Listening In ─ Cybersecurity in an Insecure Age

A cybersecurity expert and former Google privacy analyst’s urgent call to protect devices and networks against malicious hackers and misinformed policymakers

New technologies have provided both incredible convenience and new threats. The same kinds of digital networks that allow you to hail a ride using your smartphone let power grid operators control a country’s electricity—and these personal, corporate, and government systems are all vulnerable. In Ukraine, unknown hackers shut off electricity to nearly 230,000 people for six hours. North Korean hackers destroyed networks at Sony Pictures in retaliation for a film that mocked Kim Jong-un. And Russian cyberattackers leaked Democratic National Committee emails in an attempt to sway a U.S. presidential election.

And yet despite such documented risks, government agencies, whose investigations and surveillance are stymied by encryption, push for a weakening of protections. In this accessible and riveting read, Susan Landau makes a compelling case for the need to secure our data, explaining how we must maintain cybersecurity in an insecure age.

Susan Landau is Bridge Professor in the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the School of Engineering, Department of Computer Science, at Tufts University and Visiting Professor at University College London. She was previously a Senior Staff Privacy Analyst at Google and a Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems. She is an Association for Computing Machinery Fellow, a Cybersecurity Hall of Fame inductee, and an American Association for Advancement of Science Fellow.