Black Ice: The Invisible Threat of Cyber-Terrorism

Dan Verton, journalist and author of The Hacker Diaries: Confessions of Teenage Hackers, has written a very enlightening book in Black Ice: The Invisible Threat of Cyber-Terrorism. The book begins with a fictitious attack that is multi-faceted and very well orchestrated. While it is somewhat sensationalist or alarmist, the point of the story is to show what is possible- not probable. Verton illustrates how cyber-attacks against key communications and critical infrastructure sites can be used in conjunction with conventional attacks to maximize the ensuing damage and confusion. After capturing your attention with the story of what could be, Verton goes on to describe various government and private sector studies and disaster-preparedness exercises that have proven time and time again what a fragile state the infrastructure is in and how the domino effect of one area can cascade to take out entire regions. One of the main points of the book is to show how the critical infrastructure is inter-dependent. If a main gas pipeline is destroyed, electrical power plants lose their source of energy. Once the electricity is shut down the telephone, cell phone, Internet and many other industries will shut down. Water treatment facilities will not be able to function. The list goes on and on. This is an enlightening book that everyone should read. It is important for the powers that be to understand this domino effect and take steps to protect against cyber-terrorism of this sort. (...)

Without a doubt a book of monumental importance to the nation during this time of war and increased threat from terrorism. I recommend this book to anybody who is interested in homeland security and how terrorism may be changing and evolving its strategy against the U.S.Well-written, full of intrigue and first-hand interviews with top security officials from both the Clinton and Bush administrations. Verton had unfettered access to those directly involved in the Sept. 11 response, including Richard Clarke.You will not find another book on this subject that is this well researched and written. And because Verton is a journalist, he wrote this book so that you don't have to be a computer expert to understand the issues.Buy this book. You will not be disappointed.

Dan has an amazing gift as a journalist and also to explain technical material in an approachable manner. I've read or been briefed on a lot of this material at one time or another, but to have it in one place, well laid out, with example after example, really helped me focus on just how vulnerable our country and my organization is. The "shock" value of this material is high, but he took no shortcuts in making his case. Buy the book, read the book, then grab your organization's disaster recovery and business continuity plans and get out your red pen. I promise you will be inspired to improve those plans.If I had a criticism of the book it would be the ending, it is a bit too much gloom and doom. So, I propose the following alternate ending:Each of us has the ability and the responsibility to make our environment a bit more resistant to attack. The actions we can take range from reviewing our web pages to make sure we are not giving too much information away to simply running Windows update. Don't let a week go by without doing something, anything, to strengthen your defenses.

MUST READ!! Should be mandatory reading for ALL IT Managers and anyone involved in System design, Disaster Recovery Planning, Company Operations, or anyone involved in making decisions. This book should sound the alarm to everyone who reads it. I found the book to be well written, very entertaining, and factual.The detailed events and status of the IT and Telecommunications surrounding 9/11 were all to real. This book should cause all who read this to reevaluate their own environments and their interdependcies on other infrastructures.