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stevenyenzer's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating, enthralling history of computer espionage.
johnbreeden's review against another edition
5.0
This work is a deep dive into the world of electronic espionage and, in some cases, sabotage. Starting with the beginnings of wartime signals intelligence during the first World War, the reader is taken through the creation of Colossus, through the emergence of greater technology and the Internet, and into the emergence of cryptography in the computer landscape. The author's perspective is mainly British, but he spends ample time discussing the "contributions" - both good and ill - of America, Russia (USSR) and China. This is a great way to learn some history and understand where the modern world's challenges and successes come from.
jacobjonk's review against another edition
4.0
I love the depth of this book because it provides the fundamental case that tech is weak to spying because that's it's origin story. It makes me curious as to what computers would be today without signals intelligence and the military industrial complex. At times it drones on a bit and lost my attention but overall this book is well worth reading for a history of spying, computers, and their intersection.
jdm9970's review against another edition
5.0
I view this book as equipping you to answer the question “Where is the line between the privacy of citizens and the ability to protect them from threats (terrorism, cybercrime, the potential of a hostile state to crash the grid in the event of full out war)?”. It does this by examining the modern (WW1-around Snowden) history of signals intelligence, cryptography, and hacking, and providing examples of mass surveillance winning wars, being used by totalitarian governments to suppress human rights, and successfully and unsuccessfully using surveillance/espionage to protect citizens from extremists and cyber criminals.
It also presents the arguments (with quotes) from a variety of people connected to the cyberintelligence world, and well enough that he had me wanting to agree with several different (and conflicting) stances throughout the book. If the title sounds compelling to you or you’re interested in the modern questions on data collection and use, this won’t give you much technical information, but it will provide you a lot of background on how we got to today and what some of the big issues are.
It also presents the arguments (with quotes) from a variety of people connected to the cyberintelligence world, and well enough that he had me wanting to agree with several different (and conflicting) stances throughout the book. If the title sounds compelling to you or you’re interested in the modern questions on data collection and use, this won’t give you much technical information, but it will provide you a lot of background on how we got to today and what some of the big issues are.
aliensupersoldier's review against another edition
5.0
More reviews and bookish rants on my blog, Dinara Tengri
It took me forever to finish Intercept due to it being packed with facts, names, dates and all this tech jargon that my poor non-technical brain was having a helluva time processing. I am just now learning about things SEO-optimization, and struggling with the most basic HTML-coding and here I am reading about encryption, “trapdoors”, and “upstream collection”.
But don’t let this tech jargon scare you! This book reads like a historical spy thriller. It kind of is one, isn’t it? It’s exicting and always leaves you wanting more. If you’re planning on writing a spy thriller or a historical fiction about WWII, and you’re looking for good books for your research, put Intercept on you list!
Corera covers everything from cable cutting in WWI, to the cracking of the Enigma code in WWII, all the way through the Cold War to the present day with Chinese and Russian governments spying on the Western world, and the NSA spying on its own citizens.
It’s impressive how well-researched this book is; how anal the author is about details, fact-checking and getting the history right. I mean, if you’re into that sort of thing.
It’s written from the point of view of Great Britain and USA, and Russia and China automatically become “the bad guys”, but the narrative is still pretty well-balanced. We follow the major developments in the West, but it doesn’t take away from the objectivity all that much. That’s the great thing about relying on facts and documents to tell your story: what’s there is there and you can make your own conclusions about who’s the good guy and who’s the villain.
I’m just throwing it out there: Intercept should be required reading for everyone who is active on social media. Perhaps a sort of Cyberspying for Dummies, wouldn’t be a bad idea. And it could have these little chapters titled, “This is how spies can use internet to gather information” and “This is how the NSA can use your meta data for their own purposes without you even knowing!”.
The parts about the World Wars and the Cold War have a certain touch of romanticism to them, or is it just me who’s projecting from countless war movies? But the most exciting and – let’s face it – disturbing part starts with the dawn of data-mining, targeted advertising, and the rise of social media. Here’s an excerpt:
When a Californian politician proposed a law to opt out of such targeted advertising, she was approached by Page and Brin (creators of Google). She later recounted the encounter in a PBS TV documentary:
“All of a sudden, Sergey started talking to me. He said, ‘Senator, how would you feel if a robot went into your home and read your diary and read your financial records, read your love letters, read everything, but before leaving the house, it imploded?’ And he said, ‘That’s not violating privacy.’ I immediately said, ‘ Of course it is. Yes, it is.’ And he said, ‘No it isn’t. Nothing’s kept. Nobody knows about it.’ I said, ‘That robot has read everything. Does that robot know if I’m sad or if I’m feeling fear, or what’s happening?’ And he looked at me and he said, ‘Oh, no. That robot knows a lot more than that.”
It took me forever to finish Intercept due to it being packed with facts, names, dates and all this tech jargon that my poor non-technical brain was having a helluva time processing. I am just now learning about things SEO-optimization, and struggling with the most basic HTML-coding and here I am reading about encryption, “trapdoors”, and “upstream collection”.
But don’t let this tech jargon scare you! This book reads like a historical spy thriller. It kind of is one, isn’t it? It’s exicting and always leaves you wanting more. If you’re planning on writing a spy thriller or a historical fiction about WWII, and you’re looking for good books for your research, put Intercept on you list!
Corera covers everything from cable cutting in WWI, to the cracking of the Enigma code in WWII, all the way through the Cold War to the present day with Chinese and Russian governments spying on the Western world, and the NSA spying on its own citizens.
It’s impressive how well-researched this book is; how anal the author is about details, fact-checking and getting the history right. I mean, if you’re into that sort of thing.
It’s written from the point of view of Great Britain and USA, and Russia and China automatically become “the bad guys”, but the narrative is still pretty well-balanced. We follow the major developments in the West, but it doesn’t take away from the objectivity all that much. That’s the great thing about relying on facts and documents to tell your story: what’s there is there and you can make your own conclusions about who’s the good guy and who’s the villain.
I’m just throwing it out there: Intercept should be required reading for everyone who is active on social media. Perhaps a sort of Cyberspying for Dummies, wouldn’t be a bad idea. And it could have these little chapters titled, “This is how spies can use internet to gather information” and “This is how the NSA can use your meta data for their own purposes without you even knowing!”.
The parts about the World Wars and the Cold War have a certain touch of romanticism to them, or is it just me who’s projecting from countless war movies? But the most exciting and – let’s face it – disturbing part starts with the dawn of data-mining, targeted advertising, and the rise of social media. Here’s an excerpt:
When a Californian politician proposed a law to opt out of such targeted advertising, she was approached by Page and Brin (creators of Google). She later recounted the encounter in a PBS TV documentary:
“All of a sudden, Sergey started talking to me. He said, ‘Senator, how would you feel if a robot went into your home and read your diary and read your financial records, read your love letters, read everything, but before leaving the house, it imploded?’ And he said, ‘That’s not violating privacy.’ I immediately said, ‘ Of course it is. Yes, it is.’ And he said, ‘No it isn’t. Nothing’s kept. Nobody knows about it.’ I said, ‘That robot has read everything. Does that robot know if I’m sad or if I’m feeling fear, or what’s happening?’ And he looked at me and he said, ‘Oh, no. That robot knows a lot more than that.”
aliensupersoldier's review against another edition
5.0
More reviews and bookish rants on my blog, Dinara Tengri
It took me forever to finish Intercept due to it being packed with facts, names, dates and all this tech jargon that my poor non-technical brain was having a helluva time processing. I am just now learning about things SEO-optimization, and struggling with the most basic HTML-coding and here I am reading about encryption, “trapdoors”, and “upstream collection”.
But don’t let this tech jargon scare you! This book reads like a historical spy thriller. It kind of is one, isn’t it? It’s exicting and always leaves you wanting more. If you’re planning on writing a spy thriller or a historical fiction about WWII, and you’re looking for good books for your research, put Intercept on you list!
Corera covers everything from cable cutting in WWI, to the cracking of the Enigma code in WWII, all the way through the Cold War to the present day with Chinese and Russian governments spying on the Western world, and the NSA spying on its own citizens.
It’s impressive how well-researched this book is; how anal the author is about details, fact-checking and getting the history right. I mean, if you’re into that sort of thing.
It’s written from the point of view of Great Britain and USA, and Russia and China automatically become “the bad guys”, but the narrative is still pretty well-balanced. We follow the major developments in the West, but it doesn’t take away from the objectivity all that much. That’s the great thing about relying on facts and documents to tell your story: what’s there is there and you can make your own conclusions about who’s the good guy and who’s the villain.
I’m just throwing it out there: Intercept should be required reading for everyone who is active on social media. Perhaps a sort of Cyberspying for Dummies, wouldn’t be a bad idea. And it could have these little chapters titled, “This is how spies can use internet to gather information” and “This is how the NSA can use your meta data for their own purposes without you even knowing!”.
The parts about the World Wars and the Cold War have a certain touch of romanticism to them, or is it just me who’s projecting from countless war movies? But the most exciting and – let’s face it – disturbing part starts with the dawn of data-mining, targeted advertising, and the rise of social media. Here’s an excerpt:
When a Californian politician proposed a law to opt out of such targeted advertising, she was approached by Page and Brin (creators of Google). She later recounted the encounter in a PBS TV documentary:
“All of a sudden, Sergey started talking to me. He said, ‘Senator, how would you feel if a robot went into your home and read your diary and read your financial records, read your love letters, read everything, but before leaving the house, it imploded?’ And he said, ‘That’s not violating privacy.’ I immediately said, ‘ Of course it is. Yes, it is.’ And he said, ‘No it isn’t. Nothing’s kept. Nobody knows about it.’ I said, ‘That robot has read everything. Does that robot know if I’m sad or if I’m feeling fear, or what’s happening?’ And he looked at me and he said, ‘Oh, no. That robot knows a lot more than that.”
It took me forever to finish Intercept due to it being packed with facts, names, dates and all this tech jargon that my poor non-technical brain was having a helluva time processing. I am just now learning about things SEO-optimization, and struggling with the most basic HTML-coding and here I am reading about encryption, “trapdoors”, and “upstream collection”.
But don’t let this tech jargon scare you! This book reads like a historical spy thriller. It kind of is one, isn’t it? It’s exicting and always leaves you wanting more. If you’re planning on writing a spy thriller or a historical fiction about WWII, and you’re looking for good books for your research, put Intercept on you list!
Corera covers everything from cable cutting in WWI, to the cracking of the Enigma code in WWII, all the way through the Cold War to the present day with Chinese and Russian governments spying on the Western world, and the NSA spying on its own citizens.
It’s impressive how well-researched this book is; how anal the author is about details, fact-checking and getting the history right. I mean, if you’re into that sort of thing.
It’s written from the point of view of Great Britain and USA, and Russia and China automatically become “the bad guys”, but the narrative is still pretty well-balanced. We follow the major developments in the West, but it doesn’t take away from the objectivity all that much. That’s the great thing about relying on facts and documents to tell your story: what’s there is there and you can make your own conclusions about who’s the good guy and who’s the villain.
I’m just throwing it out there: Intercept should be required reading for everyone who is active on social media. Perhaps a sort of Cyberspying for Dummies, wouldn’t be a bad idea. And it could have these little chapters titled, “This is how spies can use internet to gather information” and “This is how the NSA can use your meta data for their own purposes without you even knowing!”.
The parts about the World Wars and the Cold War have a certain touch of romanticism to them, or is it just me who’s projecting from countless war movies? But the most exciting and – let’s face it – disturbing part starts with the dawn of data-mining, targeted advertising, and the rise of social media. Here’s an excerpt:
When a Californian politician proposed a law to opt out of such targeted advertising, she was approached by Page and Brin (creators of Google). She later recounted the encounter in a PBS TV documentary:
“All of a sudden, Sergey started talking to me. He said, ‘Senator, how would you feel if a robot went into your home and read your diary and read your financial records, read your love letters, read everything, but before leaving the house, it imploded?’ And he said, ‘That’s not violating privacy.’ I immediately said, ‘ Of course it is. Yes, it is.’ And he said, ‘No it isn’t. Nothing’s kept. Nobody knows about it.’ I said, ‘That robot has read everything. Does that robot know if I’m sad or if I’m feeling fear, or what’s happening?’ And he looked at me and he said, ‘Oh, no. That robot knows a lot more than that.”
davidr's review against another edition
4.0
This is a comprehensive history of spying in the age of technology. Without giving a clue about his political persuasion, and without giving a clue about his personal opinions, Corera objectively spells out the battles going on between spies, hackers, governments, citizens and corporations. While reading this book, I was never sure which portions of the book were revelatory, and which portions were simply summarizing facts that were already in the public domain. Nevertheless, Corera paints an amazing picture of the forces behind spying in the digital world.
The book gives a strong emphasis to the efforts of the British in cryptography. The amazing story behind the breaking of the Enigma code is well known. Not so well known are the other code-breaking activities that occurred before, during, and after World War II.
One thing I had never given much thought to, is he dilemma between offense and defense. This is the problem that spy agencies want to break the secret codes of others, while simultaneously protecting their own secrets. The technical methods used to encrypt and decrypt texts seem to imply that you cannot have it both ways--you cannot make your own messages perfectly safe, if you want to guarantee access to decrypt the messages of your adversaries.
The book covers not only the code-breaking activities of governments, but the hacking into corporate computers. Governments seem not to worry about this too much, but perhaps they should. A country's economy is built upon corporations, and if their data is not safe, then how safe can an economy be from malicious tampering?
The book gives a strong emphasis to the efforts of the British in cryptography. The amazing story behind the breaking of the Enigma code is well known. Not so well known are the other code-breaking activities that occurred before, during, and after World War II.
One thing I had never given much thought to, is he dilemma between offense and defense. This is the problem that spy agencies want to break the secret codes of others, while simultaneously protecting their own secrets. The technical methods used to encrypt and decrypt texts seem to imply that you cannot have it both ways--you cannot make your own messages perfectly safe, if you want to guarantee access to decrypt the messages of your adversaries.
The book covers not only the code-breaking activities of governments, but the hacking into corporate computers. Governments seem not to worry about this too much, but perhaps they should. A country's economy is built upon corporations, and if their data is not safe, then how safe can an economy be from malicious tampering?
leok's review against another edition
5.0
Just finished the book and now I need to find my tin foil had and make my house into a large faraday cage. j/k
Very interesting book, helped fill in some blanks on cyber projects and the rational behind their implementation. Book is lengthy and a bit of a chore to read, but if you bare with it, you will not be disappointed. That is, if you're interested in the subject.
Very interesting book, helped fill in some blanks on cyber projects and the rational behind their implementation. Book is lengthy and a bit of a chore to read, but if you bare with it, you will not be disappointed. That is, if you're interested in the subject.