David Sanger’s “The Perfect Weapon” is largely a compilation of reporting he and The New York Times produced over the past few years about American preparedness for cyberwarfare.

Sanger complains the America isn’t prepared, has no policy or dividing line between cyberespionage and offensive attacks, has greater vulnerability than other nations because of its advanced economy, and is regularly giving up secrets because of the porousness of its government’s own networks.

Really there’s little new here.

In spite of the lessons learned from the 9/11 attacks, it sounds as though the American intelligence community is once again at war with American offensive capability: the spooks fear sharing their knowledge of their foes with the defence establishment who want to intrude and cripple the enemy.

And the enemy is getting smarter. In addition to stealing American secrets, Chinese investment is buying into Silicon Valley startups and getting full warning about what is on the horizon.

What anyone will find alarming about this analysis is that few in Washington know when or if to use conventional weapons in this new environment.

The current confusion over Russian meddling in the 2016 election being a case in point. Donald Trump aside, America is unsure what the most useful response to Putin should be, what will be a sufficient disincentive to future meddling both in American infrastructure and those of its allies. (NOTE: As I write this Chinese countervailing duties target Republican strongholds in the MidWest. Why Russian trolls count as “political meddling” in internal US affairs and the Chinese blowback doesn’t escapes me.)

This is what Trump ought to be hashing out at NATO meetings.

If the Stuxnet attacks on Iranian centrifuges showed American and Israeli cyberforces on the forefront, much of that lead may have disappeared as Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea throw greater and greater resources at the problem.

Korea has even resorted to cybercrime to finance their programs.

But these vulnerabilities raise an even more fundamental issue: think back to the invention of the Internet by contractors working for DARPA. The original purpose of the Internet was to distribute control of American defence command to withstand a debilitating nuclear attack.

It is the very structure of the Internet which is opening American vulnerabilities, giving safe haven to America’s foes, and is proving a fertile testing ground for new and diabolical weapons of mass destruction.

Here again technology is coming back on itself. America’s (and our) foes are throwing its weapons back at itself very, very quickly. When it took years for the Soviets to replicate the American Atomic bombs and delivery mechanism, and its hydrogen bombs, the timeline for stealing NSA weapons and throwing back against the allies has dramatically shrunken.

This has the potential to dramatically increase tensions and destabilize all of our societies.

Overlay these tensions with advances in AI, genetic engineering, climate change, and new techniques to 3D print and distribute weapons, and you get one heck of a toxic environment.

That really sucks. ( )

This is a wake-up call to America. This should be a must read for every American, government official and corporation. Because it proves, in excruciating detail, how vulnerable our systems are to cyber attack. But more importantly, how ill-prepared we are to stop it. ( )

Book Title: The Perfect Weapon
Author: David E Sanger
Format: Paperback

Book Title:
The title of the book ' The Perfect Weapon ' is dynamic and informative. The subtitle says it all.

Book Cover:
The cover image of the book is a snapshot of an encrypted computerized message depicting the cyber world.

My review:
Author David E. Sanger, national security correspondent for the New York Times and author of The Inheritance and Confront and Conceal, provides an insightful perspective chronicling the contemporary history of state-sponsored cyberspace operations in The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age. The book basically highlights the cyber world and the attached dangers, challenges, threats and chances of misuse with a trace of political. With a great amount of information, the book is definitely a must-read.

Some incidents and events like how suspected Russian hackers broke into the Democratic National Committee, the White House, the Department of State, etc, by installing certain cyber tools in some of the most secret and sensitive networks. The hackers found access to disturb the power and energy department across the USA.
Several incidents that the USA is involved in and also became prey to the cyber crimes are explained coherently in the book. One of the most interesting incidents that caught my attention is how earlier the United States used Operation Olympic Games to destroy centrifuges for nuclear reactors in Iran. In some places, it was very hard to come to a conclusion if the taken step is acceptable or not.

Author Sanger describes how the advent of cyber capabilities has caused a paradigmatic shift in the international security environment. He also stresses the cost because they are cheap, relatively easy to acquire, and extremely effective. The book may appeal to all those readers who are most interested in world cyber crimes, cyber weapons, and strategic political sequences.

My Final Verdict: 3/5




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Given to Horizon House Library by Admiral Tom Hayward

Interesting review but fails to go into any useful details when it comes to techniques or nature of vulnerabilities discussed. Maybe it's one of those books aimed at decision makers and it avoid blinding them with science. ( )