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tomleetang's review against another edition
4.0
An eye-opening, frightening and occasionally hysterical account of the cyber security risks that threaten our world.
A review on the back of my edition describes this book as like a John le Carre novel, and it is, in the sense that it's written as though designed not for slow, thoughtful digestion, but to be read as a colourful thriller. Tonally, it's like a yapping chihuahua, sounding a very necessary alarm about our complacent attitude to cyber weapons, but in the most irritating way imaginable. How an author can write in such a glib manner while also passionately advocating for reforms to the way we approach InfoSec boggles the mind.
But for all my criticisms of the writing, the knowledge and research that have gone into this book are extremely impressive. The author's years covering cyber security have given her the tools to create a clear and informative account of the field that is never confusing or overly complicated.
Despite genuinely loathing the tone of This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends (even that title, eurgh), I think the material contains an important and necessary warning to the general public about the cyber weapons hovering over are heads, ready to strike.
A review on the back of my edition describes this book as like a John le Carre novel, and it is, in the sense that it's written as though designed not for slow, thoughtful digestion, but to be read as a colourful thriller. Tonally, it's like a yapping chihuahua, sounding a very necessary alarm about our complacent attitude to cyber weapons, but in the most irritating way imaginable. How an author can write in such a glib manner while also passionately advocating for reforms to the way we approach InfoSec boggles the mind.
But for all my criticisms of the writing, the knowledge and research that have gone into this book are extremely impressive. The author's years covering cyber security have given her the tools to create a clear and informative account of the field that is never confusing or overly complicated.
Despite genuinely loathing the tone of This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends (even that title, eurgh), I think the material contains an important and necessary warning to the general public about the cyber weapons hovering over are heads, ready to strike.
protogen_dianma's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
tense
medium-paced
4.5
endlyon's review against another edition
2.0
After the first third it felt like I was rereading the same business event over and over again. It's a shame it only very briefly touched on the actual cyber weapons and how they work and focused almost entirely on just the shady business.
dmaurath's review against another edition
2.0
She got the setting of Dune wrong, describing its setting as post-apocalyptic earth and not Arrakis. That inaccuracy is minor by itself but was a sign that this book could maybe not be fully trusted. So I went searching and found this review from a cyber security expert that unfortunately points to some of the books other many inaccuracies and urge anyone interested in this book to read it:http://addxorrol.blogspot.com/2021/02/book-review-this-is-how-they-tell-me.html
Besides the inaccuracies, the writing style is grating at times. She leans heavily on repeated stereotypes of hackers as pale, unhygienic fat men who would do better if only they had a woman to save them . The prose is littered with extreme descriptions that overdramatize the situations and becomes tiring in such a long book (I listed to the last quarter of the audio version at 2x speed). The audio book also has a lot of basic mistakes of pronunciation (e.g., Kiev = "Kree-ev" or German newspaper Der Spiegel = "Der Spiegah")
That all being said, if you want a comprehensive overview of cyberattacks and can get past the hyperbole and somewhat minor inaccuracies then it might be worth reading, but Im sure there are better books out there.
Besides the inaccuracies, the writing style is grating at times. She leans heavily on repeated stereotypes of hackers as pale, unhygienic fat men who would do better if only they had a woman to save them . The prose is littered with extreme descriptions that overdramatize the situations and becomes tiring in such a long book (I listed to the last quarter of the audio version at 2x speed). The audio book also has a lot of basic mistakes of pronunciation (e.g., Kiev = "Kree-ev" or German newspaper Der Spiegel = "Der Spiegah")
That all being said, if you want a comprehensive overview of cyberattacks and can get past the hyperbole and somewhat minor inaccuracies then it might be worth reading, but Im sure there are better books out there.
braedenm's review against another edition
informative
tense
medium-paced
4.75
Seriously scary - like looking under your bed to see actual monsters there.
kayhell's review against another edition
2.0
the unabashedly american perspective (in almost every story usa and its various intelligence agencies are painted with a hero-protagonist tint as opposed to other cartoonishly "bad" characters as if usa has some moral highground.. thus, the journalistic objectivity is at least partially if not wholly lost) somewhat takes away from an otherwise relatively readable account of the impact of cyberweapons over time although i have to say that the book doesn't dive deeply into the technical aspects and, as i said, any political analysis is subpar or surface-level at best. i didn't really like the (often weirdly dramatic) tone either although i do understand that it is an attempt to make the read less dry. not sure it was a success
bebuckstaff's review against another edition
5.0
Excellently researched, captivatingly written, content is scary as hell.