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.

A tremendous narrative of the emerging threats!!!!

I loved "The Coukoo's Egg" years ago and used it in security work for years & then this saga is a great view of the continuing challenges of the "connected age"!! Very useful for anyone who likes the Internet.

For the "Technical" reader

Would you listen to Worm again? Why?

I would because there was much to absorb in the first hearing.

Would you recommend Worm to your friends? Why or why not?

I would to those I believe would be able to comprehend the technical aspect.

What does Christopher Lane bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Listening to this was much easier because of its flow. To read this, you may have to re-read sentences over due to its technical content.

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

No. It was interesting, but not in an emotional way.

Any additional comments?

Those interested in the technical aspect of the computer virus or worm will find this interesting. It describes the technical minds behind the fight against cyber-terrorism.

THIS IS ONE FANTASTIC BOOK!

I thought this might be too technical for me but I love messing around with my computer so took the plunge. It's the best unsolved "whodunnit" ever. I could NOT put the book down. Talk about gripping your seat and holding your breath...and to think that 'thing' is still out there ready to pounce.

The story is great, and the narration is perfect. I even chuckled from time to time. This will appeal to people at all levels of technical expertise and all age groups. I am 75 years old and loved it.

Interesting

We all have computers and we have all had malware, which I have never understood. This story concerns a worm/ virus/ or whatever that panicked everyone, but came to very little harm in the end.

There were huge efforts to sort it out without particular success. Actually, I still don't understand this stuff and the worm malware certainly vexed the people who do understand it - so I suppose we are all in for a very big kicking in the future.... we will just have to wait and see.

A bit depressing at the end of the day!

VERY INFORMATIVE

Where does Worm rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

YOU FIND OUT HOW THE INTERNET WORKS.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

INFORMATION

Have you listened to any of Christopher Lane’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

TOP OF THE LIST

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

YES

Any additional comments?

GET IT IF YOU ARE USING THE INTERNET FOR ANYTHING!!

Just a Worm

Where does Worm rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It's up in the top ten.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

The back ground information on how computer networks work, Was of interest and how little even people in the know, don't know.

What about Christopher Lane’s performance did you like?

I sometimes found it very hard to stop as I wanted to hear more, but I needed to think about what I had just heard.

Freightening story with no closure

Worm is the story of the evolution of Worms and Viruses from glory seeking pranks to world threatening weapons of mass destruction and the white hats that have fought the good fight to keep them at bay. The white hats struggle to help the government entities to walk up to the threat and understand how real the total devastation could be. The story is not a happy story with a nice wrapped up ending since the confiker worm was never squashed and the ominous realization for the reader was that we will never know how this story will end until it could be to late.

Very interesting but scary.

Must read for anyone interested in the internet and it's security, a real education,
thank God for the good guys!
Well done.

Fast paced true life cyber thriller

Any additional comments?

Another lively and well-paced foray into the darker side of the cyber world. Bowden (most famous for penning Black Hawk Down) tackles the story of the insidious Conficker worm. He constructs the story through the main players, a self-named Cabal of those involved in computer security (your proverbial white hats) who noticed, investigated, dissected, and then struggled to combat the elegantly designed program. Bowden ably parses the technology and finds the excitement and pressure in the struggle to stay ahead of updated versions of the worm. Most interestingly, the creator (or creators) were never identified and the worm remains active (largely through the apathy or ignorance of computer users who fail to update their computers). The book ends with a few of the main players making their best guesses about its origin and purpose, most alarmingly that it is something of a weapon system at the ready should it ever be called into use. A reminder that the wonders of technology and our interconnected lives are likewise quite vulnerable to attack.

I liked it it's a great story

it's an in-depth review on worms from a story standpoint and previous events really good and kept me interested and at the end that leaves you with a pretty good cliff
hanger