Tesco
Dark Territory
Book

Dark Territory

The Secret History of Cyber War

Fred Kaplan
Simon & Schuster, 2016

Read offline

Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

Much of the work of national security agencies and private or hired-gun hackers occurs in secret and some of it involves cyberwarfare, a realm of constantly changing esoteric technology. When events come to light, they provoke considerable denial and conflicting narratives. This makes Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Fred Kaplan’s lucid history of US involvement in cyberwarfare all the more impressive. In this useful look at a complicated subject, he explains cyberwar’s main participants and events, and he clarifies the politics and technologies involved. getAbstract recommends his welcome precision and strong moral sense to anyone interested in global politics, civil liberties in cyberspace, history, or the intersection of technology and society.

Take-Aways

  • In cyberwarfare, hackers turn computer networks – usually used for daily commerce and communication – against an enemy nation.
  • Cyberwarfare can combine with traditional war or function on its own – for instance, to destroy machines by disrupting the computers that run them.
  • US cyberwarfare disrupted Saddam Hussein’s communications during Operation Desert Storm.

About the Author

Slate’s national security columnist Fred Kaplan won a Pulitzer Prize as a reporter for The Boston Globe, and was a finalist for his book The Insurgents. His other books include The Wizards of Armageddon and Daydream Believers.

Comment on this summary or Comenzar discusión