Cyber War by Richard A. Clarke is a MUST READ!
Let’s preface this review with a brief Wikipedia background of the author:
Richard Alan Clarke (born October 27, 1950) is an American national security expert, novelist, and former government official. He served as the Counterterrorism Czar for the National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-Terrorism for the United States between 1998 and 2003.
Overall, this book like the several other ones I read open more questions but as of January 2025 I have to keep my eyes on the prize which is study for my Comptia Security+ exam.
Popular highlights:
When the term “cyber war” is used in this book, it refers to actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation’s computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption.
U.S. media reports indicate that the United States has a similar cyber attack system, code-named Senior Suter.
One use of cyber war is to make a conventional (the U.S. military prefers the term “kinetic”) attack easier by disabling the enemy’s defenses. Another use of cyber war is to send propaganda out to demoralize the enemy, distributing e-mails and other Internet media in place of the former practice of dropping pamphlets.
So the Chinese military followed its new strategy and developed a “virtual roadmap” for how to take down an aircraft carrier battle group in a paper titled “Tactical Data Links in Information Warfare.” This unclassified paper, written by two Chinese Air Force officers, relies on open source material, most of which can be pulled off the web, to illustrate how the information systems that the U.S. military relies on can be jammed or disrupted using relatively low-tech means.
Here’s a couple things I learned from this book:
On Foreign Powers
North Korea’s Unit 121 is the largest and best trained hacker group as per a defected North Korean citizen.
The author talks about how China established two network spy stations in Cuba. Cuban President Castro gave the Chinese permission to establish this facility so that they can monitor U.S. internet traffic and DoD communications. This reminded me of how Russian subs parked nearby in Havana in June 2024 (CBS news link). Foreign powers want to make their presence known not only through cyberwarfare but by physically establishing their presence.
The author briefly addressed that some think China wouldn’t want to risk a war with America. China’s dependence on U.S. markets for its manufactured goods and the trillions the country has invested in U.S. Treasury bills mean that China would have a lot to lose in a war. However, the author has said that China will attempt to take back Taiwan.
I’d also add that China has money in Hollywood and the NBA. We can see how celebrities like John Cena and NBA stars are scared of speaking out and offending our Chinese overlords.
The author did 2 really cool things:
- Rank major countrie’s cyberwarfare offensive, defensive and dependence capabilities. He ranked North Korea as the best overall which was pretty cool.
- A theoretical war game simulation with China. The author explained what could theoretically happen and what the aftermath would be.
On Desert Storm
The author discussed the role of cyber warfare even going back as far as Desert Storm. General Schwarzkop was hesistant about it at first because he worried about the potential for Americans getting captured. This reminded me of the movie Jarhead and how the main character Swofford was bored out of his mind as airstrikes made his role as a Marine scout sniper irrelevant. Because fast forward to the 2000s and cyberwarfare is gaining more relevance than ever.
On The Government in General
The author talks about how several experts he talked to think military communications SIPRNET and JWICS are compromised.
The author talks about how he thinks if the U.S. government promoted Linux, Microsoft wouldn’t cooperate with the government.
In Closing
Richard A. Clarke wrote quite a thought provoking banger of a book. Cybersecurity is going to be serve a major role in the future of warfare.
