Every once in a while, you come across some information that chills you to the bone, that causes your eyes to be opened to a new reality. That is exactly what happened to me as I read Countdown To Zero Day, by Kim Zetter.

When I picked up the book, I expected it to be something different than what it is. Looking back, I’m not really sure just what I expected, but it wasn’t what I found.

Countdown To Zero Day is the store of the world’s first digital weapon. This seemed far enough away from my reality to be sort of interesting, but not too close to home.

I was wrong.

Several years ago, a computer virus made the news, called Stuxnet. I vaguely remember hearing about it, but since it didn’t infect my computer, I thought nothing about it. But a team of people from Symantec tackled this virus, unpacking it to see what it was up to. What they found was frightening, and very real.

Stuxnet was a virus that targeted a specific system, running on specific hardware, performing specific actions. And once Stuxnet was decoded, it revealed that this virus was in fact a digital weapon designed to bring the Iranian nuclear weapons program to a crashing halt.

Stuxnet was the world’s first digital weapon, and it was designed almost perfectly. It seems it was only discovered by a random series of circumstances.

Once this was discovered, however, it led to more discoveries. The version that they found was a later version, and several previous versions existed. Whoever had created this digital masterpiece had invested a lot of effort and finances, and had created a cunning plan to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program.

Who was it? Several sources suspect the US and Israel collaborated on this project, but the mystery is still unraveling. However, one thing remains clear: whoever did it most likely has the wherewithal and means to do it again, and get away with it again.

What makes this so frightening is the fact that while we apparently have the capability to create such a weapon and deploy it around the world, we do not have measure in place to protect ourselves from a retaliation in the same manner. Much of our nation’s infrastructure is wide open to such an attack, with the barest of security in place.

It seems clear where we need to focus our efforts immediately. Countdown To Zero Day is the story of Stuxnet, and the havoc it caused in Iran. But by the end of the book, Zetter looks at the ethics, the immediate and long-term consequences of such an action, and the next steps that need to take place.

Countdown To Zero Day is an eye opener, and helped me to see the need for digital security quite clearly. I was shocked, and a little scared. But at the same time, I was enlightened about something that most people never give a second thought to.

I highly recommend that you read this book.

Question: What do you really know about computer viruses? Are you prepared if your computer is attacked? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

I received this book free from Waterbrook/Multnomah Media as part of their Blogging For Books blogger review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.