It is fair to suggest that there are two types of “cyber war” affecting our ever-connected society. The first is the most commonly known, whether it is hackers and virus makers, Internet freedoms and identity theft or security issues. The less known form is the actions of nation states, who are seeking to restrict and control access domestically whilst aggressively seeking to ready itself for possible economic and military action by cyber means against future foes. It is the latter that the authors are focussing on in this fairly academic work.
On one hand many governments are advocating Internet freedoms and greater connectedness in other countries, yet what are their real motives? Are democracy and humanitarian considerations being overridden by economic, geopolitical and military considerations? It might be easier to say one thing whilst doing something entirely different…
U.S. foreign policy is considered along with the information-industrial complex and examination is made about the information-gathering powers of companies such as Google and how our freedom, or perception thereof, is actualised in a surveillance society where recording everything and anything is cheap and joining the dots to build a detailed dossier on a subject is an increasingly trivial task. Whether the information is being gathered by a government against a dissident or by a large corporation about a store customer, the depth and breadth of information collation can be amazing. If you don’t believe this (and you belong to the vast majority of people who have not enabled a blocking option) request your search history from Google or your search engine of choice. Each and every line of every search spread over time can reveal a shocking insight into your behaviour. This is just one data point. Government bodies don’t necessary have a check box where you can elect for “no data collection” as well. Naturally the user has to trust the big company if it says that by checking this box, we won’t store any data about you. No doubt lawyers could pore over a privacy policy and keep themselves in work for many years.
Certainly this was an interesting, thought-provoking read although it is not something you would describe as being a lightweight work. It would have been nice if the book could have been a little more accessible for the average, non-academic reader as it covers a serious subject that deserves a wider audience. For the academic, as you would expect, the book features a very comprehensive index and extensive reference sources.
It was an interesting, challenging read that is likely to stand the test of time and become a classic work.
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