The perfect weapon [eBook - NC Digital Library] : War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age

In 2015, Russian Hackers Tunneled Deep Into The Computer Systems Of The Democratic National Committee, And The Subsequent Leaks Of The Emails They Stole May Have Changed The Course Of American Democracy. But To See The Dnc Hacks As Trump-centric Is To Miss The Bigger, More Important Story: Within That Same Year, The Russians Not Only Had Broken Into Networks At The White House, The State Department, And The Joint Chiefs Of Staff, But Had Placed Implants In American Electrical And Nuclear Plants That Could Give Them The Power To Switch Off Vast Swaths Of The Country. This Was The Culmination Of A Decade Of Escalating Digital Sabotage Among The World's Powers, In Which Americans Became The Collateral Damage As China, Iran, North Korea, And Russia Battled In Cyberspace To Undercut One Another In Daily Just-short-of-war Conflict. The Perfect Weapon Is The Startling Inside Story Of How The Rise Of Cyberweapons Transformed Geopolitics Like Nothing Since The Invention Of The Atomic Bomb. Cheap To Acquire, Easy To Deny, And Usable For A Variety Of Malicious Purposes--from Crippling Infrastructure To Sowing Discord And Doubt--cyber Is Now The Weapon Of Choice For Democracies, Dictators, And Terrorists. Two Presidents--bush And Obama--drew First Blood With Operation Olympic Games, Which Used Malicious Code To Blow Up Iran's Nuclear Centrifuges, And Yet America Proved Remarkably Unprepared When Its Own Weapons Were Stolen From Its Arsenal And, During President Trump's First Year, Turned Back On The Us And Its Allies. The Government Was Often Paralyzed, Unable To Threaten The Use Of Cyberweapons Because America Was So Vulnerable To Crippling Attacks On Its Own Networks Of Banks, Utilities, And Government Agencies. Moving From The White House Situation Room To The Dens Of Chinese Government Hackers To The Boardrooms Of Silicon Valley, New York Times National Security Correspondent David Sanger--who Broke The Story Of Olympic Games In His Previous Book--reveals A World Coming Face-to-face With The Perils Of Technological Revolution. The Perfect Weapon Is The Dramatic Story Of How Great And Small Powers Alike Slipped Into A New Era Of Constant Sabotage, Misinformation, And Fear, In Which Everyone Is A Target.--dust Jacket. From Russia, With Love -- Original Sins -- Pandora's Inbox -- The Hundred-dollar Takedown -- Man In The Middle -- The China Rules -- The Kims Strike Back -- Putin's Petri Dish -- The Fumble -- Warning From The Cotswolds -- The Slow Awakening -- Three Crises In The Valley -- Left Of Launch. David E. Sanger. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 315-342) And Index. Text In English. From the premiere New York Times Washington correspondent, a stunning and incisive look into how cyberwarfare is influencing elections, threatening national security, and bringing us to the brink of global war. Behind the Russian cyberattacks that may have thrown the 2016 election; behind the Sony hack; behind mysterious power outages around the world and the disappearance of thousands of personnel records from poorly guarded government servers are the traces of a new and powerful weapon, one that has the potential to remake global conflict like nothing since the invention of the atomic bomb. The Perfect Weapon is the riveting story of how, in less than a decade, cyberwarfare displaced terrorism and nuclear attacks as the greatest threat to American national security. Cheap to acquire, difficult to defend against, and designed to shield their user's identities so as to complicate retaliation, these weapons are capable of an unprecedented range of offensive tactics; they can take us just short of war, allowing for everything from disruption to theft to the cause of widespread damage of essential infrastructure systems. And the vulnerability of those systems has created a related but equally urgent conflict: American companies like Apple and Cisco must claim allegiance to no government in the name of selling secure products around the globe yet the US intelligence agencies want the help of such companies in defending against future cyberattacks. Reported and written with unprecedented access by New York Times chief Washington correspondent and bestselling author David Sanger, The Perfect Weapon takes readers inside war rooms and boardrooms, into the secret cyberdens of American and Chinese military, to give the deep-background story of the increasingly pitched battle between nations, their governments, their cyberwarriors, and their corporations. NOW AN HBO® DOCUMENTARY FROM AWARD-WINNING DIRECTOR JOHN MAGGIO • “An important—and deeply sobering—new book about cyberwarfare” (Nicholas Kristof, New York Times ), now updated with a new chapter. The Perfect Weapon is the startling inside story of how the rise of cyberweapons transformed geopolitics like nothing since the invention of the atomic bomb. Cheap to acquire, easy to deny, and usable for a variety of malicious purposes, cyber is now the weapon of choice for democracies, dictators, and terrorists. Two presidents—Bush and Obama—drew first blood with Operation Olympic Games, which used malicious code to blow up Iran’s nuclear centrifuges, and yet America proved remarkably unprepared when its own weapons were stolen from its arsenal and, during President Trump’s first year, turned back on the United States and its allies. And if Obama would begin his presidency by helping to launch the new era of cyberwar, he would end it struggling unsuccessfully to defend the 2016 U.S. election from interference by Russia, with Vladimir Putin drawing on the same playbook he used to destabilize Ukraine. Moving from the White House Situation Room to the dens of Chinese government hackers to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley, New York Times national security correspondent David Sanger reveals a world coming face-to-face with the perils of technological revolution, where everyone is a target. “Timely and bracing . . . With the deep knowledge and bright clarity that have long characterized his work, Sanger recounts the cunning and dangerous development of cyberspace into the global battlefield of the twenty-first century.” —Washington Post