From Wired senior writer Andy Greenberg comes the true story of the most devastating cyberattack in history and the desperate hunt to identify and track the elite Russian agents behind it.
... immensely readable ... a hair-raising, cautionary tale about the burgeoning, post-Stuxnet world of state-sponsored hackers. This is a book that goes beyond influence campaigns and ransomware. Greenberg lays out in chilling detail how future wars will be waged in cyberspace and makes the case that we have done little, as of yet, to prevent it ... In Greenberg’s capable hands, the twists and turns of the attribution process are not tech-laden and confusing, but instead become tantalizing clues in a detective story. Readers are ushered into darkened rooms where cyber-sleuths tease out bits of code and write programs to scan for malware matches, just as a detective might for fingerprints.
Andy Greenberg’s Sandworm has achieved what I thought was no longer possible: it scares me. Sandworm is the story of the Russian GRU hacking team that has evolved in a few short years into the most methodical, persistent, and destructive intelligence agency cyber warriors. After reading Sandworm you will not doubt those superlatives ... In addition to taking us on a journey of understanding of the events around multiple attacks by Sandworm, Greenberg takes a stab at answering these bigger questions. What motivates the Sandworm hackers? Why is the response from those in charge of protecting critical infrastructure so tepid? What lessons have we learned? Greenberg’s Sandworm has earned a position beside Cliff Stoll’s Cuckoo’s Egg, and Kim Zetter’s Count Down to Zero Day, both in university curricula and your bookshelf.
Greenberg took a book leave from Wired to write Sandworm, a comprehensive look at the technical, military and political stories of this new hidden war. The result is an essential guide to help us make sense of what will surely be an increasingly consequential form of military, criminal and insurgent aggression ... a work of in-depth, personal investigative journalism. [Sandberg] profiles the U.S., Russian and Ukrainian technologists and generals who are at the center of the tale, using their frustrations, fears and triumphs to humanize the very abstract business of cyberwar ... Sandworm is much more than a true-life techno-thriller. It’s a tour through a realm that is both invisible and critical to the daily lives of every person alive in the 21st century. Understanding cybersecurity isn’t just for those who write the ciphers and configure the firewalls. It’s a civic literacy that equips you to evaluate the actions taken on your behalf by the governments that you elect. As Greenberg so aptly demonstrates, you may not be interested in cybersecurity, but it is certainly
interested in you.
