THREAD: Today's the publication day for my latest book, DAWN OF THE CODE WAR, the first comprehensive history of the Justice Department's efforts to combat the rise of cyber threats, from criminals and terrorists to Russia and China ....: amazon.com/Dawn-Code-War-…
I wrote the book with my friend John Carlin, who served as Asst AG for Nat'l Sec, & helped drive the strategy to go after China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. In some ways, it's a sequel to my last FBI book, THE THREAT MATRIX, so if you liked that, read DAWN OF THE CODE WAR.
To mark publication, I wanted to share some observations and about what is now really a 35-year battle against hackers and the major cases against China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. I learned a lot reporting this. Some conclusions:
1) The scale of China's pillaging of US intellectual property is vastly larger than most people realize and has contributed significantly to its rapid growth. In a book excerpt in @WIRED, I examine one such case: wired.com/story/us-china…
2) There is no meaningful line between Russian state-sponsored cyber attacks and criminal attacks. No country is more of a rogue state online than Vladimir Putin's Russia. Many of the biggest cases involve criminals working under the protection of Russian intelligence.
3) We have done a terrible job imagining where our cyber vulnerabilities are. All four of the first significant nation-state attacks against the US targeted "critical infrastructure" we'd never considered:
Iran first attacked the financial sector; North Korea attacked our free speech; Russia attacked the rituals of our democracy, China stole our federal personnel records. What have we not imagined that will come next?
4) We, amazingly, still have no real guess of the scale of cyberattacks. In the GameOver Zeus case, the FBI stopped counting at $100 million in thefts. We have no idea how much that *one* gang stole, let alone the "tax" we all pay for data breaches, cyber thefts, & online fraud.
5) In reexamining the history of the internet, today’s mess of a world is utterly predictable. The flaws of the internet and today’s digital world were present at the creation—the internet is the fundamental problem....
It's an inherently insecure medium, designed among friends who never imagined it would underpin global commerce. Looking over 35 years of history, it's amazing how many vulnerabilities remain, how many of familiar attacks still work, how many old hacking tools remain useful.
6) The government's efforts—as best intentioned as they are—remain orders of magnitude short of the need. I remain shocked reporting on national security how small the circles are....
The number of FBI, Secret Service, and HSI squads who tackle complex cyber cases remains tiny—and consistent over years. Pittsburgh and Atlanta for the FBI, Nevada for HSI. We need a *lot* more good guys online.
7) This book tells the story of how the U.S. began to impose costs using every tool the government had, from handcuffs to international sanctions. The story, though, is far from over—and, in many ways, it’s actually still getting worse. amazon.com/Dawn-Code-War-…
8) Cybersecurity isn’t just a challenge for government or a business problem—it’s a challenge for our whole society. We need to rethink our embrace of the internet and how both our geopolitical strategy and our corporate strategies should adapt. READ MORE: amazon.com/Dawn-Code-War-…
