Perfect Weapon

This book is a mess. I can't tell if Sanger simply doesn't understand technical minutia or if his writing is so sloppy his explanations are useless - probably a bit of both.

The author repeatedly latches on to the most scandalous explanation of certain events, occasionally even acknowledging more mundane explanations are plausible and then proceeding to spend dozens of pages building up the more outlandish story. He extrapolates on scant details and builds complex theories on nothing other than pure speculation.

Further, many of his predictions on the future of cyberwar have simply proven incorrect in places like Ukraine. I can't necessarily fault Sanger for that - pretty much everyone in the information security community made the same forecasts - but nonetheless, they're wrong.

Go read Kim Zetter or Andy Greenberg.

Very good read, but I had read/heard most of what is in it before in news articles, interviews, podcasts.

Sanger manages to cover the issue of cyberconflict broadly while also offering the most comprehensive account of what occurred during the 2016 election. He rarely infers, basing the accounts contained within on his sources from the top levels of the United States government.

Considering the role contractors play in the intelligence industrial complex, it would have been nice to have a greater representation of non-government sources, but the book never suffers from a lack of credibility.

It reads like a very long New York Times article with an op-ed at the end. This isn't necessarily I enjoyed, but I appreciate the author's pragmatism.

If you want to understand what's been happening at the dawn of information warfare, this is your book.