Cyberspace is all around us. We depend on it for everything we do. We
have reengineered our business, governance, and social relations around
a planetary network unlike any before it. But there are dangers looming,
and malign forces are threatening to transform this extraordinary
domain.
In Black Code, Ronald J. Deibert, a leading expert on digital
technology, security, and human rights, lifts the lid on cyberspace and
shows what's at stake for Internet users and citizens. As cyberspace
develops in unprecedented ways, powerful agents are scrambling for
control. Predatory cyber criminal gangs such as Koobface have made
social media their stalking ground. The discovery of Stuxnet, a computer
worm reportedly developed by Israel and the United States and aimed at
Iran's nuclear facilities, showed that state cyberwar is now a very real
possibility. Governments and corporations are in collusion and are
setting the rules of the road behind closed doors.
This is not the way it was supposed to be. The Internet's original
promise of a global commons of shared knowledge and communications is
now under threat.
Drawing on the first-hand experiences of one of the most important
protagonists in the battle -- the Citizen Lab and its global network of
frontline researchers, who have spent more than a decade cracking cyber
espionage rings and uncovering attacks on citizens and NGOs worldwide --
Black Code takes readers on a fascinating journey into the battle for
cyberspace. Thought-provoking, compelling, and sometimes frightening, it
is a wakeup call to citizens who have come to take the Internet for
granted. Cyberspace is ours, it is what we make of it, Deibert argues,
and we need to act now before it slips through our grasp.
