Shane HarrisRecensioni

A good introduction of the present realities of the Internet, posing considerations for where we take a technology which, after only 20 years, has become a integral part of our lives. If we continue to remain ignorant of the dangers posed to us, and the depth to which the military and governments have become involved, we have no one to blame but ourselves for shoving our heads in the sand. Snowden was our wake up call.

The book closes with the following: "Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

We shouldn't abdicate our responsibility to keep government overreach in check, despite promises of protecting the 'greater good'. Unfortunately, the government is deeply entrenched; removing them from the net is as likely as revoking a tax once imposed. Private industry will have powerful sway in balancing government abuse and invasion of personal privacy, unless they take the lazy route and collaborate for perks, like easy sales and kickbacks.

Excellent book on the Cyber war and it's complete history, with interesting details, recommended to anyone interested in the Cyber War.

Solid overview of security issues at the intersection of government and the Internet

Overall, a great overview of government policies (what events went into making them, what the agendas and goals were) as they relate to the Internet and cyber security. Both solid historical data and good analyses.

Things are going to get worse and the US government is going to increase its involvement with corporate contractors to try to fix it. That won’t be easy; for example, the Chinese can insert computer viruses through the electromagnetic spectrum to target recon planes. There are an unknown but large number of operating system exploits out there, and some rely on hardware issues, which can’t be patched with code. And even if the CIA’s own defenses are good, the VA Department’s aren’t, meaning many citizens’ information is vulnerable.½

Some interesting nuggets I did not know.Gotta believe there will be a company to company cyber war someday. That will be ugly.

An OK book, not all that exciting. Lots of chatter about all the bad hacker activity on the Internet, lots of talk how companies haven't dealt with the issue ( I know when I was a network admin, it was status quo to do "security by obscurity". Nothing earth shattering. Mildly recommend (if you're in IT then it'll be more interesting). Great narrator.

This was an interesting book for the first 100 pages as the pieces came together for fighting terrorism through information. After that the book became monotonous for me with very little intrigue and excitement. I struggled to finish the book. One thumb up.

An impressive work of journalism, Harris weaves an extremely readable narrative out of the twisted and shadowy maze of cyber espionage and offensive cyber operations. Along the way, he strikes a generally balanced and moderate tone. A strong and accessible overview of the past 15 years of cyber.

A well-researched book chronicling increasing surveillance in the U.S. Scary topic, so why does it often feel like a slog getting through the book? The debate between privacy and national security is intriguing, but the author spends a little too much time giving background on the players' careers.

I heard about this book when reading the news reports about surveillance by the NSA – telephone records metadata and e-mails and other on-line info. Disclosures by Edward Snowden. It seemed to me that this kind of spying was already known. This book was written a few years ago, and gives the background to expansion of the government's efforts to maintain databases that could be used to identify terrorists or even to identify them while they are still planning an attack. The main focus of the book is John Poindexter, who made this his primary work, after the bombing of the US soldiers in Lebanon in 1983.½

This is not the book I thought it was going to be -- a serious history with analysis of how "America's surveillance state" came to be, with perhaps a look at what might happen in the future. Instead, it is a "you are there" journalistic look at key figures in the development of surveillance technologies; the reader sees them as they came up with ideas, discussed them with others, argued about others, got involved in Washington politics, etc. The author writes in bite-sized paragraphs that I found choppy and he often uses irritating metaphors and images, e.g., "As far as Washington horsetrading went, that was the nuclear option." Also, because most of the people he interviewed, starting with the "hero" of the tale, John Poindexter, were intimately involved in surveillance and intelligence, the book comes out somewhat one-sided. I did read/skim the whole thing, and I guess I learned a little, but it's not what I was hoping for.