Cyber Arms

This book will raise awareness on emerging challenges of AIempowered cyber arms used in weapon systems and stockpiled in the global cyber arms race. Based on real life events, it provides a comprehensive analysis of cyber offensive and defensive landscape, analyses the cyber arms evolution from prank malicious codes into lethal weapons of mass destruction, reveals the scale of cyber offensive conflicts, explores cyber warfare mutation, warns about cyber arms race escalation and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for military purposes. It provides an expert insight into the current and future malicious and destructive use of the evolved cyber arms, AI and robotics, with emphasis on cyber threats to CBRNe and critical infrastructure. The book highlights international efforts in regulating the cyber environment, reviews the best practices of the leading cyber powers and their controversial approaches, recommends responsible state behaviour. It also proposes information security and cyber defence solutions and provides definitions for selected conflicting cyber terms. The disruptive potential of cyber tools merging with military weapons is examined from the technical point of view, as well as legal, ethical, and political perspectives.

There is little doubt that cyber-space has become the battle space for confrontations. However, to conduct cyber operations, a new armory of weapons needs to be employed. No matter how many, or how sophisticated an aggressor’s kinetic weapons are, they are useless in cyber-space. This book looks at the milieu of the cyber weapons industry, as well as the belligerents who use cyber weapons. It discusses what distinguishes these hardware devices and software programs from computer science in general. It does this by focusing on specific aspects of the topic—contextual issues of why cyber-space is the new battleground, defensive cyber weapons, offensive cyber weapons, dual-use weapons, and the implications these weapons systems have for practice. Contrary to popular opinion, the use of cyber weapons is not limited to nation states; though this is where the bulk of news reporting focuses. The reality is that there isn’t a sector of the political-economy that is immune to cyber skirmishes. So, this book looks at cyber weapons not only by national security agencies and the military, but also by law enforcement, and the business sector—the latter includes administrations termed non-government organisations (NGOs). This book offers study material suitable for a wide-ranging audience—students, professionals, researchers, policy officers, and ICT specialists.

NOW AN HBO® DOCUMENTARY FROM AWARD-WINNING DIRECTOR JOHN MAGGIO • “An important—and deeply sobering—new book about cyberwarfare” (Nicholas Kristof, New York Times), now updated with a new chapter. The Perfect Weapon is the startling inside story of how the rise of cyberweapons transformed geopolitics like nothing since the invention of the atomic bomb. Cheap to acquire, easy to deny, and usable for a variety of malicious purposes, cyber is now the weapon of choice for democracies, dictators, and terrorists. Two presidents—Bush and Obama—drew first blood with Operation Olympic Games, which used malicious code to blow up Iran’s nuclear centrifuges, and yet America proved remarkably unprepared when its own weapons were stolen from its arsenal and, during President Trump’s first year, turned back on the United States and its allies. And if Obama would begin his presidency by helping to launch the new era of cyberwar, he would end it struggling unsuccessfully to defend the 2016 U.S. election from interference by Russia, with Vladimir Putin drawing on the same playbook he used to destabilize Ukraine. Moving from the White House Situation Room to the dens of Chinese government hackers to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley, New York Times national security correspondent David Sanger reveals a world coming face-to-face with the perils of technological revolution, where everyone is a target. “Timely and bracing . . . With the deep knowledge and bright clarity that have long characterized his work, Sanger recounts the cunning and dangerous development of cyberspace into the global battlefield of the twenty-first century.”—Washington Post

WINNER OF THE FT & McKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2021 The instant New York Times bestseller A Financial Times and The Times Book of the Year 'A terrifying exposé' The Times 'Part John le Carré . . . Spellbinding' New Yorker We plug in anything we can to the internet. We can control our entire lives, economy and grid via a remote web control. But over the past decade, as this transformation took place, we never paused to think that we were also creating the world's largest attack surface. And that the same nation that maintains the greatest cyber advantage on earth could also be among its most vulnerable. Filled with spies, hackers, arms dealers and a few unsung heroes, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends is an astonishing and gripping feat of journalism. Drawing on years of reporting and hundreds of interviews, Nicole Perlroth lifts the curtain on a market in shadow, revealing the urgent threat faced by us all if we cannot bring the global cyber arms race to heel.

The technology controlling United States nuclear weapons predates the Internet. Updating the technology for the digital era is necessary, but it comes with the risk that anything digital can be hacked. Moreover, using new systems for both nuclear and non-nuclear operations will lead to levels of nuclear risk hardly imagined before. This book is the first to confront these risks comprehensively. With Cyber Threats and Nuclear Weapons, Herbert Lin provides a clear-eyed breakdown of the cyber risks to the U.S. nuclear enterprise. Featuring a series of scenarios that clarify the intersection of cyber and nuclear risk, this book guides readers through a little-understood element of the risk profile that government decision-makers should be anticipating. What might have happened if the Cuban Missile Crisis took place in the age of Twitter, with unvetted information swirling around? What if an adversary announced that malware had compromised nuclear systems, clouding the confidence of nuclear decision-makers? Cyber Threats and Nuclear Weapons, the first book to consider cyber risks across the entire nuclear enterprise, concludes with crucial advice on how government can manage the tensions between new nuclear capabilities and increasing cyber risk. This is an invaluable handbook for those ready to confront the unique challenges of cyber nuclear risk.

A fresh and refined appraisal of today's top cyber threats

"The book you are about to read will arm you with the knowledge you need to defend your network from attackers—both the obvious and the not so obvious.... If you are new to network security, don't put this book back on the shelf! This is a great book for beginners and I wish I had access to it many years ago. If you've learned the basics of TCP/IP protocols and run an open source or commercial IDS, you may be asking 'What's next?' If so, this book is for you." —Ron Gula, founder and CTO, Tenable Network Security, from the Foreword "Richard Bejtlich has a good perspective on Internet security—one that is orderly and practical at the same time. He keeps readers grounded and addresses the fundamentals in an accessible way." —Marcus Ranum, TruSecure "This book is not about security or network monitoring: It's about both, and in reality these are two aspects of the same problem. You can easily find people who are security experts or network monitors, but this book explains how to master both topics." —Luca Deri, ntop.org "This book will enable security professionals of all skill sets to improve their understanding of what it takes to set up, maintain, and utilize a successful network intrusion detection strategy." —Kirby Kuehl, Cisco Systems Every network can be compromised. There are too many systems, offering too many services, running too many flawed applications. No amount of careful coding, patch management, or access control can keep out every attacker. If prevention eventually fails, how do you prepare for the intrusions that will eventually happen? Network security monitoring (NSM) equips security staff to deal with the inevitable consequences of too few resources and too many responsibilities. NSM collects the data needed to generate better assessment, detection, and response processes—resulting in decreased impact from unauthorized activities. In The Tao of Network Security Monitoring , Richard Bejtlich explores the products, people, and processes that implement the NSM model. By focusing on case studies and the application of open source tools, he helps you gain hands-on knowledge of how to better defend networks and how to mitigate damage from security incidents. Inside, you will find in-depth information on the following areas. The NSM operational framework and deployment considerations. How to use a variety of open-source tools—including Sguil, Argus, and Ethereal—to mine network traffic for full content, session, statistical, and alert data. Best practices for conducting emergency NSM in an incident response scenario, evaluating monitoring vendors, and deploying an NSM architecture. Developing and applying knowledge of weapons, tactics, telecommunications, system administration, scripting, and programming for NSM. The best tools for generating arbitrary packets, exploiting flaws, manipulating traffic, and conducting reconnaissance. Whether you are new to network intrusion detection and incident response, or a computer-security veteran, this book will enable you to quickly develop and apply the skills needed to detect, prevent, and respond to new and emerging threats.

This Research Handbook provides a rigorous analysis of cyberwarfare, a widely misunderstood field of contemporary conflict and geopolitical competition. Gathering insights from leading scholars and practitioners, it examines the actors involved in cyberwarfare, their objectives and strategies, and scrutinises the impact of cyberwarfare in a world dependent on connectivity.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Winner of the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award * Bronze Medal, Arthur Ross Book Award (Council on Foreign Relations) "Written in the hot, propulsive prose of a spy thriller" (The New York Times), the untold story of the cyberweapons market-the most secretive, government-backed market on earth-and a terrifying first look at a new kind of global warfare. Zero-day: a software bug that allows a hacker to break into your devices and move around undetected. One of the most coveted tools in a spy's arsenal, a zero-day has the power to silently spy on your iPhone, dismantle the safety controls at a chemical plant, alter an election, and shut down the electric grid (just ask Ukraine). For decades, under cover of classification levels and nondisclosure agreements, the United States government became the world's dominant hoarder of zero-days. U.S. government agents paid top dollar-first thousands, and later millions of dollars-to hackers willing to sell their lock-picking code and their silence. Then the United States lost control of its hoard and the market. Now those zero-days are in the hands of hostile nations and mercenaries who do not care if your vote goes missing, your clean water is contaminated, or our nuclear plants melt down. Filled with spies, hackers, arms dealers, and a few unsung heroes, written like a thriller and a reference, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends is an astonishing feat of journalism. Based on years of reporting and hundreds of interviews, Nicole Perlroth lifts the curtain on a market in shadow, revealing the urgent threat faced by us all if we cannot bring the global cyberarms race to heel.

Are nuclear arsenals safe from cyber-attack? Could terrorists launch a nuclear weapon through hacking? Are we standing at the edge of a major technological challenge to global nuclear order? These are among the many pressing security questions addressed in Andrew Futter’s ground-breaking study of the cyber threat to nuclear weapons. Hacking the Bomb provides the first ever comprehensive assessment of this worrying and little-understood strategic development, and it explains how myriad new cyber challenges will impact the way that the world thinks about and manages the ultimate weapon. The book cuts through the hype surrounding the cyber phenomenon and provides a framework through which to understand and proactively address the implications of the emerging cyber-nuclear nexus. It does this by tracing the cyber challenge right across the nuclear weapons enterprise, explains the important differences between types of cyber threats, and unpacks how cyber capabilities will impact strategic thinking, nuclear balances, deterrence thinking, and crisis management. The book makes the case for restraint in the cyber realm when it comes to nuclear weapons given the considerable risks of commingling weapons of mass disruption with weapons of mass destruction, and argues against establishing a dangerous norm of “hacking the bomb.” This timely book provides a starting point for an essential discussion about the challenges associated with the cyber-nuclear nexus, and will be of great interest to scholars and students of security studies as well as defense practitioners and policy makers.