The Darkening Web: The War for Cyberspace

by Alexander Klimburg

“A prescient and important book. . . . Fascinating.”— The New York Review of Books


No single invention of the last half century has changed the way we live now as much as the Internet. Alexander Klimburg was a member of the generation for whom it was a utopian ideal turned a place where ideas, information, and knowledge could be shared and new freedoms found and enjoyed. Two decades later, the future isn’t so bright any increasingly, the Internet is used as a weapon and a means of domination by states eager to exploit or curtail global connectivity in order to further their national interests.
 
Klimburg is a leading voice in the conversation on the implications of this dangerous shift, and in The Darkening Web , he explains why we underestimate the consequences of states’ ambitions to project power in cyberspace at our Not only have hacking and cyber operations fundamentally changed the nature of political conflict—ensnaring states in a struggle to maintain a precarious peace that could rapidly collapse into all-out war—but the rise of covert influencing and information warfare has enabled these same global powers to create and disseminate their own distorted versions of reality in which anything is possible. At stake are not only our personal data or the electrical grid, but the Internet as we know it today—and with it the very existence of open and democratic societies.
 
Blending anecdote with argument, Klimburg brings us face-to-face with the range of threats the struggle for cyberspace presents, from an apocalyptic scenario of debilitated civilian infrastructure to a 1984 -like erosion of privacy and freedom of expression. Focusing on different approaches to cyber-conflict in the US, Russia and China, he reveals the extent to which the battle for control of the Internet is as complex and perilous as the one surrounding nuclear weapons during the Cold War—and quite possibly as dangerous for humanity as a whole.

Authoritative, thought-provoking, and compellingly argued, The Darkening Web makes clear that the debate about the different aspirations for cyberspace is nothing short of a war over our global values.

Genres: Nonfiction, Technology, Politics, History, Internet, Audiobook, Computers

448 pages, Paperback

Published July 10, 2018

Reviews

[11811 (Eleven) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's the jist. Enemies take down our connectivity unless we preemptively take it down ourselves. Either way, everyone loses. The future is bleak and we are all fucked.

Recommended to fans of apocalyptic nonfiction. This is almost better than the Terminator films.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eye-opening account of what's really happening out there in cyberspace. I found this book to be very educational. I never fully grasped how complicated the Internet actually is until I read this book. The author makes the argument that governing the Internet is actually the most important issue facing the technology community today. He supports his thesis with a slew of examples of the close calls that have happened over the years. And many of these were never made public. A very good read.

[Eustacia Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book feels like something that I might have been made to read in one of my tutorials, which is probably why I requested it from Netgalley.

The Darkening Web is basically a book that explains the various aspects of cyberspace and why we are all vulnerable. Seriously, if this doesn't make you paranoid and/or give up on privacy on the internet, you probably haven't read this.

This book covers the basics of cyber security, hackers, the US's history and stance on cyber security, cyber attacks by Russia and China (seriously these two countries are insane. I find China scarier but that's probably it's closer to me), and what may happen in the future. Each topic gets about three chapters of its own, with the exception of the first part.

The book does go into the basics of the internet, but I think that if you don't have a basic knowledge of the end-2-end principal (which is basically net neutrality aka all websites are treated equally) or other web fundamentals, you may find it a little hard to keep up. By the way, this is one of the scenarios that may happen:

If the free internet and the cyber-sovereignty factions cannot find a workable detente, then the best we can hope for is the splitting of the global Internet into wholly national Internets, potentially even complete with their own routing and address structure. In truth, we are already halfway there: as research by the Internet pioneer (and senior Google executive) Vin Cerf and others show, the global Internet is already largely split into different identifiable segments.

What this basically means that if we continue on the current path, with the Great Firewall, Russia stepping up its cyber-attacks and much more, we could end up in our own little silos, which is even worse than what is going on now (and it's not very good now either). And this is the not-so-bad scenario (out of the bad scenarios). Worse scenarios could involve the state using the internet to spy on citizens and change their behaviour.

If you don't think that this could happen (or is just a Chinese sci-fi story - read something similar last year), well, in 2015, there was a report saying that the Chinese government is planning to introduce a mandatory social-credit scheme in 2020. But there's only one directive now so hopefully this doesn't come to pass (and the one directive is that this is to 'foster a culture of sincerity' which sounds a lot like 'influencing behaviour' to me).

This could be worse than Stomp.

In conclusion, this is a tough read, made harder by the fact that it's topical and with no real overarching narrative that I could see. It does, however, cover an important issue that applies to all of us on the internet, and for that alone, I'd recommend everyone borrow/buy a copy and read as much as they understand.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

This review was first posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some bright spots. He's excellent when evaluating the complicated relationship between Russian government and non-government entities, discussing China's recent drawdown, describing differences in technique for known actors, and especially when theorizing about motivations for each actor's posture. But it took him a looong time to get there ... it felt like there was more background and buildup than thesis, most of which will already be familiar to those in the field.

Some passages for my memory banks:
pg. 16 - Analysis of two purposes for Russia's propaganda efforts: 1) it undermines stability of liberal democracies (well-covered in the press) and 2) justifies censorship of 'destabilizing' content for users in Russia

pg. 28 - A useful breakdown of 'cyber' into 4 layers: hardware, logic (protocols and programs), data (documents and content), social (people and human interactions)

pg. 126 - "These nations [China, Russia, others] consider cyber a means to control and influence populations, rather than simply an expansion of the conventional tool kit of war and espionage. The most important 'cyberattack' skill may therefore not be measured in the sophistication of your hackers, but rather in the cunning and reach of your propagandists.

pg. 145 - Deterrence of cyberattacks requires attribution. At times the US publicizes attribution to signal capabilities and reinforce deterrence for other actors.

pg. 247 - Russian efforts to pass off attack on French as 'cyber terrorism'. They encourage discussion and news about cyber terrorism to provide a "pretext to target all types of dissidents, including pro-democracy activists."

pg. 250 - "[Russia's] only logical course of action is therefore not to compete with the United States and the West but somehow to catastrophically weaken them -- and therefore raise Russia's own relative power."

pg. 254 - on the 'Great Firewall'. "It is of dubious primary utility; that is, it isn't at all clear that it is especially effective in doing its stated job. I is a very visible instrument of political power, however, intended to remind the population of the powers that be."

pg. 282 - on routine theft of intellectual property by Chinese actors. "I consider it completely plausible that bulk IP theft was simply the cost of maintaining the large tier 3 forces, which obviously needed to be supported somehow: if they weren't, after all, they might have turned to cyber crime against Chinese targets or even antistate activities."

[Ailith Twinning · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite interesting, but this guy's zealotry vis-a-vis "Liberal Democracies", "The West", "International Law" and the US -- while treating China and Russia as aberrant and evil is just. . . just. . .depressing.

"The US would never break International Law and commit an act of war or otherwise a cyberattack worthy as Cassus Beli to a foreign power, it would undermine Democracy! And at any rate, if we did do something like that, like we did in WWII, it would be purely in extremis and never normal at all!"

Meanwhile, in every Senator's staff pool: "Have we started that viral campaign against our opponent, Russia, gay rights and abortion yet? Get on that."

Meanwhile at the NSA: "Just what the fuck are supposed to DO with all this anyway? You realize that if you run enough tests against enough data you approach absolute certainty of 'positives' right? I could put any parameters at all in here and we'd get our 'terrorist'." ---- "Yeah, you're fired. Henry, take over this station and do the damn job."

Fucking depressing.

[Tadas Talaikis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book's rating's hacked :-D

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really interesting book - not sure I understood all of it, but lots of research, info and opinions in these pages. The author seemed very knowledgable and offered up some (albeit very grandiose) ways of dealing with cyber security/crime...etc.

[Sally]

NPR interview 7-11-17

[Fred Pierre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Klimburg brings extensive knowledge of military cyberwarfare to promote his thesis that our leaders don't fully understand the implications of current cyber-policy. Grappling with the terms used to describe cybersecurity and information warfare (including the "cyber" prefix), Klimburg suggests new terminology and new policy that de-emphasizes political propaganda and the equation of militarism with cyber-nationalism. He promotes civil society solutions to internet problems, describing in detail the development of the internet through its international management agencies.

Of course the internet and its agencies are strongly correlated with the United States because internet protocols were largely developed here, but the institutions are truly international, and we can no longer control the entire internet, even if we do hold cyberweapons that could destroy it. Our cyberthreat to the rest of the world cannot be exaggerated, which means other nations work harder than we do on information warfare, attack software and political manipulation to respond to the perceived cyber-threat of U.S. dominance. How do we create a level playing field where we don't turn cyberthreats into real-life war? Kilmburg works as a director at the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. His insight into military psy-ops lets him present practical alternatives to the current cyber arms race.

The book also looks into Chinese and Russian control mechanisms, including the "Great Firewall of China" that allow their governments to control internet content and head off criticism of the government. Klimburg warns about a "social credit score" that could be used to discriminate against those critical of the government. China plans to roll out such a reputation score in the next three years. But do facebook and google already know your social credit score? Who can buy and sell your social profile, and how can it be used to manipulate you politically and financially?

This book is a deep, serious read, full of valuable insight and information regarding our cyber-future. Even if you can't make it through the whole book, it's worth reading key chapters to understand the internet-connected world that we live in.

[MD · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very dense reading - sentences are often 3 lines long or longer and it probably averages somewhere around 2 paragraphs per page. Thirty pages in I put it down in favor of Countdown to Zero Day which seemed to have significant overlap and was much more readable. (It was very good. I’m glad I read it.) Then I tried this one again to see whether I wanted to finish it or give up on it. It turned out to be more dissimilar than I thought it would be.

The Darkening Web is written from the perspective of a political science pundit rather than an information security technology expert (which was what I'd expected). In fact there are a couple of technology-related misstatements that even I recognized. On page 94 he identifies Mosaic as the first web browser. Well no, it was the first *graphical* web browser. Before Mosaic there were at least two other web browsers, the CERN browser and Lynx. On page 144 he says the .gov domain "amounts to all to all of the [US] federal government's cyber presence except the Department of Defense." Well no, try fs.fed.us.

So... political science. Well, his discussion of the different perspective Russia, in particular, has regarding "information security" did help me better understand the activity that's been going on regarding fake news, election influence/tampering, etc. But mostly this seems to be a manifesto on how he thinks the Internet should be structured and governed.

I would recommend to: Senate Intelligence Committee, Facebook

[Joseph Carrabis · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Darkening Web may be an interesting/entertaining read for people unfamiliar with the material. I started working on DARPA back in the late 1960s-early 1970s at Lincoln Labs so have some familiarity with the history.
This book didn't do it for me. Lots of angst, lots of anxiety, lots of "oh my gosh, there are monsters under the bed" and not much "and here's what you/we/us can do about it".
One of my challenges with such content (anything, really) is "Don't tell me there's a problem unless/until you have a solution, are working on a solution, need help with a solution. But in all cases, if you say there's a problem, you better be willing to work towards a solution. Otherwise, you're just noise."
Again, this may be a good read for people unfamiliar with the material.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't a book for people with a casual interest in cybersecurity. Nor is it a book for cybersecurity people who are focused on technology. This book is for people who are wonkish about public policy.

Klimburg makes several interesting observations about the current state of public policy regarding cybersecurity. He also makes some interesting contingent predictions. But at times I found him using speculation to support some of the technical points in support of his arguments. Other times I found his technical facts to be wrong. And there's also the issue that he seems to view the United Nations specifically, and super national entities in general, as optimal institutions for addressing cybersecurity problems.

[Dorian Box · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-researched and (mostly) interestingly told tale of cyberspace hacking and espionage. I say "mostly" because it does get quite technical, which is a good thing for those who are familiar with internet protocols, infrastructure and the like, but may be a bit too difficult for regular readers to navigate. I consider this to be more of an academic text, and in that realm I would give it five stars rather than four.

[Alexis Bauer Kolak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, terryifying, and most of all, understandable. Klimburg's book provides a solid grounding for those new (oblivious?) to the threats that pervade our new cyber-political landscape, and the delicate line being walked every day to balance the freedoms that makes the internet amazing and the risks it poses to everyone. You will want to think twice every time you pick up your phone to access the Web after you finish this.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book looked good. But after renewing this 15-hour audiobook from the library multiple times, I'm only 3 hours in and still can't keep my mind on it. So I quit.

But don't take my word for it. The book seems enormously important and some gave it 5 stars.

I'll try instead the book a reviewer suggested: Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon by Kim Zetter.

[Matthew Picchietti · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's good. There is a lot of tech language that I do not understand but the basic concept is clear. It is especially scary considering the anti-intellectual, anti-science twit that sometimes occupies the White House. Thankfully I am not interesting enough, nor rich enough to worry about cyber crimes on a personal level, but the national and global probabilities are not good.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

The levels of sycophancy in this book are simply vomit inducing. Who are you? Unless you're on the government payroll there's something wrong with you. I assume this book is just an elaborate job application for your nearest authoritarian government, or as you would call it: the leaders of the free world. You are a bad person.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

To me, a casual reader, this book is very academic, perhaps too much so. That being said, the author's mastery of the subject and perceived sincerity and integrity compelled me to read on. Again from the casual reader point of view, despite the fact that at times the writing was a slog littered with acronyms, over all I thought the time reading this book was well spent.

[Blaine Morrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Klimburg provides a well-organized, clear, and informative introduction to the "cyber security" field, along with up-to-date summaries of the dangers posed by the most prolific operators. There are recommendations (a bit weak) for policy changes and future directions. One glaring defect is the lack of graphs and tables, which the author even occasionally references.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book's introduction on the structure and history of the Internet seemed too long and contained a lot of unnecessary details, with a lot of review for those in the field. It got interesting when Klimburg began discussing geopolitics with its relation to cyber, especially the discussions on Russia and China. Overall, this book was very educational, albeit slightly depressing.

[Cherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good overview of the history of the Internet with additional information about security issues. Not a huge amount of new information if you work in IT, but it is a good overview with some interesting details for someone not particularly familiar with the issues and history of the web and the 'net.

Well-researched and thorough, worth listening to/reading.

[A.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am surprised this book is rated as low as it is. Perhaps the readers are not attuned to what I've experienced and learned. This may be the best cyber book I've read from a geopolitical standpoint. The core message is about the dangers to liberal democracies of the rise of an Internet increasingly marked by state informational conflict. It certainly includes some technical information as well.

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very intensive look at the history of cyber-security and cyber-warfare. Very detailed, and at times, too much so, but it gives quite an overview of where the cyber world has been and where it could go. In many ways the events of the past few years show how this is more than just a possibility, but rather it is very much a part of the world we live in.

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book from 2017 that is still prevalent in today's world. Talks about the web and all of the changes, along with the different countries Russia, China, and of course the hackers who not only go after us the common folk but also the government and business. A good look into all of the world of cyber. I found this to be full of information. I received this book from Netgalley.com

[Andrés Blanco · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little bit repetitive

I liked the first half of the book. It presented the framework of concepts and developed the issues very clearly. However, at some point it started to get repetitive, going over the same problems/challenges over and over again.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn this book is good.

[Jenna Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was some useful info, but it was just too academic for me. And I also didn’t really care for the last 20-30 pages of his policy recommendations. I was over it by then.

[BLACK CAT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Politics of the Internet and Cybersecurity and the main players (Russia, China, USA).

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all the books and articles I’ve read on cyber issues, this one is the most authoritative and clear-headed. I hope the author will continue to write on this vital topic.

[Curt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a super captivating read, but it did give me a lot of information and education related to the politics of the web.