The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age

The future has never looked so close and so challenging. The innovative technology liberating our communication and lifestyles has darker, alarming potential uses than we realized. It's only a few decades old.And we are learning the public and private responsibilities on the fly.David E. Sanger’s 2018 work, “The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age”, sets forth his experiences and observations as a “New York Times” reporter for thirty-six years covering national security in the shadowy world of cyber weapons and uses as tools to accomplish geopolitical strategy.Through twelve chapters the author details in a fluid style the use of cyber weapons by various countries to achieve tactical political and military goals:• United States 2010 effort (Operation Olympic Games) to destabilize the Iranian centrifuges to prevent weapon-grade uranium production with the Stuxnet malware that eventually got loose globally• Russian on-going efforts to penetrate the Pentagon computer systems as well as the much publicized hacks of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) files and leadership emails• Successful industrial and military espionage and theft of US private and government secrets by China• North Korean initial success with retaliating at SONY pictures for producing and releasing the 2014 comedy, “The Interview”, to be followed by more sophisticated attacks as their learning curve acceleratedThe first six chapters look at a variety of international and domestic events with details such as operation names for authenticity and familiar faces with back-stories such as Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. Snowden’s $100 “web crawler” unleashed a “treasure trove” of classified documents still making news today. The back-story for Gucifer 2.0 and who was behind the hack is clever and entertaining.The next four chapters dig into the Russian infiltration of the DNC files and 2016 efforts to destabilize the US national elections showing how vulnerable seemingly major computer systems are and how whipsawed the US government decision-makers were (and still are) about challenging cyber attacks at the risk of exposing their own cyber espionage techniques (the Enigma Code story revisited).In the final two chapters Sanger looks at the impact of cyber uses and responsibilities on the creators of the tools and thoughts about how to manage cyber conflicts going forward.Some of the key learnings are:• Cyber weapons and warfare are now an integral part of any traditional military (land, sea, air, space) campaign.• Non-shooting, propaganda war of cyber space uses can be as initial and on-going destabilizing tools through misinformation campaigns.• Less accountability for sources of attack provides less justification or hesitancy for retaliation by those attacked as well as potential exposure of own concealed capabilities.• Cost of entry is low relative to shooting war capabilities costs, hence, accessible to more national and private actors.Another significant ramification hinted at in the book is: the subtle shift from national political party agendas to the power of multinational technology corporations for whom satisfying consumers, wherever they are, is of paramount importance. At times this global preference can override the priorities of the jurisdictions where they are headquartered.The issues of present-day global cyber capability, ownership, responsibility and accountability raised in Sanger’s work revisit the question HG Wells pondered in his 1933 novel: Is this “The Shape of Things to Come”?

This is a great informative eye-opener. Read this to get an understanding of the history of cyberwarfare and get up-to-date about current headlines; from the Senate’s study of the 2016 Russian election interference or the seemingly non-cyber-related stores of Trump’s efforts to limit Chinese investment in US companies.I like how this book addresses the struggle between democratic ideals and the tactics being used on the new cyber battlefield. Like, “What is the value of secrecy versus transparency? Or privacy versus security?” Clearly some recently very influential people, like Obama and Snowden, have struggled with this question. The book doesn’t address this topic in great depth and has a clear opinion/bias, but it does question these more profound issues.Reading this book makes you feel that history is going through one of its cyclic revolutions; It’s almost like it’s the 1940’s again, not only has a new weapon been released on the world and world leaders are struggling to determine how to use it and limit its destructive abilities, but it seems that democracies are at a unique disadvantage in this new battleground and once again the question is, “can democracy survive war?” This book reveals that Cyber ironically has proven to be a double-edged sword in the fight between western democratic ideals and authoritarian governments; some less adaptable authoritarian governments have fallen by its application and more skilled authoritarian governments have used it to solidify their power and put western democracies at risk. Read this book to get a clearer picture of the battle currently raging in the wires and digital equipment strung around the world.

As the readers of The Perfect Weapon will soon know, nuclear arsenals as both offensive and defensive forces are becoming incrementally irrelevant; technology transports us into the next fulcrum of unmeasured ambits. The author's journey from the current knowns into future forays without markers or history as guides is a revelation of humanity's limitations.In this book's Preface author Sanger references classified Pentagon scenarios with Russia and China, in a first strike attack of military forces and a concomitant cyber barrage targeting civilians. It would fry power grids, stop trains, silence cell phones, and, at its worst food and water shortages will occur and consumer electronics will become dysfunctional.On page 70 a cyber authority reference informed author Sanger that China did more cyber espionage than all other players combined. Their efforts to infiltrate U.S. networks were intense, perpetual and unrelenting.When Kim Jong-un succeeded his deceased father to the North Korea presidency, one immediate priority was to build a cyber force which became an army of six thousand hackers. Currently, these digital warriors operate in China, Iran, and other allied correspondents. Even in a nation with few resources, under U.S. sanctions, and a starvation saturated populace, Kim could deploy dirt cheap cyber weapons against the most hated enemy, the U.S.As the most powerful economic and military forces on the planet our hands-behind-the-back rules of engagement beholds a paper tiger milksop always on the defense from fearless adversaries. This kind of defensive-only policy may prove fatally obsolete as cyber attackers organize, disburse and consolidate IT arsenals.Russia and China are communist nations with no constituent power portals; their military, social and political proclivities are subject to immediate implementation as desired. This could prove decisive in cyber warfare where Western Nations have a history of moribund responses to most conflicts and challenges.Perhaps the author's words on page 237 offer a preview of expectations after government acolytes become cyber protectors in the D.C. sanctum while attacks are in progress or are expected. '...mixed signals and misjudgments allowed Russia to interfere in an American election...born of bureaucratic inertia. The FBI fumbled the investigation. DNC staff was asleep at the wheel."The slothful movement and dissemination of knowledge and information inside the U.S. bureaus, agencies and archives will not equate wisdom, with which cyber warriors will soon exploit myriad weaknesses at will. As cyber technology investments and determinants continue unabated where should we as observant victims expect some resolution? It is a rhetorical question to which The Perfect Weapon has not a plausible address. At this point perhaps noteworthy is that response time to a cyber attack is zero.

O livro poderia ser resumido. Passa muito tempo falando sobre a eleição americana e pouco sobre outras coisas que estão acontecendo. Algumas partes são bem chatas

An incredible book. Things that used to be thought of as could never happen but they are.

Excellent reporting on an issue that should concern all citizens enjoying the privilege of still living in a (barely) free society. Gain insight and knowledge, and be prepared. Kudos to an author who is an expert in his field and able to share the information in such a clear and balanced way.

Scary eye opening truth

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