I’m excited to announce that I’m delivering two sessions at the prestigious RSA Conference on cybersecurity, which takes place in San Francisco from February 25 to March 1. One is Malware Hunting with the Sysinternals Tools, where I teach you how to use several of my popular Sysinternals utilities, including Process Explorer, Process Monitor and Autoruns, to diagnose and clean malware infections. The theme of my second talk, Trojan Horse: The Widespread Use of International Cyber-Espionage as a Weapon, is obviously aligned with that of my novel Trojan Horse.

Here are the session abstracts and times and below them a link to the conference’s full session list.

HTA-R32 – Malware Hunting with the Sysinternals Tools 
Thursday, February 28 09:20 AM – 10:20 AM
This session will provide an overview of several Sysinternals tools, including Process Monitor, Process Explorer and Autoruns, focusing on features useful for malware analysis and removal. We will demonstrate malware-hunting capabilities by presenting several real-world cases that used the tools to identify and clean malware, and conclude by performing a live analysis of current malware samples.

EXP-R35 – Trojan Horse: The Widespread Use of International Cyber-Espionage as a Weapon
Thursday, February 28 01:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Learn how governments including the U.S., Russia, China and Iran, use cyberspace as a theater of cyber warfare and espionage. Understand the trends and where escalation may lead.

RSA Conference full session list.

I’m pleased to announce the winners of the Operation Desolation Cybersecurity Quiz book giveaway. The competition was strong, with over 700 submissions and many perfect scores. The five winners drawn randomly from the top-scorers are:

• Jason Stangroome
• Lee Pillay
• Kevin Brice
• Steven Alexander
• Sajen Jose

Congratulations!

Even if you didn’t take the quiz in time to enter the contest, the quiz is still available for you to  test your cybersecurity knowledge.

I’m pleased to announce that Trojan Horse is now available for purchase in audio format from Audible.com, and it includes an exclusive 20-minute chat between me and famed former-hacker and author Kevin Mitnick talking about cybersecurity.

On August 15 at exactly 11:08 a virus that had infected 30,000 computers of Saudi oil company Saudi Aramco woke up and deleted all the documents accessible to it, replacing the files with an image of a burning US flag. Sound familiar? If you read Zero Day, then it should, since the premise of Zero Day is a very similar attack, except directly against the US. The New York Times published an article today that reveals more information about the attack, including the official US theory that Iran was behind it. The incident highlights just how realistic and how at risk we are to a Zero Day-type attack:

NY Times: In Cyberattack on Saudi Firm, U.S. Sees Iran Firing Back

Jeff Aiken authors a cybersecurity quiz in my short story Operation Desolation (available for only 99 cents). Now you can take the quiz to test your cybersecurity knowledge and if you do so by November 11 you’re entered into a drawing of signed copies of all all my books.

The Operation Desolation Cybersecurity Quiz

I’m excited to announce that Zero Day is now available from Audible.com. Trojan Horse will be available soon and include a special 45-minute recorded chat of me and Kevin Mitnick discussing cybersecurity.

In an eerie parallel to the opening chapter of Trojan Horse, last week Telvent Canada, a supplier of computer systems and software to electric companies in Canada and the US, announced that it had been hacked. Preliminary indications based on analysis by Dell suggest that the hackers are Chinese, operating in a group called the “Comment Group”. Read more here:

http://news.techeye.net/security/chinese-hackers-have-control-of-us-power-grid

I’ve appeared on several podcasts and web shows over the last few weeks talking about cybersecurity, Zero Day and Trojan Horse, and Windows Azure. Each one is unique because they reflect the interests of the show and its hosts. You can watch or listen to the recordings by following these links:

The Hanelminutes Podcast

Security Now! With Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte (Episode 151)

Windows Weekly with Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott and Mary Jo Foley (Episode 279)

Defrag Tools with Andrew Richards and Larry Larson

I hope you find them interesting!

The Andromeda Strain was my gateway to technothrillers. I’m not sure how I heard of it or whether I just found it browsing the books at the library, but it left such an impression on me that I have a vivid memories of reading it during the summer between sixth and seventh grade, including turning the pages of the worn paperback poolside at the local community pool we spent time at every summer. I was fascinated by the science that was not only the foundation of the book, but that integrated tightly into the plot and the characters. I also have noted how it has served as the template for many technothriller stories since, with its group of scientists called together to apply brainpower to avert an imminent disaster, a government cover-up, its  warning that  tampering with nature is perilous, and the lesson that the human race isn’t as invulnerable as it believes.

The Andromeda Strain is also the book that kicked off Michael Crichton’s career, making his name synonymous with technothriller and introducing the world to the genre. The book was written in 1969, making it over forty years old, but like The Cuckoo’s Egg, it also holds up well. The world then wasn’t as computer-centric or connected, so there was no tweeting, posting toFacebook or uploading videos on YouTube to let the world watch the catastrophe that befalls the small town hit by the Andromeda virus at the opening of the book. Nevertheless, the science in the book still comes  across as authentic and it’s not hard to imagine the story in today’s world (and there have been many books and movies since based on the same premise). The Andromeda Strain was also made into a movie, but it’s been so long since I saw it that I can’t recommend it.

You should definitely put this book on your to-read list if you haven’t (and even if you have, it’s fun to revisit) because it’s a great read and arguably the founding book of the modern age of the genre.

There are two new interviews of me talking about Trojan Horse, Zero Day and cybersecurity available for listening and download.

In the first, Scott Hanselman came to my office and we chatted for about thirty minutes, talking about how realistic the books are, among many other topics. You can listen to that on this Hanelminutes podcast show here: hanselminutes

In the second, I had a fun conversation with Canadian radio broadcaster Peter Anthony Holder in a 10-minute segment that aired on his Stuph File radio show. That clip is available here: stuphfile clip