Book Review: "Cyberspies"

"Cyberspies: The Secret History of Surveillance, Hacking, and Digital Espionage", by Gordon Corera is a great book for a historic look at the evolution of communications, encryption, and intelligence operations. I was honestly shocked at how good this book was, as I don't often have high expectations for highlevel books such as this. The book not only does an amazing job covering the history of the computer and encryption, but also paints an incredibly accurate picture of the modern landscape, from the massive data collection facilities run by the NSA in Utah to the Chinese PLA hacking into corporations around the world. The book also provides an excellent level set with various national actors and motives in cyber space, a great view of some of the players from an intelligence analysts perspective. It's really a solid book for both those into the subject technically and those into the subject generally, as both will learn a lot of nuanced history about the technologies underpinning modern society and be fascinated by the shocking capabilities nation states have employed for years in terms of signals intelligence. I listened to the book on audible for $16, at ~18hrs (although enjoyed it at x1.25 speed), which was highly entertaining and educational at that price. I really enjoyed this particular reading of the text too, as it was British actor Gildart Jackson, who read it with a smooth and well rehearsed tone. Overall I give the book 8/10 stars, for it's excellent coverage of the history as well as how modern and relevant the book was at the time of reading, I really had a good time with this book and learned a lot of history, despite the high level approach to the technical topics. The following are the chapters of the book, in my typical fashion:

Prologue
Introduction
Chapter 1: Birth
Chapter 2: Marriage
Chapter 3: Into the Cold
Chapter 4: Coming of Age
Chapter 5: Spy-hunting
Chapter 6: Crypto Wars
Chapter 7: Attack
Chapter 8: Enter the KGB
Chapter 9: Out of the Cold and into Cyberspace
Chapter 10: Titan Rain
Chapter 11: In the Wires
Chapter 12: Britain and the Cyber Spies
Chapter 13: Dissent
Chapter 14: Sabotage
Chapter 15: The Lights Go Off
Chapter 16: Rebirth - Cables
Chapter 17: Britain
Chapter 18: Exposure
Epilogue: To Infinity and Beyond

The book includes an amazing telling of the original crypto wars and from a fairly balanced vantage point, the fight to make crypto public domain for common good vs the clandestine motives of keeping communications unencrypted for intelligence gains. The book also talks at length of the semi-modern Chinese economic espionage, which is the China based prolific hacking throughout the last decade. It also dives in detail on the clandestine practice of supply chain poisoning and well as 'backdooring' various technology protocols, and thus the need to develop secret, in-house methods for the same ends, techniques which stay hidden from the private sector at large for years. Yet the book concedes that recently the private sector has been driving technological advancement and the awkward juxtaposition of governments trying to get at that private sector data. This modern topic is extremely relevant in todays theater as it raises the vital questions of are these companies supposed to bear the burden of policing their own data vs is it negligent to just give this data over to governments of the world in the name of 'security'? The book also talks at length of governments giving their favorite private corporations the advantages with the intellectual property that they've stolen during their clandestine operations, something most major governments have been caught doing at one point or another. The book also draws on the Snowden revelations, not only to back up it's various points of pervasive spying on communications but to also demonstrate the threat and increased ease of leaking data in todays age. It's also interesting that this is Corera's 2nd book on the subject within two years, the first being Intercept, something I am now committed to read. It's also intriguing that shortened audio versions of these books have made their way to YouTube, recommended if your trying to get a sample reading of the chapters. Regardless, this book is highly recommended, hope you check it out and leave your thoughts in the comments section below!