The book begins by discussing the origins of Zero Day markets and follows the author’s journey into discovering exactly who is buying and who is selling these bugs and exploits. This is a narrative-driven piece that focuses both on the individuals that Perlroth interviews and intertwines their stories with the historical events of the so-called “cyber weapons”.
Perlroth is a “cybersecurity and digital espionage” journalist for the New York Times who was one of the first journalists to get their hands on the early Snowden leaks. Her expertise in covering cybersecurity journalism is obvious in the breadth of sources and events that she presents to the reader. While this book does lack in some of the technical depth that I personally prefer and the kind of depth you get in books like Kim Zetter’s Countdown to Zero Day, Perlroth very much makes up for it in giving you the inside scoop on the personalities behind some of the most fascinating cyber events in recent history. For example, I have yet to read such comprehensive coverage of the Shadow Brokers as Perlroth seems to capture in just one chapter. This book was able to bring a lot of flavor and details into events I have read about in other books and others that I just remember from reading the news.
Overall – I would highly recommend this book.
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