Cyber security Story teller

Hack To The Future: How World Governments Relentlessly Pursue and Domesticate Hackers

Overall: Should be required reading for anyone in the field.

I’ve followed Hacking History for some time, and I preordered this book months ago.

It does not disappoint.

It reads like a political thriller … except it’s all true. I’m a big fan of understanding the history, context, and evolution of how a situation came to be, and how it could be handled in the future. This book is our history, as hackers, and it comes as we’re experiencing a generational shift. Time cruelly marches on, and as the OG phone phreakers age gracefully into retirement, it’s important to preserve their lessons learned. Emily does this beautifully.

The opening tale underscores the point that the concepts we deal with daily aren’t new. Tactics and techniques shift, naturally, but the core concept is steadfast. I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that radio technology was still in the proof-of-concept stage when the question of intercepting those signals was raised. Marconi bragged his long-distance radio communication was secure and the possibility of tapping was purely theoretical. Marconi also possessed a monopoly on the technology, because of course he did.

Naturally, a competitor named Nevil Maskelyne upstaged a Marconi-lead demonstration by transmitting first some nonsense to block the official demonstration and, second, an insulting poem for their colleagues to receive instead.

The more things change, the more they stay the same — from the egos involved to the concept of spamming and trolling.

Emily notes this tale has been regulated to obscure trivia, which is a shame. It’s brilliant.

As an Elder Millinial, I enjoyed the hacker stories from the early days of ARPANET, many of which I hadn’t heard before, like Max Headroom. Some I knew a few details about, like The Morris Worm, but I didn’t know the full tale. Emily goes further than American hacker history here by devoting coverage to the Soviet efforts, too. Frankly, I’d never given much thought to a Soviet ARPANET — OGAS — before, but this is my oversight. Russia certainly has a complex relationship with their hackers today, likely as much a product of their history as American hackers are a product of ours.

Another lovely highlight is the UK’s Prestel Hack circa 1985, in which a certain Duke of Edinburgh discovers a lack of security on his proto-voicemail. It was only four years later the infamous Tampongate was recorded.

Pop culture catapulted hackers into the public consciousness. Full confession: I haven’t seen many of these classic movies. I need to find them and watch them.

I remember getting broadband early, much to the chagrin of my mother. My father was fascinated by this newfangled internet thing — as much as he dismissed Y2K as a hoax.

I’m not sure I’m quite comfortable calling Anonymous, LulzSec, and WikiLeaks history, but time continues to march cruelly on. Based on the acknowledgements, Emily was fortunate enough to have access to primary sources through her research for the book. I’m glad she did, and I’m glad this book exists, because it’s critical reading. Hacking has always been political, and likely always will be. It continues to shape policy today.

We’re still wrestling with the criminality of hacking. Ransomware and offensive actions — not related to nation-state war, at least — are solidly criminal. However, hackers have been elevated into the boardroom, with little clarity in how a CISO fits into corporate governance structure. Cases like Uber, SolarWinds and even CrowdStrike set legal precedents. It’s a brave new world that has such people in it.

Understanding the relationships between these groups — hackers and governments, both domestic and foreign — will continue to be critical. We track APT groups and attempt to assign attribution in the hope we can place a hack in the broader context of the world. When the boards and the executives ask questions like “Why did this happen to us?”, we might know enough to answer.

Knowing our own history is a great place to start.