The kickoff of a national promotions push for Kingston journalist Byron Acohido’s new book on Internet security and cyber crime will take place at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 5 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in the Kitsap Mall. Acohido will give a brief talk on Internet-enabled data theft and financial scams, then sign books.
Co-authored with Jon Swartz, “Zero Day Threat: The Shocking Truth of How Banks & Credit Bureaus Help Cyber Crooks Steal Your Money and Identity” is an eye-opening primer about the fast-expanding world of cyber crime.
Part detective drama, techno-thriller and banking exposé, “Zero Day Threat” has gotten strong early reviews. Washington Post Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter James Grimaldi calls “Zero Day Threat,” “an important and major piece of investigative journalism.” Counter-terrorism consultant and best-selling author Richard A. Clarke noted, “if you bank or manage your stocks online, you have to read this book.”
Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff described the book as “‘An Inconvenient Truth’ for the digital age.”
Acohido and his wife, Robin, an attendance clerk at North Kitsap High School, moved with their four sons and three cats to Jefferson Beach Estates in 1995. Acohido commuted by ferry and public transit to his job as a business reporter at the Seattle Times. In 1997, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting for stories about a deadly design flaw in the rudders of Boeing 737 jets. He joined USA Today in 2001 to cover Microsoft and technology based out of Kingston, which he continues to do.
Written in a narrative, storytelling style to inform the general public, “Zero Day Threat” has been optioned to a Hollywood-based production company, which is pursuing a movie dramatization.
“I feel very strongly about getting the word out on this important topic,” said Acohido. “Our aim is to increase public awareness and help set a global agenda for improving the security and privacy of everyone’s personal data.”
To see and hear the authors describe “Zero Day Threat,” go to www.zerodaythreat.com.
