Cyber Threat: The Rise of Information Geopolitics in U.S. National Security

by Chris Bronk

Overview

This book presents a holistic view of the geopolitics of cyberspace that have arisen over the past decade, utilizing recent events to explain the international security dimension of cyber threat and vulnerability, and to document the challenges of controlling information resources and protecting computer systems.

How are the evolving cases of cyber attack and breach as well as the actions of government and corporations shaping how cyberspace is governed? What object lessons are there in security cases such as those involving Wikileaks and the Snowden affair? An essential read for practitioners, scholars, and students of international affairs and security, this book examines the widely pervasive and enormously effective nature of cyber threats today, explaining why cyber attacks happen, how they matter, and how they may be managed.

The book addresses a chronology of events starting in 2005 to comprehensively explain the international security dimension of cyber threat and vulnerability. It begins with an explanation of contemporary information technology, including the economics of contemporary cloud, mobile, and control systems software as well as how computing and networking—principally the Internet—are interwoven in the concept of cyberspace. Author Chris Bronk, PhD, then documents the national struggles with controlling information resources and protecting computer systems. The book considers major security cases such as Wikileaks, Stuxnet, the cyber attack on Estonia, Shamoon, and the recent exploits of the Syrian Electronic Army. Readers will understand how cyber security in the 21st century is far more than a military or defense issue, but is a critical matter of international law, diplomacy, commerce, and civil society as well.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440834981
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/01/2016
Series:	Praeger Security International
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Chris Bronk, PhD, is assistant professor of computer and information systems and associate director of the Center for Information Security Research and Education at the University of Houston's College of Technology.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Timeline of Major Cyber Security Events, 2005-2015 xi

1 A New Great Game 1

2 Checking Facebook on an iPhone 10

3 Tunis, Room 641A, and the Politics of the Information Society 26

4 The Great Cyberwar of 2007 41

5 Securing Cyberspace in the Homeland 54

6 A Commission, a Review, but Little Policy 68

7 Hard Cyber Power, from Stuxnet to Shamoon 80

8 Diplomacy, Social Software, and the Arab Spring 93

9 Espionage, Radical Transparency, and National Security 105

10 Snowden 124

11 Cybercrime and Punishment 138

12 Virtual Policy in the Real World 149

Notes 159

Bibliography 203

Index 227

Editorial Reviews

The arguments within the book are clear and powerful. . . . Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.” —Choice

From the Publisher