Reviews
Kaplan dives into a topic which could end up being just as transformational to national security affairs as the nuclear age was. The book opens fast and builds from there, providing insights from research that even professionals directly involved in cyber operations will not have gleaned. . . . You will love this book., "The best available history of the U.S. government's secret use of both cyber spying, and efforts to use its computer prowess for more aggressive attacks. . . . Contains a number of fascinating, little-known stories about the National Security Agency and other secret units of the U.S. military and intelligence community. . . . An especially valuable addition to the debate." , A very in-depth work... its content is enlightening and intelligent and the secrets it uncovers are astounding., Peppered with Many Fascinating Behind-The-Scenes Anecdotes . . . a Readable and Informative History., The best available history of the U.S. government's secret use of both cyber spying, and efforts to use its computer prowess for more aggressive attacks. . . . Contains a number of fascinating, little-known stories about the National Security Agency and other secret units of the U.S. military and intelligence community. . . . An especially valuable addition to the debate., "A consistently eye-opening history of our government's efforts to effectively manage our national security in the face of the largely open global communications network established by the World Wide Web. . . . The great strengths of Dark Territory . . . are the depth of its reporting and the breadth of its ambition. . . . The result is not just a page-turner but consistently surprising. . . . One of the most important themes that emerges from Mr. Kaplan's nuanced narrative is the extent to which defense and offense are very much two sides of the same coin. . . . The biggest surprise of Dark Territory is the identity of the most prominent domestic heroes and villains in the "secret history." . . . Dark Territory is the rare tome that leaves the reader feeling generally good about their civilian and military leadership.", Dark Territory offers thrilling insights into high-level politics, eccentric computer hackers and information warfare. In 15 chapters--some of them named after classified codenames and official (and unofficial) hacking exercises--Kaplan has encapsulated the past, present and future of cyber war., Excellent and devastating . . . Go, please, and buy Kaplan's book. His great work deserves attention and reward., Fascinating . . . To understand how deeply we have drifted into legally and politically uncharted waters, read Kaplan's new book, Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War ., An absorbing work . . . The story of the remarkable civilians who developed the novel field of nuclear strategy-men such as Bernard Brodie, William Kaufmann, Albert Wohlstetter, and Herman Kahn-is told admirably well. Even those who are familiar with this story will find fascinating details here., One of the very best books ever written about the American military in the era of small wars . . . Fred Kaplan brings a formidable talent for writing intellectual history., Everyone has heard the term 'cyber warfare.' Very few people could explain exactly what it means and why it matters. Dark Territory solves that problem with an account that is both fascinating and authoritative. Fred Kaplan has put the people, the technologies, the dramatic turning points, and the strategic and economic stakes together in a way no author has done before., Revealing. . . . On a vital current-events topic, the well-connected Kaplan's well-sourced history gives readers much to ponder., Worthy of any spy thriller. . . a strong narrative flow . . . impressivelydetailed . . . deeplyrelevant . . . vital., Praise for The Insurgents : "Thrilling reading . . . A fascinating history . . . The Insurgents proceeds like a whodunit . . . An authoritative, gripping and somewhat terrifying account of how the American military approached two major wars in the combustible Islamic world . . . There is no one better equipped to tell the story than Fred Kaplan, a rare combination of defense intellectual and pugnacious reporter . . . He brings genuine expertise to his fine storytelling.", An important, disturbing, and gripping history arguing convincingly that, as of 2015, no defense exists against a resourceful cyberattack., Jarring . . . a rich, behind-the-headlines history of our government's efforts to make policy for the jaw-dropping vulnerabilities of our ever-increasing dependence on computers. . . . Kaplan renders a vivid account of the long struggle waged by presidents, bureaucrats, generals, private-sector CEOs, and privacy advocates . . . Kaplan enjoys considerable credibility in defense circles, but he guides us through the dark territory of cyber conflict with an omniscient-narrator voice reminiscent of Bob Woodward's behind-the-scenes books. . . . Today, Kaplan argues, it is precisely U.S. pre-eminence in the network connectivity that makes us the most vulnerable target in the world to cyber sabotage., Dark Territory captures the troubling but engrossing narrative of America's struggle to both exploit the opportunities and defend against the risks of a new era of global cyber-insecurity. Assiduously and industriously reported. . . . Kaplan recapitulates one hack after another, building a portrait of bewildering systemic insecurity in the cyber domain. . . . One of the deep insights of Dark Territory is the historical understanding by both theorists and practitioners that cybersecurity is a dynamic game of offense and defense, each function oscillating in perpetual competition., Dark Territory is a remarkable piece of reporting. Fred Kaplan has illuminated not merely the profound vulnerabilities of our nation to cyber warfare, but why it has taken so long for our policy-makers to translate indifference into concern and concern into action. This is a vitally important book by a meticulous journalist., Fred Kaplan has long been one of our most incisive thinkers about strategic issues. In this provocative book, he challenges many of our assumptions about the post-9/11 world and offers a dose of realism about the way the world actually works after the end of the Cold War. It's a bracing read., It's not easy to write an engaging book on cyberwar, and Kaplan, a national security columnist at Slate, has done an admirable job. He presents a clear account of the United States' evolution into a formidable cyberpower, guiding the reader through a thicket of technical details and government acronyms., Fascinating . . . It contains much that is not only new but stunning about the nation's official thinking and planning for nuclear war., Fred Kaplan's Dark Territory may become a classic reference for scholars and students seeking to understand the complicated people who ushered the United States into the cyber-conflict era and the tough decisions they made., Pulitzer-prizewinning journalist Fred Kaplan's taut, urgent history traces the dual trajectory of digital surveillance and intervention, and high-level US policy from the 1980s on., Chilling . . . Kaplan is one of America's leading writers on national security, and his accounts of cyberattacks are gripping . . . assiduously researched., Comprehensively reported history . . . The book's central question is how should we think about war, retaliation, and defense when our technologically advanced reliance on computers is also our greatest vulnerability?
