Zero Day: A Novel by Mark Russinovich, Howard Schmidt

every hour, but you can see why I’m not sleeping well.”
    Until now, Jeff realized, he’d been focused on his client’s narrow problem. He’d not seen it as part of an expanding, and dangerous, reality. Daryl was scaring the hell out of him, and he experienced a surge of anxiety and fear he’d not felt since those last days before 9/11. “What’s the potential?”
    She paused, then said, “Anything’s possible. It looks as if we’re just seeing the surface. Here’s what’s frightening me.” Jeff felt another chill shoot through his body. If Daryl was frightened, then this was even bigger than he feared. “First, we can’t detect the virus coming in, and that’s going to be a tough egg to crack. We’ve got to get the signatures written, the patches prepared, then out there, and I don’t think there’s enough time. Second, a single signature isn’t going to work. The variants are too different.”
    Jeff nodded, took a sip of coffee, then explained what he’d learned, and what he didn’t yet know. When he finished Daryl groaned. “This Superphreak, if that’s the cracker’s cyber handle, could be a Chechen. Or he could be a gun for hire and working for almost anyone. The Russian mob, to name just one.” Neither of them said anything for several minutes as they absorbed what they had learned. “I’ve got more,” she finally said. “There are other propagation methods besides, or in addition to, the worms. My team is reporting they’ve found three of the variants that spread through the address book of each computer they touched, and several of the ones we’ve looked at are polymorphic or metamorphic, so they look different each time they replicate. That’s what I was getting at before.”
    “One I found wanted to replicate,” Jeff confirmed. “The system went down so fast I doubt any of it got out, but that was its intention.”
    “What if every variant is self-replicating?”
    Jeff sat back in his chair. “I hate to bring up more bad news, but have you considered this? Whoever is spreading this virus might be still at it. They could be sending new variants out every day. I’m sorry to add to your misery, but you need to get CERT and DHS serious about this.”
    Daryl threw up her hands. “I’m only one person with a small team. We’ve had six directors heading up DHS cyber-security since it was created. Almost none of them have lasted so much as a year, most only a few months. They have no clout in DHS, and if they’re in the driver’s seat when the attack comes, it could end their career.”
    “This is all very familiar, isn’t it?” Jeff asked. He’d worked long enough in the government system to know what she was up against.
    “I’m afraid so.” Daryl’s beautiful face was creased with worry. “We’re trying to get the industry interested. But we’re way behind the curve on this. We have no idea how many variants there are, or how many others are coming out. I lay awake last night imagining the harm that will come if we’re only seeing a small portion of the Superphreak viruses.”
    “Take it easy. We’re probably overevaluating, and it’s not as bad as we fear.”
    Daryl wasn’t buying it. “Look at the body count already! Superphreak, if that’s what’s causing this, is already the most deadly virus ever unleashed, and it’s just starting . That’s why I’m in Manhattan. There are dead people here because of this thing. We have no idea of the long-term harm Superphreak can cause.” She paused, then leaned across the table, her blond hair falling forward. “Let me tell you what I think. What we need to do is to stop this at the source.”
    “How?” Despite himself, Jeff knew she was right. He’d had the same thought late the night before, but hadn’t wanted to admit it until she’d said it aloud.
    “Find the cracker in his home, get distribution stopped at the wellspring, then learn from him or his computers exactly how many variants there are. If we