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Jeff Aiken
Operation Desolation: The Case of the Anonymous Bank Defacement
A thought-provoking new story from the acclaimed author of Zero Day. Challenging Anonymous is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. But the CEO of a major investment firm has done just that, and now cyber security expert Jeff Aiken has to try to protect the company from its leader’s mistakes. The timing couldn’t be worse, as Jeff is scheduled to appear at a conference that has invited an Anonymous representative as well. And Jeff’s about to discover that the hacker outfit plans to bring their fight offline--and into the real world.
67 pages, ebook
First published August 7, 2012
15 people are currently reading
453 people want to read
About the author
Mark E. Russinovich
47 books366 followersMark Russinovich is a Technical Fellow in Windows Azure, Microsoft's cloud operating system group. Russinovich is a widely recognized expert in Windows operating system internals as well as operating system architecture and design.
Russinovich joined Microsoft when Microsoft acquired Winternals software, the company he cofounded in 1996 and where he worked as Chief Software Architect. He is also cofounder of Sysinternals.com, where he wrote and published dozens of popular Windows administration and diagnostic utilities including Autoruns, Process Explorer and Tcpview.
Russinovich coauthored "Windows Internals" and "The Sysinternals Administrator's Reference," both from Microsoft Press, authored the cyberthriller Zero Day, is a Contributing Editor for TechNet Magazine and Senior Contributing Editor for Windows IT Pro Magazine, and has written many articles on Windows internals. He has been a featured speaker at major industry conferences around the world, including Microsoft's TechEd, IT Forum, and Professional Developer's Conference, as well as Windows Connections, Windev, and TechMentor, and has taught Windows internals, troubleshooting and file system and device driver development to companies worldwide, including Microsoft, the CIA and the FBI. Russinovich earned his Ph.D. in computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Russinovich joined Microsoft when Microsoft acquired Winternals software, the company he cofounded in 1996 and where he worked as Chief Software Architect. He is also cofounder of Sysinternals.com, where he wrote and published dozens of popular Windows administration and diagnostic utilities including Autoruns, Process Explorer and Tcpview.
Russinovich coauthored "Windows Internals" and "The Sysinternals Administrator's Reference," both from Microsoft Press, authored the cyberthriller Zero Day, is a Contributing Editor for TechNet Magazine and Senior Contributing Editor for Windows IT Pro Magazine, and has written many articles on Windows internals. He has been a featured speaker at major industry conferences around the world, including Microsoft's TechEd, IT Forum, and Professional Developer's Conference, as well as Windows Connections, Windev, and TechMentor, and has taught Windows internals, troubleshooting and file system and device driver development to companies worldwide, including Microsoft, the CIA and the FBI. Russinovich earned his Ph.D. in computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 7, 2012
I didn't particularly like this book which is a shame because I enjoyed Zero Day.
I read these technothriller kind of books specifically for stories that have accurate technology behind them. As a technology expert, I cannot stand books and movies that gloss over the tech just to further the plot, because I know what they are doing are technically impossible. When you see characters breaking supposed high end encryption in a matter of minutes, or looking at surveillance video footage to which they just need to "zoom in... and enhance" to solve the mystery, you know exactly what I mean. This genre of books are my last refuge because they should make technological sense and therefor be grounded in reality.
This is where I have a problem with this book:
SPOILER ----
In the book there is a defacement to a company website by a member of Anonymous while at a security conference. When the main character goes to investigate the issue he somewhat easily finds the IP address of the attacker, does a simple IP trace to figure out that it was from the hotel where the convention came with a lame way of connecting the attacker to the IP address.
The thing is that anyone sophisticated enough to do any attack like this would also be sophisticated enough to employ ways of obfuscating his true IP address. The attacker could have easily used The Onion Router (TOR) network, or at very least gone through a VPN located in a foreign country that the authorities couldn't have subpoenaed. Instead he decides to commit a felony from a hotel's network. If the main character didn't find him, the authorities surely would have. He made his attack almost trivial to trace -- something not even so called "script kiddies" would do.
Also, creating a "game" to connect this IP address to the hacker was really lame. In real life, one would talk to the hotel/convention management about who provides the network. Then they'd either politely ask this company to get access to their customer/networking records, or talk to one of the many CIA/FBI agents supposedly attending the conference to get a subpoena to do so. Then they connect the IP address to the customer that purchased the internet access using these records. It's a very straightforward process that happens every day.
These two things just didn't make sense to me and that ruined the whole book.
---- End Spoiler.
Plus, the book was really really really short. It ended when I got to about the 55% mark. The rest of it was an advertisement for Trojan Horse, which I had already preordered. I don't particularly like purchasing an advertisement.
Is it worth the $0.99? Yes, but barely.
I read these technothriller kind of books specifically for stories that have accurate technology behind them. As a technology expert, I cannot stand books and movies that gloss over the tech just to further the plot, because I know what they are doing are technically impossible. When you see characters breaking supposed high end encryption in a matter of minutes, or looking at surveillance video footage to which they just need to "zoom in... and enhance" to solve the mystery, you know exactly what I mean. This genre of books are my last refuge because they should make technological sense and therefor be grounded in reality.
This is where I have a problem with this book:
SPOILER ----
In the book there is a defacement to a company website by a member of Anonymous while at a security conference. When the main character goes to investigate the issue he somewhat easily finds the IP address of the attacker, does a simple IP trace to figure out that it was from the hotel where the convention came with a lame way of connecting the attacker to the IP address.
The thing is that anyone sophisticated enough to do any attack like this would also be sophisticated enough to employ ways of obfuscating his true IP address. The attacker could have easily used The Onion Router (TOR) network, or at very least gone through a VPN located in a foreign country that the authorities couldn't have subpoenaed. Instead he decides to commit a felony from a hotel's network. If the main character didn't find him, the authorities surely would have. He made his attack almost trivial to trace -- something not even so called "script kiddies" would do.
Also, creating a "game" to connect this IP address to the hacker was really lame. In real life, one would talk to the hotel/convention management about who provides the network. Then they'd either politely ask this company to get access to their customer/networking records, or talk to one of the many CIA/FBI agents supposedly attending the conference to get a subpoena to do so. Then they connect the IP address to the customer that purchased the internet access using these records. It's a very straightforward process that happens every day.
These two things just didn't make sense to me and that ruined the whole book.
---- End Spoiler.
Plus, the book was really really really short. It ended when I got to about the 55% mark. The rest of it was an advertisement for Trojan Horse, which I had already preordered. I don't particularly like purchasing an advertisement.
Is it worth the $0.99? Yes, but barely.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Want to read
July 5, 2020A thought-provoking new short story from the acclaimed author of Zero Day and Trojan Horse. Challenging Anonymous is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. But the CEO of a major investment firm has done just that, and now cyber security expert Jeff Aiken has to try to protect the company from its leader's mistakes. The timing couldn't be worse, as Jeff is scheduled to appear at a conference that has invited an Anonymous representative as well. And Jeff's about to discover that the hacker outfit plans to bring their fight offline--and into the real world.
March 11, 2023
A novella in the Jeff Akin world. Set in the scenario of a threatened attacke by anonymous against a large financial organisation. Short and to the point.
January 26, 2014
Started January 25th, 2014.
This is a shorty/Novella, so expect to finish it soon.
Very good, highly recommended.
Even in this short tale, believable persons, settings (a conference on cyber-security) and implications very real.
Also, with the inclusion of Anonymous and the discussion about their actions shows both sides of a story and some background.
The methods for intrusion are spot on.
Maybe not for the layman without computer knowledge, but these should take away the feeling of how light even some high-profile firms take security.
Highly recommended, and should be available cheap, as it is fast-read-food for the brain.
This is a shorty/Novella, so expect to finish it soon.
Very good, highly recommended.
Even in this short tale, believable persons, settings (a conference on cyber-security) and implications very real.
Also, with the inclusion of Anonymous and the discussion about their actions shows both sides of a story and some background.
The methods for intrusion are spot on.
Maybe not for the layman without computer knowledge, but these should take away the feeling of how light even some high-profile firms take security.
Highly recommended, and should be available cheap, as it is fast-read-food for the brain.
September 13, 2012
Half the book is the first chapter of Mark's Trojan Horse, the second book of Zero Day, which leaves this book is way too short to enjoy.
The other half of the book is about how Jeff nailed down a hacker using a trick of a smart use of DHCP. Again...it's a bit too short, and the case is not sophisticated enough to make you too excited.
But still, it's from Mark Russinovich, a guy behind many cool awesome tools that many of the IT pro can't live without. Worth spending an hour or two to read.
The other half of the book is about how Jeff nailed down a hacker using a trick of a smart use of DHCP. Again...it's a bit too short, and the case is not sophisticated enough to make you too excited.
But still, it's from Mark Russinovich, a guy behind many cool awesome tools that many of the IT pro can't live without. Worth spending an hour or two to read.
April 23, 2016
Not a bad little read. I kind of like seeing little novellas like this, where it's part of an ongoing series, but it's a smaller case or adventure or whatever the situation entails. It seems to me to add to the overall realism of the world. The notion that these people exist outside of these huge thriller stories with extremely high stakes makes them feel like more realistic and fleshed out characters. It cost 99 cents, which is probably the maximum it is worth at only 67 pages. It kept me entertained while I was reading it, and while we await a new novel (assuming he writes another one).
March 30, 2013
After having read his two novels (Zero Day and Trojan Horse) I finally came around to also read his short story, which kind of lies in between. As already said its quite short (just the first half of the book is actually the story itself), but nevertheless its clearly written in the same style as his novels.
The case itself is not too exciting, but as a real fan of "Jeff Aiken" I enjoyed it quite much and definitively would recommend this to everyone who has also read one of his novels.
The case itself is not too exciting, but as a real fan of "Jeff Aiken" I enjoyed it quite much and definitively would recommend this to everyone who has also read one of his novels.
September 7, 2012
Mark Russinovich
Enjoyable short story.. should be read after reading his first novel Zero Day: A Novel since this takes places one year after it.
Enjoyable short story.. should be read after reading his first novel Zero Day: A Novel since this takes places one year after it.
July 21, 2013
Entertaining read - but a pretty significant technical error - hotels typically use DHCP that uses NAT, and issues private IP addresses; the outside web server would have logged the public IP address (one that everyone at the hotel shared)
August 22, 2012
Quick read, but very fun.
December 6, 2012
Short but I enjoyed it. Can't say too much as it would give away the story.
November 15, 2012
A little too predictable and nothing really more than an advertisement for his new book Trojan Horse.
January 28, 2013
A good teaser for Trojan Horse
June 3, 2014
Very good... Very short but very good.
July 6, 2014
Expected something better from Mark Russinovich
October 19, 2014
Typical ebook single, what I refer as a half book, ex 2.5 in series. Actual size was 37 pages. Just a teaser until the next book is out.
September 15, 2016
I read this after finishing the Jeff Aiken series, and thought it was a nice little side story. Short and sweet and gets to business right away.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews