This book is a deeply researched and well-informed history of the development of cyberweapons, and the growth of the worldwide market for "Zero Day" exploits (undiscovered software bugs that can be used to take control of a computer). The author has been covering this beat as a reporter since the early 2000s, and tracks how hacking moved from pranks done by teenage boys to tools of organized crime, and then on to the intelligence organizations of nation-states.
She describes how tools that were first developed for spying and theft of secrets were repurposed into "kinetic" weapons, that could be used to inflict damage to physical infrastructure, starting with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear centrifuges via the "Stuxnet" virus, but then on into the vicious and massively harmful economic, power grid and communications shutdowns in Estonia and Ukraine carried out by the Russians.
She also provides deeply disturbing accounts of the Russian attacks on democratic countries, using social media to undermine candidates and sow disinformation, while also attempting to access and disrupt actual voting systems in the U.S. and elsewhere.
This is a "must read" book for anyone who wants to understand the full extent of the cyberwar threat to modern society caused by our utter dependence on computers to control every aspect of our daily lives and communities. Highly recommended.
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