Worm

The Conficker worm infected its first computer in November 2008 and within a month had infiltrated 1.5 million computers in 195 countries. Banks, telecommunications companies, and critical government networks (including the British Parliament and the French and German military) were infected. No one had ever seen anything like it. By January 2009, the worm lay hidden in at least eight million computers, and the botnet of linked computers that it had created was big enough that an attack might crash the world. The U.S. government was only vaguely aware of the threat, and the task of resistance fell to a group of internet entrepreneurs, programmers, and geeks called the Conficker Cabal, who fought tirelessly against the worm. The book reports on the fascinating battle between those trying to exploit the internet and those committed to protecting it.