Operation Desolation is a short story by Microsoft Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich. It follows a year after the events told in Russinovich’s first work of fiction, Zero Day. As you may recall, I enjoyed Zero Day quite a bit. As far as accurate, compelling technical thrillers go it was right on target. Operation Desolation continues that great precedent with a follow-up short story involving the same main character, Jeff Aiken.
This time, Jeff Aiken is contracted to secure a company against Anonymous, whom the company’s CEO continues to antagonize. The ebook-only story is an estimated 64 pages but you still get a compelling adventure involving Jeff Aiken and a take on the moral implications that are being drawn across the information security field. Do you agree that cyber-activism is apart of the democratic nature of the Internet or is it all still criminal behavior?
Since it’s a short story and well worth the 99 cents it costs to read on your Kindle or the Kindle Apps, I don’t want to give anything away. The official description reads:
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.
It brings in elements of the Aaron Barr story and the 2008 financial crisis serves as the catalyst. The story reads at a quick pace and hooks you the whole way.
You can buy Operation Desolation: The Case of the Anonymous Bank Defacement from Amazon for 99 cents. It’s also a great refresher on the characters and the environment from Zero Day that will continue with another full novel, Trojan Horse, that is released tomorrow.
