Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It

Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It, Richard A. Clarke and Richard Knake, Ecco Books, 2010

This book looks at the next arena for war, cyberspace, a war that America may already have lost.

Cyber war is already here. In the past few years, several countries have found themselves under cyber attack from unknown persons. There have been a number of documented instances when American defense computer systems have been hacked, and terabytes of information (including classified information) have been copied.

American computers, because America is so wired, are quite vulnerable to hacking. The average home computer, along with thousands of others, can be taken over by an anonymous person, and used to simultaneously attack, for instance, the computer system of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. A potential enemy has probably installed "logic bombs", bits of undetectable software, in the right place. At the proper moment, they will, for instance, shut down a large part of the electricity grid (for weeks or months), or spread a computer virus inside the Pentagon.

The best thing America can do about it is to really beef up its cyber defense. America can put some doubt in an attacker's mind that their cyber attack will work.  America's entire electricity system is extremely vulnerable to hackers, because the important parts are very accessible from the Internet. Tests have been conducted to see how easy it is to take control of a major electric generator system from the Internet. In several cases, it happened in less than an hour. New regulations are needed to force utilities to secure their systems, with real penalties for non-compliance. In the pentagon, it is very easy for malware to move from an unsecured computer to those that handle classified data, with disastrous results. If another country really wanted to declare all-out cyber war, the electronic collapse of America could happen in less than one hour.

It would be easy to dismiss the warnings in this book as impossible; it can't happen here. Which would you prefer: to let it happen, and then panic and point fingers, or spend some money now to reduce the chances of cyber war affecting the average American?

This is a really interesting book that is certainly up to the minute. It's easy to read for the average person, and not filled with technical or military jargon. This one is very much recommended.