Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin’s Most Dangerous Hacker

Technology journalist Greenberg (This Machine Kills Secrets) delivers a taut inquiry into the “most devastating and costly malware in history” and the state-sponsored Russian hacker team that developed and deployed it. Housed within the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, the group has been nicknamed Sandworm for the references to science fiction novel Dune found in the code it used to shut down portions of Ukraine’s power grid in December 2015. In June 2017, Sandworm launched a cyberattack that spread to “countless machines around the world” and caused billions of dollars in damages. Known as NotPetya, the malware used stolen NSA hacking tools to infect entire computer networks in a matter of seconds. Greenberg traces NotPetya’s ripple effects and speaks with “the lonely club of Cassandras” who have been tracking Sandworm for years. According to at least one of his sources, the group also hacked into U.S. state boards of elections in 2016 and crashed the Wi-Fi at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Though much about Sandworm remains unknown, including its exact motivations, Greenberg is an adroit investigator and gifted metaphorist. His lucid, dynamic exposé is a must-read for those worried about the vulnerabilities of the digital world. [em](Nov.) [/em]