Few understand the devastation cyber weapons can wreak or how the United States will use them in a crisis. Security expert Richard A. Clarke goes beyond 'geek talk' to succinctly explain how cyber weapons work and how vulnerable America is to the new world of nearly untraceable cyber criminals and spies. Clarke reveals how successful foreign cyber espionage has already penetrated the Pentagon, the control systems for U.S. electric power grids, and the defense industry. While the U.S. has not yet been attacked in a full-scale cyber war, pedabytes of information have already been stolen, including advanced research in aerospace, weapons systems, biotechnology, and engineering. From the first cyber crisis meeting in the White House to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley and the tunnels under Manhattan, Clarke tells the history of the first decade of this new age and the unlikely people and places at the center of this crisis.
Based on interviews and first person accounts, this sobering story of technology, government, and military strategy involving criminals, spies, soldiers, and hackers begins the much needed public policy debate about what America's doctrine and strategy should be, not just for waging, but for preventing the First Cyber War.