Saturday, March 18, 2017

Intercept (Gordon Corera)

Gordon Corera
Intercept




As the subtitle says - a fascinating history of how spies have developed and used computers and the internet for nefarious purposes including commercial espionage. Shows the strong link from when Britain leveraged the fact that undersea comms cables landing in Britain to intercept communications through to the US's blanket analysis of virtually all internet traffic going through the States (i.e. most of it) and indeed it's companies where they have installations abroad. And that disregards them hacking into other countries systems - it's sort of for free. A good journalistic mix of fact, supposition and political analysis. The latter is the ongoing fight between state and individuals and companies regarding the freedom for individuals to have privacy vs the state's role in protecting us from those who would do us, and our children, harm. Discuss...