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A review by richardiporter
Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow
5.0
Masha signed up to catch terrorists after they attacked her hometown and built better technology to do it than anyone else she came into contact with. Then those same tools were targeted at her childhood friend for supporting a Black Lives Matter organization.
What is patriotism? How does it differ from authoritarianism? What are the trade-offs between security and surveillance? How does someone begin by hunting terrorists for attacking their hometown and killing thousands, and end up supporting despots in former soviet failed states for cash from their massive military contracting employer? What do we do if the technology we build to catch truly bad people are inevitably turned on our friends
How much can one person influence events of a massive powerful system in which we find ourselves all swept along? When it seems the elite and powerful will always retain power is it rational to fight it? Or is it more rational to carve a space on the couch in the antechamber of power to survive between the elites and the masses?
This book asks these challenging questions. Yet it is replete with tactical guidance on patching, use of encrypted communications, checking binary transparency reports, defending against the evil maid attack on physical access with nail polish on laptop screws and photos of the patterns. The detail is dizzying. The scope is ambitious. The challenging questions are provocative.
It is easy to become overwhelmed thinking that a surveilling adversary only needs one lucky break and a defender needs to be perfect all the time. It is easy to be overwhelmed thinking the wealth and incentives of the system will always go as they've always gone.
But Doctrow through his characters educates us that the cyber-security defense is a means to an end. A tactical method to allow us the time and space to work for a world where we use our governmental systems to protect the vulnerable against the powerful. The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice... but not on its own, we have to BEND it. Crank on it relentlessly until it bends finally to justice. Tech is the amoral force that can serve either side. We must make it bend.
5 Star reviews mean I loved it, will read it again, recommend it for anyone, AND it changed my mind about something important.
What is patriotism? How does it differ from authoritarianism? What are the trade-offs between security and surveillance? How does someone begin by hunting terrorists for attacking their hometown and killing thousands, and end up supporting despots in former soviet failed states for cash from their massive military contracting employer? What do we do if the technology we build to catch truly bad people are inevitably turned on our friends
How much can one person influence events of a massive powerful system in which we find ourselves all swept along? When it seems the elite and powerful will always retain power is it rational to fight it? Or is it more rational to carve a space on the couch in the antechamber of power to survive between the elites and the masses?
This book asks these challenging questions. Yet it is replete with tactical guidance on patching, use of encrypted communications, checking binary transparency reports, defending against the evil maid attack on physical access with nail polish on laptop screws and photos of the patterns. The detail is dizzying. The scope is ambitious. The challenging questions are provocative.
It is easy to become overwhelmed thinking that a surveilling adversary only needs one lucky break and a defender needs to be perfect all the time. It is easy to be overwhelmed thinking the wealth and incentives of the system will always go as they've always gone.
But Doctrow through his characters educates us that the cyber-security defense is a means to an end. A tactical method to allow us the time and space to work for a world where we use our governmental systems to protect the vulnerable against the powerful. The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice... but not on its own, we have to BEND it. Crank on it relentlessly until it bends finally to justice. Tech is the amoral force that can serve either side. We must make it bend.
5 Star reviews mean I loved it, will read it again, recommend it for anyone, AND it changed my mind about something important.