Traces the rise of the cyber age and profiles the characters at its epicenter, including criminals, spies, soldiers, and hackers. This title outlines how our national security has already been compromised, and what America stands to lose if we continue to follow policies that block our ability to defend ourselves against a cyber attack.

Richard A. Clarke warned America once before about the havoc terrorism would wreak on our national security—and he was right. Now he warns us of another threat, silent but equally dangerous. Cyber War is a powerful book about technology, government, and military strategy; about criminals, spies, soldiers, and hackers. It explains clearly and convincingly what cyber war is, how cyber weapons work, and how vulnerable we are as a nation and as individuals to the vast and looming web of cyber criminals. This is the first book about the war of the future—cyber war—and a convincing argument that we may already be in peril of losing it.

They have accessed the office of the Secretary of Defense, the control systems for U.S. electric power grids, and the plans to protect America's latest fighter aircraft. They can shut down our most vital systems, from transportation to finance, using such weapons as logic bombs, botnets, and trapdoors. They are today's cyber warriors, the latest combatants in a battle for supremacy that has already begun-a battle America may already be losing. "Cyber War" goes behind the geek talk of hackers and computer scientists to clearly explain what this new warfare involving government, technology, and military strategy is and how we can prepare for it. From the first cyber crisis meeting in the White House a decade ago to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley and the electrical tunnels under Manhattan, national security experts Richard A. Clarke and Robert K. Knake trace the rise of the cyber age and profile the characters at its epicenter, including criminals, spies, soldiers, and hackers. As they outline how our national security has already been compromised, Clarke and Knake make chillingly clear what America stands to lose if we continue to follow policies that block our ability to effectively defend ourselves against a cyber attack.