changed a lot.

The book opens with a prologue addressing what the book is about in part and about fairly current tensions in eastern Europe with Russian hackers and the impact of that. It then goes back in time to look at the topic of the original leaked documents that came out via Edward Snowdon - reviewing these was an early part of Nicole's work on this general subject. As these documents reveal, security agencies were using zero-day access to gather information. This is a major topic for this book and is well introduced/explained here.

When reading review books I keep notes as I read. With a book like this the notes are extensive. I will simply offer some thoughts on one or two particular aspects of this book that I found particularly interesting. The rest I would recommend you find out about for yourself.

Early on the book Nicole tells the story of iDEFENCE. This was a software security company which early in current century was going bankrupt. A colourful entrepreneur took it on and realised that a change of direction was needed. The Internet was growing and so were flaws in software. Rather than treating hackers as an annoyance they took the view that they should be paid for revealing flaws in major software. The business became very successful. It allows the author to expand on the topic of hacking and the changing approaches of the big players in the software market such as Microsoft.

The book also reaches back in time to look at the early days of interception of information by electronic and quasi electronic means in the period after the 2nd World War. This leads on to an insight into early attempts to put back doors into software code. Gosler, known as the father of cyberwarfare, was able to introduce bugs in code that no one could find and worked for some time for the National Security Agency. I found this background fascinating.

There was a major change in 2009 when Google (and other major companies/institutions) found they were being hacked. The investigations into this were another part of the book I found very interesting. Ultimately it turned out to have been state sponsored rather than something done by isolated individuals. The intention was to steal commercial Intellectual Property. This changed the approach to both offense and defence. The zero-day market is under scrutiny for much of the book and it is definitely a "market". The payments for usable exploits rises astronomically.

The book comes up to date with the 2020 USA presidential election and other recent issues. After that there is a good round up of the situation generally together with the rationale for her book. Finally there is sensible advice for all us readers.

In the end I found this a very readable insight into a dark corner of modern life. The idea of escalating warfare is something we are quite familiar with in this, and recent past, eras. Our experience has generally been of news about visible military style action. However this unseen escalation of threat to all our lives gives some pause for thought to say the least.

The author does seem to have had access to some very useful sources. Few of them are very openly acknowledged but that is simply a facet of this subject. She also faced other difficulties researching this. Some was simply based on gender - the industry is very male dominated. However inherent secrecy and the code of revealing nothing made her work on this very challenging. Equally her research did not make her popular at times.

We all know about viruses, computers and online security don't we... Read this and think again! It lifts the lid on the subject and peers into a murky underworld that has threats for all of us.