What do you think?
Rate this book
Inside Cyber Warfare: Mapping the Cyber Underworld
You may have heard about "cyber warfare" in the news, but do you really know what it is? This book provides fascinating and disturbing details on how nations, groups, and individuals throughout the world are using the Internet as an attack platform to gain military, political, and economic advantages over their adversaries. You'll learn how sophisticated hackers working on behalf of states or organized crime patiently play a high-stakes game that could target anyone, regardless of affiliation or nationality.
Inside Cyber Warfare goes beyond the headlines of attention-grabbing DDoS attacks and takes a deep look inside multiple cyber-conflicts that occurred from 2002 through summer 2009.
Learn how cyber attacks are waged in open conflicts, including recent hostilities between Russia and Georgia, and Israel and Palestine
Discover why Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, Vkontakte, and other sites on the social web are mined by the intelligence services of many nations
Read about China's commitment to penetrate the networks of its technologically superior adversaries as a matter of national survival
Find out why many attacks originate from servers in the United States, and who's responsible
Learn how hackers are "weaponizing" malware to attack vulnerabilities at the application level
Inside Cyber Warfare goes beyond the headlines of attention-grabbing DDoS attacks and takes a deep look inside multiple cyber-conflicts that occurred from 2002 through summer 2009.
Learn how cyber attacks are waged in open conflicts, including recent hostilities between Russia and Georgia, and Israel and Palestine
Discover why Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, Vkontakte, and other sites on the social web are mined by the intelligence services of many nations
Read about China's commitment to penetrate the networks of its technologically superior adversaries as a matter of national survival
Find out why many attacks originate from servers in the United States, and who's responsible
Learn how hackers are "weaponizing" malware to attack vulnerabilities at the application level
240 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2009
42 people are currently reading
496 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
November 27, 2010
Boring, unstructured and full of crap. This is the kind of person that gives security people a bad name.
March 9, 2020
The book was published in 2011 and I read my copy in 2020. In the world of computer security, that is a LONG time. To obtain a historical view of where the current cyber warfare landscape came from, it is not a bad resource. Figuring out the current landscape is probably not in the cards. Since the neither the author nor the book decided when I would read it, a fair review must aggressively point out that gap between then and now.
The author starts out with the position that cyber warfare is a difficult subject because it is a combination of many other subjects. He points out that the term cyber warfare does not even have an agreed upon definition. The major players include, but are not limited to, organized crime, state entities, plausible deniability, special interest groups both nationalistic and idealistic, intelligence services, etc. Add in the differences between entities in different geographical areas and the cause and effects can be difficult to determine. He plows into this massive area with different chapters that each attempt to give at least a tiny view of one of those variables.
He has one chapter that discuses the issues of laws covering cyber crime that is great for getting some sleep.
This book is a good massive overview of cyber warfare. It is neither comprehensive nor is it detailed. To achieve those goals, it would need to be a twenty or thirty volume set. The one thing the book DOES accomplish is to illustrate just how complicated the subject is and it gives a glimpse of all the actions that need to be taken into account.
I honestly have issues trying to figure out just who the book is for. Computer professionals have a general idea about the attack vectors that exist. They neither know or care about the hacker infrastructure in China or Russia. Politicians making policy would never read this book, they would have their aides read it. The aides would skim it and move on. Military and intelligence people wanting a general introduction MIGHT find it useful for a high level flyover?
This is a niche book that I don't think many people would find interesting or, more importantly, useful. I think the author put a lot of work into it, but he did not find the right balance between detail and general information. If he had decided to target a narrow audience with a specific set of needs, he might have written a better book and been able to organize the information in a more coherent manner.
The author starts out with the position that cyber warfare is a difficult subject because it is a combination of many other subjects. He points out that the term cyber warfare does not even have an agreed upon definition. The major players include, but are not limited to, organized crime, state entities, plausible deniability, special interest groups both nationalistic and idealistic, intelligence services, etc. Add in the differences between entities in different geographical areas and the cause and effects can be difficult to determine. He plows into this massive area with different chapters that each attempt to give at least a tiny view of one of those variables.
He has one chapter that discuses the issues of laws covering cyber crime that is great for getting some sleep.
This book is a good massive overview of cyber warfare. It is neither comprehensive nor is it detailed. To achieve those goals, it would need to be a twenty or thirty volume set. The one thing the book DOES accomplish is to illustrate just how complicated the subject is and it gives a glimpse of all the actions that need to be taken into account.
I honestly have issues trying to figure out just who the book is for. Computer professionals have a general idea about the attack vectors that exist. They neither know or care about the hacker infrastructure in China or Russia. Politicians making policy would never read this book, they would have their aides read it. The aides would skim it and move on. Military and intelligence people wanting a general introduction MIGHT find it useful for a high level flyover?
This is a niche book that I don't think many people would find interesting or, more importantly, useful. I think the author put a lot of work into it, but he did not find the right balance between detail and general information. If he had decided to target a narrow audience with a specific set of needs, he might have written a better book and been able to organize the information in a more coherent manner.
October 5, 2014
Jeffrey Carr delivers an extensive in detail explanations of the emerging Cyberwarfare dilemma. As technology keeps advancing every day even faster. Cyberwarfare surges as the new methodology for war. Cyber attacks are growing every day and they become more complex. Countries can now launch each other multiple cyber attacks without invading their countries. Carr raises serious awareness of these cyber attacks and how every government should address the matter in other to create policies to avoid futures catastrophes.
The author is very thorough explaining each concepts. Anybody with a basic knowledge in computer can read the book. It doesn't use any jargon of tech terms. What I really like about this book is that Cyberwarfare is been happening for some time now. Access to this information is very scarce, as the author said. Reading this book, it positions the reader in time with this new technology. I highly recommend this book because this is how the future wars will be. Armies of Hackers and Engineers.
The author is very thorough explaining each concepts. Anybody with a basic knowledge in computer can read the book. It doesn't use any jargon of tech terms. What I really like about this book is that Cyberwarfare is been happening for some time now. Access to this information is very scarce, as the author said. Reading this book, it positions the reader in time with this new technology. I highly recommend this book because this is how the future wars will be. Armies of Hackers and Engineers.
July 27, 2013
This book had real potential. It presented a good collection of views in a logical and precise manner, and didn't just focus on the most well-known cases.
However it suffered greatly from its sporadic, inconsistent and sometimes non-existent referencing, which was always badly indicated (so much so that whole chapters written by contributes were not clearly indicated.) If this issue were fixed (perhaps in a new edition), the book and its academic worth would be greatly improved.
However it suffered greatly from its sporadic, inconsistent and sometimes non-existent referencing, which was always badly indicated (so much so that whole chapters written by contributes were not clearly indicated.) If this issue were fixed (perhaps in a new edition), the book and its academic worth would be greatly improved.
December 19, 2014
Good introduction to the subject. Worth the read for some, background, history and example.
April 5, 2015
My Review on my blog Terebrate: http://bit.ly/X53RgM
Executive Summary:
I recommend this book for Cyber Security historians and cyber warfare lawyers. It is a bit disorganized and much broader then the title implies. I valued the sections on the importance open source cyber intelligence, the legal issues involved to conduct Cyber Warfare operations and the detailed discussion around Russia’s attacks on Estonia, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. The details around North Korea’s attacks on South Korea and US are also very good. But, if you are looking to understand the idea of Cyber War more thoroughly, this is not the book.
Review:
This is a third Cyber Warfare book that I have read since starting the blog back in December of last year (2012). Like I said in my review of Clarke’s book [1], a gaggle of books have hit the market that discuss the issue of cyber warfare in the last four years. Here are just a few:
Apr 2009: Cyberpower and National Security (National Defense University) by Franklin D. Kramer, Stuart H. Starr and Larry Wentz
Nov, 2009: Cyberdeterrence and Cyberwar by Martin C. Libicki
Jan, 2010: Inside Cyber Warfare: Mapping the Cyber Underworld by Jeffrey Carr
Apr, 2010: Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It by Richard A. Clarke and Robert Knake
Jul, 2010: Surviving Cyberwar by Richard Stiennon
Jun, 2011: Cyber Warfare: Techniques, Tactics and Tools for Security Practitioners by Jason Andress and Steve Winterfeld
Sep, 2011: America the Vulnerable: Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare by Joel Brenner
I have read three (Clarke’s [1], Winterfeld’s [2], and now Carr’s). Carr’s is by far the weakest of the lot that I have read. Don’t get me wrong, there is some good stuff in here, but in my mind, the book has two major faults that I see. First, it feels like it was written by committee. Carr’s name is on the title but he has adroitly pulled in some deep thinkers to write some of the chapters for him.
LT Cdr Matt Sklerov; a Military Lawyer who wrote his Master’s thesis on Cyber Warfare law (Chapters 4 and 13) [3][21].
Project Grey Goose Investigators; Open Source Intelligence investigation on the Russia – Georgia Cyber Wars (Chapter 5) [4][22].
Ned Moran; a Shadow Server alumnus and Georgetown Adjunct professor (Chapter 12) [5].
Alexander Klimburg – an Austrian Institute for International Affairs Fellow (Chapter13) [6].
Catherine Lotrionte, Visiting Law Professor at Georgetown University (Chapter 18) [7].
This is not a bad approach, but these kinds of books are a hodgepodge of writing styles and ideas. I have been involved in a lot of these writing projects in my own career – some successes but many spectacular failures - and in order for it to work, the primary editor has to work hard to tell a coherent story. In my opinion, Carr falls short in that goal.
Second, the Book title is misleading. It says it is about Cyber War but Carr covers way more than the Cyber Warfare topic. In the preface, Carr says that “International acts of cyber conflict (commonly but inaccurately referred to as cyber warfare are intricately enmeshed with cyber crime, cyber security, cyber terrorism and cyber espionage.” I fundamentally disagree with this notion. Hactivism is not warfare. Crime is not warfare. Espionage is not warfare. Terrorism is not warfare. These are all very different things and require nuanced and apportioned thinking to deal with them.
Carr points out that it is likely that a couple of governments have coopted some of their local hackers involved in cyber crime and cyber hactivism to participate in Cyber Warfare (Russia) and Cyber Espionage (China) activities. He also observes that the tools used by these actors in all four activities are similar in nature. But then he implies that because both of those things are likely to be true, then that ties all four motivations (cyber crime, cyber security, cyber terrorism and cyber espionage) into a tangled Gordian knot. I do not think this is true. Cyber Crime is enmeshed with Cyber War in the same way that other kinds of violent crime are enmeshed with regular war because both activities use guns. It is just not that entangled. Or if it is, Carr does not make the case for it.
This all goes to the notion of defining the problem space. What exactly is Cyber War? The security community has been debating this topic for over a decade and nobody can agree. The three books I have read so far on the subject have wide ranging definitions. In the Winterfeld / Andress book, the authors review many of the published definitions but throw their hands up in frustration and refuse to define it themselves. Carr defines it as this:
“Cyber Warfare is the art and science of fighting without fighting; of defeating an opponent without spilling their blood”
I do not like this one. This implies that anybody can conduct war: hactivists, commercial entities, non-state actors. Those guys can do damage for sure, but what they are doing is not warfare. I think Carr’s definition is too broad.
In Clarke’s book, he says it is this:
“[T]he term “cyber war” … refers to actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation’s computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption.”
I think this is pretty close for two reasons. First, Clark insists that nation states pursue cyber war activities and nobody else. This is important when countries deal with the legal authorities they need to conduct such operations. I am pretty sure that the Cyber Criminals, Hactivists and Terrorists of the world are not running their plans through their legal department before they execute them. But a nation state must if it wants to interact on the global stage. In David Sanger’s book “Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of Military Power” published last summer [8], Sanger describes President Bush’s decision to move Operation Olympic Games (STUXNET) away from military channels and into the intelligence channels. President Bush made that decision because he did not have the authority to use military forces against a nation that the US was not officially at war with. But, he did have the authority through the intelligence arm in the same way he has the authority to conduct drone strikes in foreign lands and to assassinate Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.
Second, Clark says that Cyber War activities must cause some sort of physical damage. I think that is dead-on because it separates propaganda activities (web defacements), espionage activities (document exfiltration) and criminal activities (credit card number theft) out of the warfare category. The only weakness in Clarke’s definition is that it says nothing about why a nation state would want to do such a thing.
I would tweak it a bit to say this:
Cyber Warfare involves one or more nation states using cyber weapons to destroy each other’s national treasure to achieve some political purpose.
There must be some political goal in mind for any cyber activities that rise to the level of warfare. As Carl von Clausewitz said in his book, ”On War:”
“[…] war is simply the continuation of policy by other means [9].”
Thus it is true for cyber war also. But as Winterfeld and Andress would likely point out, there are probably many issues with my definition too. I do think that Carr’s definition is too broad and because of this, his book is much broader than the topic of Cyber Warfare. There are things that I did like though and the book is worth the read for them. As long as the reader understands where Carr is coming from, there are things to learn here.
He makes a good case for the power of Open Source Cyber Intelligence; a subject that is near and dear to my heart (I was the iDefense Intelligence Director for many years and later the GM. Open Source Intelligence is what we did [10]). Carr has a nice overview of Russia’s Cyber Warfare Capabilities. Sklerov’s chapter on the legalities of warfare and cyber warfare are probably worth the price of admission alone although you can just download his thesis and read it or yourself [3]. His discussion of the two key legal principals of war
“Jus ad bellum: governs the transition from peace to war”
“Jus in bello: governs the use of force during war”
and how they might apply in cyber space is fascinating.
Carr recaps Estonia [11][12][13] and Georgia [13], the examples that many experts roll out when they are looking to describe cyber warfare. He also includes the North Korea DDOS attacks against South Korea and the US as a potential example [14].
With Carr’s book (and the other two I have read these past few months),
I am starting to collect a pretty good timeline of Cyber Warfare milestones:
Open Source Cyber Warfare milestones:
(1999) Warfare: “Unrestricted Warfare” Book by Chinese military leaders that crystalizes China’s thoughts on asymmetric warfare [15].
(2003) Warfare: US Compromises Iraq Email System prior to launch of 2d Iraq War [1].
(2007) Warfare: Industrial strength generator destroyed by Malcode in a Lab; US contractor proves cyber destruction is possible [16].
(2007) Warfare: DDOS attack against Estonia; attribution: likely Russian government [11][12][13] .
(2007) Warfare: US-Israeli DOS attack against Syrian Air Defense Systems [17][18].
(2008) Warfare: DDOS attack against Georgia; attribution: likely Russian government [13].
(2009) Warfare: DDOS attack against US-South Korea; attribution: likely North Korean government [14].
(2009) Warfare: DDOS attack against Kyrgyzstan; attribution: likely Russian government [19]
(2010) Warfare: Sabotage attack (Stuxnet) against Iran; attribution: likely US-Israeli governments [8][20].
When you look at that list, what jumps out at me is that the US, Russia and Israel are all over it. China normally gets all of the headlines because of that country’s Cyber Espionage activities and Carr highlights those in the book too. But there is a good reason he spends so much time on Russia’s capabilities in this book. Russia has been active in the Cyber Warfare space since 2007.
In short, Carr’s book is worth the read although it is a bit disorganized and much broader then the title implies. I valued the sections on the importance open source cyber intelligence, the legal issues involved to conduct Cyber Warfare operations and the detailed discussion around Russia’s attacks on Estonia, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. The details around North Korea’s attacks on South Korea and US are also very good. It is a must-read for Cyber Security historians and I would recommend it to cyber security lawyers for Sklerov’s legal chapters. But, if you are looking to understand the idea of Cyber War more thoroughly, this is not the book.
Sources:
[1] “Book Review: “Cyber Warfare: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do about It (2010)” by Richard Clarke and Robert Knake,” By Rick Howard, Terebrate, 21 January 2013, Last Visited 16 March 2013
http://terebrate.blogspot.com/2013/01...
[2] “Book Review: “Cyber Warfare: Techniques, Tactics and Tools for the Security Practitioners" (2011)” by Jason Andress and Steve Winterfeld,” By Rick Howard, Terebrate, 26 January 2013, Last Visited 24 March 2013
http://terebrate.blogspot.com/2013/01...
[3] “SOLVING THE DILEMMA OF STATE RESPONSES TO CYBERATTACKS: A JUSTIFICATION FOR THE USE OF ACTIVE DEFENSES AGAINST STATES WHO NEGLECT THEIR DUTY TO PREVENT,” By Lieutenant Matthew J. Sklerov, The Judge Advocate General's School, United States Army, April 2009, Last Visited 23 March 2013
http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?...
[4] “Project Grey Goose Phase II Report: The Evolving State of Cyber Warfare.” By greylogic, Project Grey Goose, 20 March 2009, Last Visited 23 March 2013
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13442963/Pr...
[5] “Ned Moran.” @moranned, Twitter, Last Visited 23 March 2013
https://twitter.com/Moranned
[6] “Cyberpower and National Cyber Security in International Relations,” By Alexander Klimburg, Watson Institute, March 20 2013, Last Visited 23 March 2013
http://www.watsoninstitute.org/events...
[7] “Catherine B Lotrionte,” Georgetown University, Last Visited 23 March 2013
http://explore.georgetown.edu/people/...
[8] “Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of Military Power,” by David Sanger, Crown Publishing, June 5 2012.
http://www.amazon.com/Confront-Concea...
[9] “On War,” by Carl Von Clausewitz, Edited and Translated by Michael Howard and Peter Paret, Princeton University Press, 1976.
http://www.amazon.com/On-War-ebook/dp...
[10] “iDefense Security Intelligence Services,” Verisign, Last Visited 23 March 2013
http://www.verisigninc.com/en_US/prod...
[11] “Cyberwar Timeline,” By Mark Clayton, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 March 2011, Last Visited 19 January 2013
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/030...
[12] “Massive DDoS attacks target Estonia; Russia accused,” By Nate Anderson, Ars Technica, May 2007, Last Visited 16 March 2013
http://arstechnica.com/security/2007/...
[13] “Establishing a Cyber Warfare Doctrine,” By Adrew Colarik and Lech Janczewski, Journal of Strategic Security, Volume 5, Issue 1, pg 31-48, 2012, Last Visited 19 January 2013
http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/vie...
[14] “North Korea launched cyber attacks, says south,” By Associated Press, theGuardian, 11 July 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/...
[15] “Unrestricted Warfare,” By Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, published 22 August 2002 by Pan American Publishing Company
http://www.amazon.com/Unrestricted-Wa...
[16] “Staged Cyber Attack Reveals Vulnerability in Power Grid,” By CNN, YouTube, September 2007, Last Visited 16 March 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJyWng...
[17] “Israeli sky-hack switched off Syrian radars countrywide Backdoors penetrated without violence.” By Lewis Page, The Register, 22 November 2007
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/...
[18] “Israeli sky-hack switched off Syrian radars countrywide Backdoors penetrated without violence.” By Lewis Page, The Register, 22 November 2007
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/...
[19] “DDoS attack boots Kyrgyzstan from net: Russian bears blamed,” By Dan Gooden, The Register, January 2009, Last Visited 23 March 2013
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/...
[20] “A Declaration of Cyber-War” by Michael Gross, Vanity Fair, April 2011, Last visited 20 January
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/fea...
[21] “Video: Lt.Cmdr. Matthew Sklerov.” By Lewis Page, Joint Hometown News Service, 7 November 2011, Last Visited 23 March 2013
http://www.dvidshub.net/video/211141/...
[22] “Ex-CIA tracker now targeting poachers with Project Grey Goose.” By Ken Dilanian, The Los Angeles Times, 16 May 2012, Last Visited 23 March 2013
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/...
Executive Summary:
I recommend this book for Cyber Security historians and cyber warfare lawyers. It is a bit disorganized and much broader then the title implies. I valued the sections on the importance open source cyber intelligence, the legal issues involved to conduct Cyber Warfare operations and the detailed discussion around Russia’s attacks on Estonia, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. The details around North Korea’s attacks on South Korea and US are also very good. But, if you are looking to understand the idea of Cyber War more thoroughly, this is not the book.
Review:
This is a third Cyber Warfare book that I have read since starting the blog back in December of last year (2012). Like I said in my review of Clarke’s book [1], a gaggle of books have hit the market that discuss the issue of cyber warfare in the last four years. Here are just a few:
Apr 2009: Cyberpower and National Security (National Defense University) by Franklin D. Kramer, Stuart H. Starr and Larry Wentz
Nov, 2009: Cyberdeterrence and Cyberwar by Martin C. Libicki
Jan, 2010: Inside Cyber Warfare: Mapping the Cyber Underworld by Jeffrey Carr
Apr, 2010: Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It by Richard A. Clarke and Robert Knake
Jul, 2010: Surviving Cyberwar by Richard Stiennon
Jun, 2011: Cyber Warfare: Techniques, Tactics and Tools for Security Practitioners by Jason Andress and Steve Winterfeld
Sep, 2011: America the Vulnerable: Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare by Joel Brenner
I have read three (Clarke’s [1], Winterfeld’s [2], and now Carr’s). Carr’s is by far the weakest of the lot that I have read. Don’t get me wrong, there is some good stuff in here, but in my mind, the book has two major faults that I see. First, it feels like it was written by committee. Carr’s name is on the title but he has adroitly pulled in some deep thinkers to write some of the chapters for him.
LT Cdr Matt Sklerov; a Military Lawyer who wrote his Master’s thesis on Cyber Warfare law (Chapters 4 and 13) [3][21].
Project Grey Goose Investigators; Open Source Intelligence investigation on the Russia – Georgia Cyber Wars (Chapter 5) [4][22].
Ned Moran; a Shadow Server alumnus and Georgetown Adjunct professor (Chapter 12) [5].
Alexander Klimburg – an Austrian Institute for International Affairs Fellow (Chapter13) [6].
Catherine Lotrionte, Visiting Law Professor at Georgetown University (Chapter 18) [7].
This is not a bad approach, but these kinds of books are a hodgepodge of writing styles and ideas. I have been involved in a lot of these writing projects in my own career – some successes but many spectacular failures - and in order for it to work, the primary editor has to work hard to tell a coherent story. In my opinion, Carr falls short in that goal.
Second, the Book title is misleading. It says it is about Cyber War but Carr covers way more than the Cyber Warfare topic. In the preface, Carr says that “International acts of cyber conflict (commonly but inaccurately referred to as cyber warfare are intricately enmeshed with cyber crime, cyber security, cyber terrorism and cyber espionage.” I fundamentally disagree with this notion. Hactivism is not warfare. Crime is not warfare. Espionage is not warfare. Terrorism is not warfare. These are all very different things and require nuanced and apportioned thinking to deal with them.
Carr points out that it is likely that a couple of governments have coopted some of their local hackers involved in cyber crime and cyber hactivism to participate in Cyber Warfare (Russia) and Cyber Espionage (China) activities. He also observes that the tools used by these actors in all four activities are similar in nature. But then he implies that because both of those things are likely to be true, then that ties all four motivations (cyber crime, cyber security, cyber terrorism and cyber espionage) into a tangled Gordian knot. I do not think this is true. Cyber Crime is enmeshed with Cyber War in the same way that other kinds of violent crime are enmeshed with regular war because both activities use guns. It is just not that entangled. Or if it is, Carr does not make the case for it.
This all goes to the notion of defining the problem space. What exactly is Cyber War? The security community has been debating this topic for over a decade and nobody can agree. The three books I have read so far on the subject have wide ranging definitions. In the Winterfeld / Andress book, the authors review many of the published definitions but throw their hands up in frustration and refuse to define it themselves. Carr defines it as this:
“Cyber Warfare is the art and science of fighting without fighting; of defeating an opponent without spilling their blood”
I do not like this one. This implies that anybody can conduct war: hactivists, commercial entities, non-state actors. Those guys can do damage for sure, but what they are doing is not warfare. I think Carr’s definition is too broad.
In Clarke’s book, he says it is this:
“[T]he term “cyber war” … refers to actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation’s computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption.”
I think this is pretty close for two reasons. First, Clark insists that nation states pursue cyber war activities and nobody else. This is important when countries deal with the legal authorities they need to conduct such operations. I am pretty sure that the Cyber Criminals, Hactivists and Terrorists of the world are not running their plans through their legal department before they execute them. But a nation state must if it wants to interact on the global stage. In David Sanger’s book “Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of Military Power” published last summer [8], Sanger describes President Bush’s decision to move Operation Olympic Games (STUXNET) away from military channels and into the intelligence channels. President Bush made that decision because he did not have the authority to use military forces against a nation that the US was not officially at war with. But, he did have the authority through the intelligence arm in the same way he has the authority to conduct drone strikes in foreign lands and to assassinate Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.
Second, Clark says that Cyber War activities must cause some sort of physical damage. I think that is dead-on because it separates propaganda activities (web defacements), espionage activities (document exfiltration) and criminal activities (credit card number theft) out of the warfare category. The only weakness in Clarke’s definition is that it says nothing about why a nation state would want to do such a thing.
I would tweak it a bit to say this:
Cyber Warfare involves one or more nation states using cyber weapons to destroy each other’s national treasure to achieve some political purpose.
There must be some political goal in mind for any cyber activities that rise to the level of warfare. As Carl von Clausewitz said in his book, ”On War:”
“[…] war is simply the continuation of policy by other means [9].”
Thus it is true for cyber war also. But as Winterfeld and Andress would likely point out, there are probably many issues with my definition too. I do think that Carr’s definition is too broad and because of this, his book is much broader than the topic of Cyber Warfare. There are things that I did like though and the book is worth the read for them. As long as the reader understands where Carr is coming from, there are things to learn here.
He makes a good case for the power of Open Source Cyber Intelligence; a subject that is near and dear to my heart (I was the iDefense Intelligence Director for many years and later the GM. Open Source Intelligence is what we did [10]). Carr has a nice overview of Russia’s Cyber Warfare Capabilities. Sklerov’s chapter on the legalities of warfare and cyber warfare are probably worth the price of admission alone although you can just download his thesis and read it or yourself [3]. His discussion of the two key legal principals of war
“Jus ad bellum: governs the transition from peace to war”
“Jus in bello: governs the use of force during war”
and how they might apply in cyber space is fascinating.
Carr recaps Estonia [11][12][13] and Georgia [13], the examples that many experts roll out when they are looking to describe cyber warfare. He also includes the North Korea DDOS attacks against South Korea and the US as a potential example [14].
With Carr’s book (and the other two I have read these past few months),
I am starting to collect a pretty good timeline of Cyber Warfare milestones:
Open Source Cyber Warfare milestones:
(1999) Warfare: “Unrestricted Warfare” Book by Chinese military leaders that crystalizes China’s thoughts on asymmetric warfare [15].
(2003) Warfare: US Compromises Iraq Email System prior to launch of 2d Iraq War [1].
(2007) Warfare: Industrial strength generator destroyed by Malcode in a Lab; US contractor proves cyber destruction is possible [16].
(2007) Warfare: DDOS attack against Estonia; attribution: likely Russian government [11][12][13] .
(2007) Warfare: US-Israeli DOS attack against Syrian Air Defense Systems [17][18].
(2008) Warfare: DDOS attack against Georgia; attribution: likely Russian government [13].
(2009) Warfare: DDOS attack against US-South Korea; attribution: likely North Korean government [14].
(2009) Warfare: DDOS attack against Kyrgyzstan; attribution: likely Russian government [19]
(2010) Warfare: Sabotage attack (Stuxnet) against Iran; attribution: likely US-Israeli governments [8][20].
When you look at that list, what jumps out at me is that the US, Russia and Israel are all over it. China normally gets all of the headlines because of that country’s Cyber Espionage activities and Carr highlights those in the book too. But there is a good reason he spends so much time on Russia’s capabilities in this book. Russia has been active in the Cyber Warfare space since 2007.
In short, Carr’s book is worth the read although it is a bit disorganized and much broader then the title implies. I valued the sections on the importance open source cyber intelligence, the legal issues involved to conduct Cyber Warfare operations and the detailed discussion around Russia’s attacks on Estonia, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. The details around North Korea’s attacks on South Korea and US are also very good. It is a must-read for Cyber Security historians and I would recommend it to cyber security lawyers for Sklerov’s legal chapters. But, if you are looking to understand the idea of Cyber War more thoroughly, this is not the book.
Sources:
[1] “Book Review: “Cyber Warfare: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do about It (2010)” by Richard Clarke and Robert Knake,” By Rick Howard, Terebrate, 21 January 2013, Last Visited 16 March 2013
http://terebrate.blogspot.com/2013/01...
[2] “Book Review: “Cyber Warfare: Techniques, Tactics and Tools for the Security Practitioners" (2011)” by Jason Andress and Steve Winterfeld,” By Rick Howard, Terebrate, 26 January 2013, Last Visited 24 March 2013
http://terebrate.blogspot.com/2013/01...
[3] “SOLVING THE DILEMMA OF STATE RESPONSES TO CYBERATTACKS: A JUSTIFICATION FOR THE USE OF ACTIVE DEFENSES AGAINST STATES WHO NEGLECT THEIR DUTY TO PREVENT,” By Lieutenant Matthew J. Sklerov, The Judge Advocate General's School, United States Army, April 2009, Last Visited 23 March 2013
http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?...
[4] “Project Grey Goose Phase II Report: The Evolving State of Cyber Warfare.” By greylogic, Project Grey Goose, 20 March 2009, Last Visited 23 March 2013
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13442963/Pr...
[5] “Ned Moran.” @moranned, Twitter, Last Visited 23 March 2013
https://twitter.com/Moranned
[6] “Cyberpower and National Cyber Security in International Relations,” By Alexander Klimburg, Watson Institute, March 20 2013, Last Visited 23 March 2013
http://www.watsoninstitute.org/events...
[7] “Catherine B Lotrionte,” Georgetown University, Last Visited 23 March 2013
http://explore.georgetown.edu/people/...
[8] “Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of Military Power,” by David Sanger, Crown Publishing, June 5 2012.
http://www.amazon.com/Confront-Concea...
[9] “On War,” by Carl Von Clausewitz, Edited and Translated by Michael Howard and Peter Paret, Princeton University Press, 1976.
http://www.amazon.com/On-War-ebook/dp...
[10] “iDefense Security Intelligence Services,” Verisign, Last Visited 23 March 2013
http://www.verisigninc.com/en_US/prod...
[11] “Cyberwar Timeline,” By Mark Clayton, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 March 2011, Last Visited 19 January 2013
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/030...
[12] “Massive DDoS attacks target Estonia; Russia accused,” By Nate Anderson, Ars Technica, May 2007, Last Visited 16 March 2013
http://arstechnica.com/security/2007/...
[13] “Establishing a Cyber Warfare Doctrine,” By Adrew Colarik and Lech Janczewski, Journal of Strategic Security, Volume 5, Issue 1, pg 31-48, 2012, Last Visited 19 January 2013
http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/vie...
[14] “North Korea launched cyber attacks, says south,” By Associated Press, theGuardian, 11 July 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/...
[15] “Unrestricted Warfare,” By Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, published 22 August 2002 by Pan American Publishing Company
http://www.amazon.com/Unrestricted-Wa...
[16] “Staged Cyber Attack Reveals Vulnerability in Power Grid,” By CNN, YouTube, September 2007, Last Visited 16 March 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJyWng...
[17] “Israeli sky-hack switched off Syrian radars countrywide Backdoors penetrated without violence.” By Lewis Page, The Register, 22 November 2007
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/...
[18] “Israeli sky-hack switched off Syrian radars countrywide Backdoors penetrated without violence.” By Lewis Page, The Register, 22 November 2007
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/...
[19] “DDoS attack boots Kyrgyzstan from net: Russian bears blamed,” By Dan Gooden, The Register, January 2009, Last Visited 23 March 2013
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/...
[20] “A Declaration of Cyber-War” by Michael Gross, Vanity Fair, April 2011, Last visited 20 January
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/fea...
[21] “Video: Lt.Cmdr. Matthew Sklerov.” By Lewis Page, Joint Hometown News Service, 7 November 2011, Last Visited 23 March 2013
http://www.dvidshub.net/video/211141/...
[22] “Ex-CIA tracker now targeting poachers with Project Grey Goose.” By Ken Dilanian, The Los Angeles Times, 16 May 2012, Last Visited 23 March 2013
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/...
September 6, 2017
This book is not useful if you already have a basic IT background or more. I expected some more details about Cyber Warfare, what to expect and how to be prepared technically. I was very disappointed by this book. It just mentions a number of historic events and what happened back then. Besides that it explains some basic concepts that I already know.
January 4, 2020
Old now, but still relevant. Would love to read an updated version...
July 15, 2012
You may have heard about "cyber warfare" in the news, but do you really know what it is? If this book will scare you into turning off your modem, then Jeffrey Carr's purpose in writing Inside Cyber Warfare: Mapping the Cyber Underworld will be accomplished. Carr wants shine light at the problem and to raise the level of awareness of these threats, making the book, which is really more like a text book than a journalistic account. A must read for policy makers/leaders and those starting out in cyber security who need to understand the big picture landscape of cyber warfare.
The book provides fascinating and disturbing details on how nations, groups, and individuals throughout the world are using the Internet as an attack platform to gain military, political, and economic advantages over their adversaries. You'll learn how sophisticated hackers working on behalf of states or organized crime patiently play a high-stakes game that could target anyone, regardless of affiliation or nationality.
Jeffrey Carr does a very good job of explaining the problems and challenges of modern cyber-warfare and the ways of handling it. Cyber-crime vs. Cyber-war is a recurring theme, and Carr uses many diverse current events and emerging issues to illustrate his points.
Beside considering various incidents of cyber warfare, Carr examines the legal frameworks for defining cyber warfare and possible approaches for responding to them. He even provides a proposal for a cyber early warning system, making the book a comprehensive look at the problem. The main reason why it is hard to define cyber warfare stems from the problems in tracing the culprits. The author illustrates the attribution problem through the case study of the Korean DDoS attacks of July 2009. Through to have originated in North Korea, the attack has actually been traced to servers in U.S. Despite the investigation, no party has been conclusively identified as responsible for the events. Part of the difficulty also lies in the fact that many hackers live inside major powers who place no priority on finding them, as long as they are perceived to be patriotic, complicating the investigations.
--Rico Buraga
http://ricoburaga.blogspot.com
The book provides fascinating and disturbing details on how nations, groups, and individuals throughout the world are using the Internet as an attack platform to gain military, political, and economic advantages over their adversaries. You'll learn how sophisticated hackers working on behalf of states or organized crime patiently play a high-stakes game that could target anyone, regardless of affiliation or nationality.
Jeffrey Carr does a very good job of explaining the problems and challenges of modern cyber-warfare and the ways of handling it. Cyber-crime vs. Cyber-war is a recurring theme, and Carr uses many diverse current events and emerging issues to illustrate his points.
Beside considering various incidents of cyber warfare, Carr examines the legal frameworks for defining cyber warfare and possible approaches for responding to them. He even provides a proposal for a cyber early warning system, making the book a comprehensive look at the problem. The main reason why it is hard to define cyber warfare stems from the problems in tracing the culprits. The author illustrates the attribution problem through the case study of the Korean DDoS attacks of July 2009. Through to have originated in North Korea, the attack has actually been traced to servers in U.S. Despite the investigation, no party has been conclusively identified as responsible for the events. Part of the difficulty also lies in the fact that many hackers live inside major powers who place no priority on finding them, as long as they are perceived to be patriotic, complicating the investigations.
--Rico Buraga
http://ricoburaga.blogspot.com
March 11, 2010
Fairly unimpressive. What you will learn from this book: Cyber warfare is decentralized, not easily pinned down on one nation or the other, and not yet defined or covered under any international law (Shock!) Be prepared to read repeatedly how cyber-war is "revolutionizing" the face of modern conflict, etc. etc. Almost all of the examples given are of websites being disabled or defaced- either in the course of traditional warfare or as nationalistic upsurges against a given target. Upwards of millions of users are "inconvenienced" as livejournal is taken offline through a DDoS for a few hours! Forgive me if I am not impressed.
This book makes use of input from various experts, and the quality varies greatly from author to author. There are some inexcusable lapses of editing - the writing, overall, is poor. This is to be expected from authors whose primary expertise is in computers and not literature, naturally; it's more of a high-level summary directed at policymakers, though the impropriety is sometimes irritating.
Carr makes a fairly strong case in the introduction / first chapter for how cyberwarfare might be used, in the future, to cause mass catastrophe- a combination of compromised hardware & software making vulnerable critical infrastructure such as nuclear power plants and such. He cites several examples of power plants being taken offline or similarly impacted as a result of intrusion. Is his vision realistic? Probably more than most would like to admit, currently, although there is literally no reason why critical infrastructure should be accessible to the internet. The solution to cyber warfare? Unplug your ethernet cable.
Anyway, a newbie can learn the lay of the battlefield here, but more often than not the metaphors feel overblown and the dangers exaggerated.
This book makes use of input from various experts, and the quality varies greatly from author to author. There are some inexcusable lapses of editing - the writing, overall, is poor. This is to be expected from authors whose primary expertise is in computers and not literature, naturally; it's more of a high-level summary directed at policymakers, though the impropriety is sometimes irritating.
Carr makes a fairly strong case in the introduction / first chapter for how cyberwarfare might be used, in the future, to cause mass catastrophe- a combination of compromised hardware & software making vulnerable critical infrastructure such as nuclear power plants and such. He cites several examples of power plants being taken offline or similarly impacted as a result of intrusion. Is his vision realistic? Probably more than most would like to admit, currently, although there is literally no reason why critical infrastructure should be accessible to the internet. The solution to cyber warfare? Unplug your ethernet cable.
Anyway, a newbie can learn the lay of the battlefield here, but more often than not the metaphors feel overblown and the dangers exaggerated.
April 26, 2013
This was an okay overview of cyber warfare. I have this thought then I'll get drafted into the army, so I better learn about cyber warfare so that I don't have to carry a gun or lift anything heavier than a laptop.
There are several different authors covering several different topics, so there is a lot of overlap with examples and concepts. There isn't any technical content (i.e. code examples), which is unusual for an O'Reilly book. But there are plenty of legal arguments.
I particularly liked the analysis of the cyber attacks on Estonia during their skirmish with Russia. There is some discussion of Stuxnet and Chinese capabilities (which I think are much more extensive than mentioned in this book). The rest seems more like vandalism, like Israel getting their web sites defaced.
I would have really liked to learn more about Israel supposedly hacking Syria's radar systems, which enabled them to fly in completely undetected.
Anyway, kind of boring, repetitive, and written a bit too wonkily (is that a word?) for me. I will keep looking for other overviews.
There are several different authors covering several different topics, so there is a lot of overlap with examples and concepts. There isn't any technical content (i.e. code examples), which is unusual for an O'Reilly book. But there are plenty of legal arguments.
I particularly liked the analysis of the cyber attacks on Estonia during their skirmish with Russia. There is some discussion of Stuxnet and Chinese capabilities (which I think are much more extensive than mentioned in this book). The rest seems more like vandalism, like Israel getting their web sites defaced.
I would have really liked to learn more about Israel supposedly hacking Syria's radar systems, which enabled them to fly in completely undetected.
Anyway, kind of boring, repetitive, and written a bit too wonkily (is that a word?) for me. I will keep looking for other overviews.
June 11, 2012
Carr does a very good job of explaining the problems and challenges of modern cyber-warfare and the ways of handling it. Cyber-crime vs. Cyber-war is a recurring theme, and Carr uses many diverse current events and emerging issues to illustrate his points. It's very technical, but not so much that the lay reader is lost. His analyses are practical and not rooted in biased political rhetoric but focus on real-world solutions to ongoing cyber-world problems.
July 26, 2016
Extremely easy to read. Better chapters are toward the end of the book where he goes into the structure of Russian and China's capabilities. He also covers the recent purchase of US based companies by both Russian and Chinese firms which may or may not cause issues in the future. Probably too much time spent reviewing the Georgian and South Ossetia which has been covered ad nauseum.
October 16, 2014
meh....DDoS and website defacement discussions are prime examples of what's given. Published in late 2011 with no real discussion of cyber effects blending into physical domain (e.g. stuxnet), not much mobile discussion, and missing what real impact previous cyber "attacks", which are given as examples, had on their victims overall operations at the time of attack.
September 14, 2010
The book is not bad, it gives you some interesting inside into the Cyber Warfare, but with all these names, persons, etc. you're getting kinda tired and after a while the book gets boring.
I actually wasn't able to finish the book...
I actually wasn't able to finish the book...
February 13, 2011
I fundamentally disagree with his approach to information assurance and what constitutes cyber warfare, and he's a bit too naive (perhaps intentionally so), but overall a good introduction to the topic.
September 9, 2015
I paid $50 for this? This book was so pricey that there was a section in the book that had to explain to the reader why the cost was justified! So be it. It was an interesting book. The only thing I remember is Conficker. Scary.
April 27, 2012
It is a high level view of Cyber Warfare from a nation state perspective. I would not run out and get this one.
January 20, 2012
Este libro es una "colcha de retazos" muchos de ellos muy mal escritos.
November 7, 2014
It could be better if it explored some of the ideas it exposed instead of all the beaurocratic crap
November 1, 2016
3/3 books for my Cyberwarfare policy class and these books were on one of the most interesting topics to me and it was really cool learning about Cyberwarfare!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews