Cyber Security Blog: http://terebrate.blogspot.com/twitter: @raceBannon99Executive Summary: If you like Michael Crichton stories like “Jurassic Park” and “State of Fear,” you will like this book. It is not a must-read for cyber security professionals, but it is an entertaining story that you can hand to your family members, friends and bosses to illustrate what could be done in cyber space by a well-resourced adversary. Along the way, you will learn a little about the ethical issues, pro and con, surrounding the Transhumanist Movement – the avocation of using performance enhancement technology to influence human evolution – and you will enjoy a rollercoaster of a ride as the heroes attempt to determine who the bad guys are and how to stop them.There is a lot to love in this novel. Richard Clark jams a boat-load of cutting edge cyber security ideas into this little Crichton-esque [1][2] political thriller. He wrote it in 2007 but set it in the near future of 2012 and when I say there is a boat-load of information, I am talking about yacht-sized, not dingy-sized. The bad guys in this novel execute most of the cyber fantasy attacks against the United States that any group of cyber security geeks (including myself) could conger up after a few beers sitting around a bar at the annual Blackhat [3] / DEFCON [4] conventions in Vegas (one of the settings in the boo). Clarke gives us bombings of US beach head routers on both coasts that reduce inbound and outbound internet traffic to just 10%, buffer overflow attacks against a communications satellite that sends it reeling out to space, SCADA attacks that blow up a research institution with a live nuclear reactor and a well-coordinated SCADA attack that takes out all power west of the Mississippi. Of course, in the novel, US government leadership, specifically the Intelligence Community (IC), thinks the Chinese are behind everything and they put all of their efforts into proving it. All of these “fantasy” attacks are quite possible in the real world and the cyber security community has been talking about them for at least the last decade. Some experts believe that the Chinese government might execute something similar to these attacks in an effort to dissuade the US government from coming down on the wrong side of the “Taiwan” issue [5]. Clarke would know. Before he retired from government service, he served three different Presidents as the Special Assistant to the President for Global Affairs, the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism and the Special Advisor to the President for Cyber Security [6]. The political theory behind these acts is something called Escalation Dominance [7]. It is the idea that China, or any government really, would launch some kind of attack against the US that would hurt the country in an effort to prove that they could launch a much larger attack that would really hurt if the US did something that China did not like. In the afterword to this novel, Clark said that it was easier to talk about these issues in a fictional form then it was to talk about them in dry, academic and political journals. I concur. They are much more exciting and frightening splashed across the fictional page.The cyber ideas in this novel are not what the story is ultimately about however. They are just the means to an end. [SPOILER ALERT] It turns out that the bad guys are not the Chinese. The real bad guys are a group of people that are not too keen on something called the Transhumanist Movement: a philosophy that espouses using genomics, robotics, informatics, nanotech, and new-pharma to change humanity into a new species [8]. They are worried about the religious and moral implications of man being directly involved in deciding the next steps in human evolution and they have a billionaire benefactor who can fund their terrorist operations. His name is Will Gaudium. In the novel, Gaudium is one of the original Internet founding fathers and made his fortune with an internet startup. I believe though, that Clarke based Gaudium on a real world guy by the name of Bill Joy. Bill Joy is really one of the Internet founding forefathers. He created vi, the original UNIX text editor [12]. He had a big hand in creating BSD UNIX [13], the precursor to LINUX and, for all intents and purposes, created the first working software implementing of the TCP-IP stack [13]. He went on to co-found Sun Microsystems; a company that built some of the most beautiful UNIX machines of the time [13]. And then, out of nowhere, he wrote an article for Wired Magazine decrying the Transhumanist Movement [9]. To have somebody of that stature, a legend really, come out against the advancements of science made the entire scientific community pause for a beat. Some were comparing his manifesto to Albert Einstein’s letter to President Eisenhower that argued against the use of nuclear weapons [13]. If somebody like Bill Joy says that we need to think a bit before we go forward with transhumanism, then maybe we better do it. I may be wrong, but the resemblance between the real-world Bill Joy and the fictional Will Gaudium is unmistakable.Clarke’s story races across 10 days in March of 2012 as our heroes, Susan Connor – an agent for the Intelligence Analysis Center (IAC) – and Jim Foley – an ex-marine on loan to the IAC from the NYPD, try to out-think the US Intelligence Apparatus and Law Enforcement community and track down the real culprits behind the Internet attacks. Critics have taken Clarke to task for his wooden characters in the story, but I found that not to be true. I liked his portrayal of the misguided internet billionaire especially and I liked the way he portrays New York and Boston cops. And I really appreciated that he did not try to establish some sort of romantic relationship between Foley and Connor. Foley is a little flat as a character, but I am OK with that. The bottom line here is that this is book is a fun political thriller that gets the cyber security stuff right. I recommend it.Sources[1] Michael Crichton is probably best known for writing the novel, “Jurassic Park,” but during his lifetime, he wrote many near-future books that took a new technological idea into the near future to see what would happen. Books like “State of Fear,” “Prey,” “Timeline,” “Airframe,” and “Disclosure,” were some of my favorites.[2] “Michael Crichton: The Official Site,” Last Visited: 1 January 2013,http://www.michaelcrichton.net/[3] “blackhat USA 2103,” Last Visited: 1 January 2013,http://www.blackhat.com/us-13/[4] “DEFCON,” Last Visited: 1 January 2013,https://www.defcon.org/[5] “China and Taiwan’s Running Dispute,” The Real Clear Politics Blog, 8 March 2007, Last Visited: 1 January 2013,http://realclearpolitics.blogs.time.c...[6] “Bio: Richard A. Clarke,” Cyber War by Richard A. Clarke and Robert K. Knake, Last Visited: 1 January 2013,http://www.richardaclarke.net/bio.php[7] “Navigating the Taiwan Strait: Deterrence, Escalation Dominance, and US-China” by Robert Ross, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Fall of 2002, Last Visited: 1 January 2013,http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/p...[8] “United Nations Envisions Transhumanist Future where Man is Obsolete,” by Aaron Dykes, Infowars.com, 10 June 2012, Last Visited: 1 January 2013,http://www.infowars.com/united-nation...[9] “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us,” by Bill Joy, Wired Magazine, April 2000, Last Visited: 1 January 2013,http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8....[10] “The Joy of Programming,” by Andy Ross, AndyRoss.net, Last Visited: 1 January 2013,http://www.andyross.net/bill_joy.htm[11] “Bill Joy, ‘Outliers-The Story of Success’, ‘The Dream of a Lifetime’, and No MTS Charges?” Michigan Terminal Archive System, Last Visited: 1 January 2013,http://archive.michigan-terminal-syst...[12] “Bill Joy’s Greatest Gift to Man – the vi Editor,” by Ashlee Vance, the Register, 11 September 2003, Last Visited: 1 January 2013,http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/...[13] “BSD UNIX: Power to the People, from the Code,” by Andrew Leonard, Salon Magazine, 16 May 2000, Last Visited: 1 January 2013,http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/...[14] “Hope is a Lousy Defense,” by Spencer Reiss, Wired Magazine, 11 December 2004, Last Visited: 1 January 2013,http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11...
Clarke is at it again, using the novel as a way to tell tales he probably couldn’t get away with in non-fiction. The focus here is on the nation’s communications apparatus. Some nation or group has set about bombing the cables that connect the USA com-network with Europe. Several communications satellites have been hacked and redirected to places other than their usual geostationary orbits. Experts in data and communications and their facilities are being destroyed. Is it the Chinese who are behind it? Could it be that some other entity is trying to remove the “global” from “global village?”Illuminated by the dark goings-on there is much discussion of impending scientific advances, some of which could be anathema not only to America’s rivals but to groups within the country. Clarke trots out familiar types for this educational enterprise of his. They are paper thin, which is ok. The book is competently written, if clearly done by a writer who is no lion in this particular savannah. It is the ideas that are important here, not the characters. It is a cautionary tale of what might be possible, told in an engaging manner by someone who knows a whole lot about the subject he covers. And Clarke helpfully adds a section After his tale is told in which he identifies the contemporary basis for the notions explored by his futuristic scenario. Clarke may be the best informed guy on the planet regarding his subject matter and he is worth reading for this alone. That he gets his information across in such an engaging manner is a large plus. Notions here include “transhumanism” – a philosophy (p 44) that espouses using genomics, robotics, informatics, nanotech, new pharma…to change humanity into a new species.”Globegrid – The Globegrid Project – a plan to merge the largest US supercomputer farms with ones in France, Russia and Japan to create one virtual machine. “Living Software” is a huge program designed to write applications sans errors. This is a fantastic notion, used for literary effect, but there are elements of it that are interesting. The software is network based, of course, and asks every system with which it comes into contact if it would like to have a copy downloaded and installed. Once in, the system normalizes software to conform to the LS standard, making them error free. Twenty two years as a programmer inform my view that this is not bloody likely.There is a place in which the characters view a real-time 3D model of data flow in the internet. Way cool.
What do You think about Breakpoint (2007)?
This work of near-future fiction by the former "Anti-Terrorism Czar" looks at the investigation of a series of terrorist attacks on the United States centered on internet and other computer infrastructure. Examined in a cursory manner are issues regarding performance-enhancing pharmaceuticals used, for example, by police or soldiers; genetic enhancements; reverse engineering of the human brain; artificial intelligence; and others. I'm not sure if the techies out there would enjoy this book. It has a Tom Clancy-light feel. I just don't know if Clarke's setting forth of the technology and issues is enough to satisfy the true techies. It also may bother some that Clarke doesn't necessarily take a side.All told it was an enjoyable, quick read. The plot was enough to keep my interest even though the characters didn't move me. It was worth my time.
—Rob James
The last sentence of this book speaks volumes: "Sometimes you can tell more truth through fiction."The basic point is this: Our technological infrastructure is woefully underprotected, and a terrorist organization with enough resources would be able to bring not only our country, but the world itself, to its knees with a few well-placed explosives and a series of ones and zeroes. While reading this book it becomes clear that the author, former counterterrorism czar Richard A. Clarke, is not so much trying to entertain us, as he is trying to warn us. While the story is decent, it is as if Clarke built the story around the underlying warning, like scaffolding around a building. As a result, the plot line is somewhat thin, and the ending anti-climactic. Character development is almost non-existent. Susan Connor and Jimmy Foley are likeable, but we never really seem to get to know them on a personal level. Indeed, any exploration into their personal lives (e.g. upbringing, ideology, motivation, personal relationships, etc.) is stunted and almost entirely peripheral. Clarke is a competant writer, but he is at his best when discussing the technical aspects of the threat. Had this been a collaborative effort with a more seasoned author, one more adept at storytelling (a Clancy, for example), this could have been a truly enticing and frightening book. As it stands, it is enjoyable, but nothing terribly special.
—Bill Harrington
Richard Clarke's Breakpoint is a thriller of bizarre proportions. Reading it on the heels of Michael Crichton's Next makes me feel that perhaps there certain fairly interesting ideas out there that makes the future full of interesting possibilities. It is one of the more entertaining books I've read this year. I recommend it.Richard Clarke is another person whose material contributions to the country have been completely obliterated by the politics of vicious ripping and staunch defending of the Bush Administration. As I parse back through a large number of unfinished posts, this pattern is emerging - details that have become politically insignificant as the MSM, opposition, loyalists and blogosphere move their debates to new ground.These days Petraeus is about to become another symbolic goat or hero in the same way. I am rather ashamed at how juvenile our democracy can become.
—Michael David Cobb
