'Reads like a modern-day John le Carré novel, with terrifying tales of espionage and cyber warfare that will keep you up at night, both unable to stop reading, and terrified for what the future holds' Nick Bilton, author of American KingpinZero day: a software bug that allows a hacker to break in and scamper through the world's computer networks invisibly until discovered. One of the most coveted tools in a spy's arsenal, a zero day has the power to tap into any iPhone, dismantle safety controls at a chemical plant and shut down the power in an entire nation - just ask the Ukraine.Zero days are the blood diamonds of the security trade, pursued by nation states, defense contractors, cybercriminals, and security defenders alike. In this market, governments aren't regulators; they are clients - paying huge sums to hackers willing to turn over gaps in the Internet, and stay silent about them.This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends is cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth's discovery, unpacked. A intrepid journalist unravels an opaque, code-driven market from the outside in - encountering spies, hackers, arms dealers, mercenaries and a few unsung heroes along the way. As the stakes get higher and higher in the rush to push the world's critical infrastructure online, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends is the urgent and alarming discovery of one of the world's most extreme threats.

Prologue -- Part I. Mission impossible -- 1. Closet of secrets -- 2. The fucking salmon -- Part II. The capitalists -- 3. The Cowboy -- 4. The first broker -- 5. Zero-day Charlie -- Part III. The spies -- 6. Project Gunman -- 7. The Godfather -- 8. The Omnivore -- 9. The Rubicon -- 10. The Factory -- Part IV. The mercenaries -- 11. The Kurd -- 12. Dirty business -- 13. Guns for hire -- Part V. The resistance -- 14. Aurora -- 15. Bounty hunters -- 16. Going dark -- Part VI. The twister -- 17. Cyber Gauchos -- 18. Perfect storm -- 19. The grid -- Part VII. Boomerang -- 20. The Russians are coming -- 21. The shadow brokers -- 22. The attacks -- 23. The backyard -- Epilogue.