Secrets of Cyberwar: “That’s How They Tell Me the World Ends” by Nicole Perlroth

For decades, the United States government has been tasked with tracking down a computer virus known as “Day Zero”which allows hackers to remotely access devices such as cell phones, laptops, smartwatches, tablets, etc., and roam freely undetected.

It is one of the most coveted tools for cyber spies because it allows them to do too much with very little. ‘Day Zero’, for hackers, means power, and for spies, it represents the possibility of dismantling extremely intense security checks in prisons, banks, museums, factories, etc., of modifying results in a government voting system and turning entire towns on or off the power grid at will.

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In years past, US government agents have paid large sums of money to those who are able to control the “zero day” virus. If the hacker proved his dominance, he had to, in exchange for a few good dollars, sell his access codes and his silence. At first for the spy agencies it was all part of another process, one of many that lead to control of an entire nation, but in the United States they lost control and the virus went spread to unexpected areas.

Currently, many of these “zero days” are in the hands of mercenaries and corrupt politicians, as well as in the realm of nations that declare war on the world from time to time. No one cares about the consequences, whether nuclear power plants are in danger, the economic system collapses, a vote is lost, or water is polluted and air quality declines.

Based on a series of reports and interviews conducted over the years, Nicole Perrothjournalist from The New York Timesdecided to pull back the curtain that covered this whole affair and reveal it in a book that guarantees that we face a fierce threat if we fail to stop the growth of a virus like the “zero day”, which every day increasingly encourages more aggressive cyberattacks.

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In “That’s how they tell me the world will end”Perlroth delves into the secrets of the cyberweapons industry, walking the path of hackers, activists, dissidents, government officials, academics, computer scientists, researchers, mercenaries, and lords of terror, whom he interviewed several times.

The book is divided into seven parts, spread over 560 pages, in the edition of the Tendencies label, which report on a series of non-linear events that reveal all this problematic of cyberattacks. Perlroth’s pen is largely descriptive and transcends the barriers of technicality, because faced with a subject as complex as this one, one runs the risk of saying a lot and not being understood at all.

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A whole decade has taken Nicole Perroth gather the necessary information and find the appropriate language to disclose this information. Her investigations led her to uncover Russian attacks on nuclear power plants, North Korea’s cyberattack on Sony Pictures, and many other scandals.

“That’s how they tell me the world will end” It was one of the best-selling books on New York Times lists, and it’s already been translated into different languages. It is a work of great journalistic rigour, which reads like the best journal of conspiratorial events, and is, at the same time as it denounces, a call to governments to rethink cybersecurity policies, since all countries are vulnerable to the idea of ​​a possible world war caused by viruses such as “zero day”.

For readers, the journey within these pages will be a vivid and fascinating moment in the shadows surrounding the control that governments exercise over societies.

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