A Thriller for Your Inner Geek
Thursday, June 5, 2008 at 09:03AM Her new boss was an undead automaton from Hell, true, but no job was perfect. from Daemon by Leinad Zeraus
Ok, the terms "geek" and "thrill" are rarely used in the same sentence. Some might even say a "geek thriller" is an oxymoron. But Leinad Zeraus has written one.
Zeraus's style is somewhat reminiscent of Tom Clancey - great technical explanations, good action scenes and wooden human interactions - but the book is very readable and a fascinating trip on a "worst case scenario" in network security.
A dying game programmer writes the ultimate computer virus that is triggered when his obituary appears online. Using advanced AI, the virus exploits backdoors left by game installations, DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service Attacks), and a lots of other nasty and genuine mischief displayed by today's Internet crooks.
Battling "the Daemon" are a fairly ineffectual group of government people - a policeman, an NSA security agent and an FBI counter-terrorist specialist who is out for revenge. They are assisted by a mysterious "white hat" security expert who is not all that he seems. (heh, heh, heh..)
The virus recruits and blackmails a host of human agents to work its will, assisted by computer-contolled armored automobiles and motor cycles and game goggles. Way cool.
Read this. If it doesn't get you to enable the WEP encryption on your home wireless network, nothing will.
And if you suspect your IT person is evil, don't get let the book fall into his/her hands.
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Reader Comments (4)
What was truly evil was not knowing that I had to wait for a sequel. I read this thinking it was a finished story. Been pacing back and forth waiting ever since.
Yes, but what if your IT person is actually READING THIS BLOG?!?!?!?!?!?
Mwaah-ha-ha-ha-ha!
@Tammy,
I feel the same way! The publisher's website says a Nov 08 publication date. I wonder if he will be going for a whole series!!!
I did forgive the author, however, when he had all those spammers blown away!
@ Harlan,
I guess I just caused the end of civilization as we know it.
My bad.
Doug
All kidding aside, it looks like a good book. I'm looking forward to it.