Cyberspies: The Secret History of Surveillance, Hacking, and Digital Espionage

BBC security correspondent Corera’s dense and comprehensive history of electronic and computer espionage includes many hitherto secret tales from the world of communication intelligence. Corera (The Art of Betrayal) examines the close cooperation between the British and American government intelligence agencies from the days of Bletchley Park during WWII, when the alliance began, to its current standing at the center of political debate on questions of national security and global enterprise. The narrative is focused on people and events, with perhaps too-scant descriptions of methods and hardware. Gordon discusses the role of computers and the Internet in the ever-changing balance between the conflicting needs of personal and corporate privacy and the fight against external enemies: first the Soviet Union, and now global terrorism. The world of hackers and their motives and methods, and the uses of hacking as an aid and a threat to cybersecurity, are examined in fascinating detail, illustrated with alarming anecdotes. The discussion of Stuxnet—the sophisticated attack on Iranian centrifuges—and its aftermath is compelling, as Corera’s chilling conclusion contextualizes it as the first of a continuing and increasingly sophisticated form of international, sometimes state-sponsored digital warfare. Agent: Georgina Capel, Georgina Capel Associates (U.K.). (July)