A review by nickn77
Zero Day by Mark Russinovich

4.0

A series of viruses are unleashed on the Western World causing minor chaos. A fully automated nuclear plant goes down, an auto assembly line is brought to its knees, medical delivery systems are malfunctioning and random computers are self destructing. An act of cyber-terrorism is underway and a small group of computer security specialists are tasked with unraveling the plot.[return][return]Mark Russinovich is a well known Windows operating system expert and currently is a Technical Fellow at Microsoft. Mr. Russinovich has unveiled countless Microsoft security flaws and has provided computer geeks across the globe with tools to debug and troubleshoot complex problems with the Windows operating system. Why the fanfare and mini-bio? The answer, to point out that he is in a position to understand the current state of computer security and the real threat cyber-terrorism could have on our world. [return][return]The technical aspects of Zero Day are well explained and only rarely does Russinovich dish out technical jargon that may go over the head of those less tech-savvy readers. The story flows extremely well and reads almost like a work of non-fiction. The only negative I had with the story was the authors fixation on gorgeous female computer geeks. Every female the protagonist encountered was beautiful, thin and athletic. To top it all off, the uber-security expert in the book is the most dashing man on the planet. It is one thing to shatter stereotypes, but I am an engineer by trade and most of my co-workers do not double as runway models on the weekend.[return][return]A great book with a very scary, real message.