America the Vulnerable

Former NSA inspector general Joel Brenner, who later headed counterintelligence for the director of national intelligence, argues that cyberspace is where America's adversaries now attack. He describes remote spies operating from China, Russia, the Middle East and even France who have penetrated power plants, stolen submarine technology, robbed banks and breached the Pentagon's secret communications. Examples include counterfeit chips in fighter aircraft, a navy radar system stolen by the Chinese and a 2008 theft in which hackers used Royal Bank of Scotland customer files to withdraw $9 million from ATMs in half an hour. Brenner portrays government and business alike as a glass house, nearly transparent to their opponents.

Richard Bejtlich, a strategist at TaoSecurity, praised it as one of the best big-picture books he had read in a long time and urged security policymakers and practitioners to read it.