A fresh and refined appraisal of today's top cyber threats

Richard A. Clarke warned America once before about the havoc terrorism would wreak on our national security—and he was right. Now he warns us of another threat, silent but equally dangerous. Cyber War is a powerful book about technology, government, and military strategy; about criminals, spies, soldiers, and hackers. It explains clearly and convincingly what cyber war is, how cyber weapons work, and how vulnerable we are as a nation and as individuals to the vast and looming web of cyber criminals. This is the first book about the war of the future—cyber war—and a convincing argument that we may already be in peril of losing it.

Contemporary discussion surrounding the role of the internet in society is dominated by words like: internet freedom, surveillance, cybersecurity, Edward Snowden and, most prolifically, cyber war. Behind the rhetoric of cyber war is an on-going state-centered battle for control of information resources. Shawn Powers and Michael Jablonski conceptualize this real cyber war as the utilization of digital networks for geopolitical purposes, including covert attacks against another state's electronic systems, but also, and more importantly, the variety of ways the internet is used to further a state’s economic and military agendas. Moving beyond debates on the democratic value of new and emerging information technologies, The Real Cyber War focuses on political, economic, and geopolitical factors driving internet freedom policies, in particular the U.S. State Department's emerging doctrine in support of a universal freedom to connect. They argue that efforts to create a universal internet built upon Western legal, political, and social preferences is driven by economic and geopolitical motivations rather than the humanitarian and democratic ideals that typically accompany related policy discourse. In fact, the freedom-to-connect movement is intertwined with broader efforts to structure global society in ways that favor American and Western cultures, economies, and governments. Thought-provoking and far-seeing, The Real Cyber War reveals how internet policies and governance have emerged as critical sites of geopolitical contestation, with results certain to shape statecraft, diplomacy, and conflict in the twenty-first century.

Cyberspace, where information--and hence serious value--is stored and manipulated, is a tempting target. An attacker could be a person, group, or state and may disrupt or corrupt the systems from which cyberspace is built. When states are involved, it is tempting to compare fights to warfare, but there are important differences. The author addresses these differences and ways the United States protect itself in the face of attack.

Stuxnet to Sunburst: 20 Years of Digital Exploitation and Cyberwarfare takes the reader on a journey from the terrorist attacks of 9/11 onwards and the massive insatiable appetite, focus and investment by the Five Eyes agencies, in particular the U.S., to build the capability of digital eavesdropping and industrial espionage. With tens of trillions of dollars moving throughout hundreds of thousands of staff, and many contractors draining the country of intelligence and technical capability, the quest was simple and the outcome horrifying. No one in the world has connected the dots, until now. From digital eavesdropping and manipulation of the agencies to Stuxnet, this book covers how the world's first use of digital code and digital certificates for offensive purposes against the Iranians and their nuclear power facilities, caused collateral damage. Proceeding to today's SolarWinds attack, code-named Sunburst, the same methods of exploitation and manipulation originally used by the agencies are now being used against companies and governments with devastating effects. The SolarWinds breach has caused knock-on breaches to thousands of client companies including the U.S. government and is estimated to cost more than one trillion dollars. The monster has truly been turned against its creator and due to the lack of security and defence, breaches are occurring daily at an alarming rate. The U.S. and UK governments have little to no answer. The book also contains a chapter on breaches within the COVID-19 sector from research to immunisation and the devastating December 2020 breach of SolarWinds.

The result of a three-year project, this manual addresses the entire spectrum of international legal issues raised by cyber warfare.

Tallinn Manual 2.0 expands on the highly influential first edition by extending its coverage of the international law governing cyber operations to peacetime legal regimes. The product of a three-year follow-on project by a new group of twenty renowned international law experts, it addresses such topics as sovereignty, state responsibility, human rights, and the law of air, space, and the sea. Tallinn Manual 2.0 identifies 154 'black letter' rules governing cyber operations and provides extensive commentary on each rule. Although Tallinn Manual 2.0 represents the views of the experts in their personal capacity, the project benefitted from the unofficial input of many states and over fifty peer reviewers.

Originally published in hardcover in 2016 by Simon & Schuster.

Cyber Mercenaries explores the secretive relationships between states and hackers. As cyberspace has emerged as the new frontier for geopolitics, states have become entrepreneurial in their sponsorship, deployment, and exploitation of hackers as proxies to project power. Such modern-day mercenaries and privateers can impose significant harm undermining global security, stability, and human rights. These state-hacker relationships therefore raise important questions about the control, authority, and use of offensive cyber capabilities. While different countries pursue different models for their proxy relationships, they face the common challenge of balancing the benefits of these relationships with their costs and the potential risks of escalation. This book examines case studies in the United States, Iran, Syria, Russia, and China for the purpose of establishing a framework to better understand and manage the impact and risks of cyber proxies on global politics.