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Latest Read: Dark Territory

Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War by Fred Kaplan. Fred is an American author and journalist currently writing at Slate and previously at The Boston Globe and has contributed to The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and Scientific American.

Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War by Fred Kaplan

He received a 1982 Pulitzer Prize for his contributions to the Boston Globe Magazine’s “War and Peace in the Nuclear Age” regarding he Soviet arms race. He holds both a Master of Science and Ph.D. in political science from MIT. His weekly “War Stories” column for Slate magazine covers international relations and U.S. foreign policy.

Fred shares that in June 1983, then President Reagan watched the movie War Games. A kid (actor Matthew Broderick) unknowingly playing with his home computer dialed into the Pentagon and controlled military computers. Reagan, a former actor requested from his military Joint Chiefs if this could actually happened. The generals confirmed it was indeed possible. And this may have started the first White House action to protect Hilary computers.

Yet it would be President George H.W. Bush who first leveraged American cyber attacks during the 1991 Gulf War invasion to shut down all military communications used by Saddam Hussein. This is the foundation Fred establishes for all future cyber wars fought by America.

How cyber entered the American military

The computing experts at the NSA and military sync with White House policymakers to manage future cyber wars. However, Fred also reveals how a third world country can increase their global status by launching their own cyber attacks.

Accordingly, there is a fair assessment of North Korea aims as he addresses the 2014 North Korean hack of Sony Pictures’ networks, computers, and servers. Yet, the ‘Suter’ attack, the code name of a clandestine US Air Force program leveraged by Israel’s cyber warfare unit known as Unit 8200. This hack simply disrupted the data link of Syrian air-defense radar systems allowing four Israeli jets to fly into Eastern Syria to bomb a nuclear reactor under development by Syrian and North Korean teams.

At the same time, Fred provides better insights regarding the NSA PRISM surveillance program that was famously leaked by Edward Snowden.

Fred discloses how both NSA and Pentagon tested and then exploited network based attacks. His next example regards the 1994 aborted invasion of Haiti. This cyber attack, more analog than digital was focused on actually shutting down all Haitian air force defense installations by jamming all telephones across Haiti.

In fact, the globalization of computers allowed millions of global citizens to begin hacking. This includes a 1998 attack noted by Fred directed at theUS military command computers caused a bit of panic. Iraq was immediately considered the source, only to find after FBI investigations that two teenagers from California were in fact responsible. This was Reagan’s War Games request coming around full circle.

Consider this an optional read

In conclusion, while I found this book interesting, it appears dated and misses other early and notable cyber attacks upon America before Reagan’s War Games.


Council on Foreign Relations | Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War
World Affairs | Fred Kaplan: Cyberwar: The Digital Battlefield
Modern War Institute | Fred Kaplan Speaks about Cyber War at West Point
Nardio | Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War
Princeton Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs | Dark Territory