Worm

The First Digital World War

By: Mark Bowden

Narrated by: Christopher Lane

Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Worm: The First Digital World War tells the story of the Conficker worm, a potentially devastating piece of malware that has baffled experts and infected more than twelve million computers worldwide. When Conficker was unleashed in November 2008, cybersecurity experts did not know what to make of it. Exploiting security flaws in Microsoft Windows, it grew at an astonishingly rapid rate, infecting millions of computers around the world within weeks. Once the worm infiltrated one system it was able to link it with others to form a single network under illicit outside control known as a “botnet.” This botnet was soon capable of overpowering any of the vital computer networks that control banking, telephones, energy flow, air traffic, health-care information — even the Internet itself. Was it a platform for criminal profit or a weapon controlled by a foreign power or dissident organization?

Surprisingly, the U.S. government was only vaguely aware of the threat that Conficker posed, and the task of mounting resistance to the worm fell to a disparate but gifted group of geeks, Internet entrepreneurs, and computer programmers. But when Conficker’s controllers became aware that their creation was encountering resistance, they began refining the worm’s code to make it more difficult to trace and more powerful, testing the Cabal lock’s unity and resolve. Will the Cabal lock down the worm before it is too late? Game on.

©2011 Mark Bowden (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Excellent story

This book is for computer savvy, or technology interested people, if you are not one, this is not for you.
As a computer scientist, this was right up my ally. I enjoyed it very much, as I related to all technical references. Also it was based on actual events. Well done.

A must read for anyone with a computer.

If you could sum up Worm in three words, what would they be?

Security Number One

What other book might you compare Worm to and why?

Demon

What about Christopher Lane’s performance did you like?

On spot

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Thought I knew most of what was going on since I ran an IT div in DC, but was not aware of this worm.

Any additional comments?

No bank account is safe

Awsome!! If you are in to this sort of thing...

Mark Bowden, opened my eyes to a threat that exist right under our nose. He tells a story of what makes America great, men, money, and war. The war of the next generation "cyber" war. A great listen!

Engaging, somewhat anticlimactic, still rewarding.

great narration. story about heroes who don't think they're heroes. the book depicts the worm as a true crouching tiger, capable of much havoc... yet nothing has materialized.... yet? hence the anti climax. the cyber world is fascinating. If you know nothing about it, get smart quick. You're probably reading this on a smartphone, after all. good book. recommended.

Good technical exposition for the non-tech

As a fan of Mark Bowden's work, particularly Black Hawk Down, I was looking forward to his tackling of a subject as technical as computer viruses. As a professional software engineer myself, I think he did an excellent job of conveying technical descriptions very accurately while ensuring accessibility to a non-tech audience. Many of his analogies reminded me of similar chestnuts from my own College education, almost as if Bowden was himself very much an industry insider.

Having said that, I'm struggling to understand why Bowden chose the Conficker worm as his subject, as it was not exactly the finest hour of either the "black hats" (hackers) or the "white hats" (anti-virus community), nor was it even close to a "digital world war". It's more the story of floundering efforts on both sides, neither ever really getting on top of the other, which Bowden attempts to link with the similar fate of modern wars to degenerate into stalemates and "exit strategies", as if that is the only outcome we could hope for, an argument which, although insightful, I didn't find ultimately convincing.

There were a lot of mis-steps on both sides of the worm, and unfortunately there was not all that much "genius" on display when it mattered, despite all the self-glorifying hype from both the black hat and white hat communities. If these white hats are really the guys "securing the Internet", they need to spend less time casting themselves as a Cabal of X-Men and more time, well, securing the Internet. If buying up a gazillion domain names on their own credit cards was the best they could come up with to combat Conficker (hardly a breakthrough of technical wizadry), then I'm afraid they fall rather short of "genius" or X-Men. Their personal quarrels on chat-lists, many recounted in full by Bowden, are particularly uninspiring outbursts of immaturity from apparently brilliant software professionals.

Maybe Bowden just loves the story of good guys plunged into chaos (somewhat of their own making) to see how they deal with the fall-out. That might explain his choosing of the Conficker worm as his subject. Unfortunately, as a subject, it is a rather dull one. Bowden writes well, but the story ultimately just isn't a very interesting one. If you are non-tech, you will learn a great deal about Internet technology from this book, but don't expect an exciting "digital world war" to be exposed, despite what the title claims.

The narration was good, and the writing was good. It just wasn't the best story, overall.

A little too technical for laymen

A fascinating story, but pretty daunting in terms of the technology and terms. If you aren't an IT expert (like me) there's a good chance you'll drown in the details.

brilliant

Would you listen to Worm again? Why?

Jep, lots of facts make it good for at second time.

What other book might you compare Worm to and why?

Anything with Daniel Suarez:) But this book isn't fiction.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The history of the first digital world war.

To say the very least an interesting story

Fascinating account of how such a simple thing, report for 45 buffer overflow, could have such far impact. Even more true now given how "connected" our world and systems are.

Great beginning, poor finish

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Excellent story, I am using the book in a computer security class. The story went on a little long as it was obvious the conclusion was uncertain.

Who was your favorite character and why?

None, it was about a team.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Stay away from the technology or do a better job explaining it.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No

Makes cybersecurity understandable for the layman.

I'm only modestly aware of cybersecurity issues, but I know enough to be very impressed with how Bowden was able to make very arcane matters make sense. A must- read for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the cyberthreats we all face today.