What do you think?
Rate this book
This Machine Kills Secrets: How WikiLeakers, Cypherpunks, and Hacktivists Aim to Free the World's Information
The barbarians aren't at the gates. They're inside. This is the first full account of the cypherpunks who aim to free the world's information, from the Forbes reporter whose work has traced their history and future. What is the machine that kills secrets? WikiLeaks brought to light a new form of whistleblowing, using powerful cryptographic code to hide leakers’ identities while they spill the private data of government agencies and corporations. But that technology has been evolving for decades in the hands of hackers and radical activists, from the libertarian enclaves of Northern California to Berlin to the Balkans. And the secret-killing machine continues to evolve beyond WikiLeaks, as a movement of hacktivists aims to obliterate the world’s institutional secrecy. This is the story of the code and the characters€”idealists, anarchists, extremists€”who are transforming the next generation’s notion of what activism
384 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2012
About the author
Andy Greenberg
7 books429 followersAndy Greenberg is an award-winning senior writer for WIRED, covering security, privacy, information freedom, and hacker culture. He's the author of the forthcoming book SANDWORM: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers. Greenberg's reporting for WIRED on Ukraine's cyberwar (including an excerpt from SANDWORM) have won a Gerald Loeb Award for International Reporting and two Deadline Club Awards from the New York Society of Professional Journalists. Greenberg's last book was THIS MACHINE KILLS SECRETS, about WikiLeaks, cryptography, and the cypherpunks, which was selected as an Editor's Choice by The New York Times Book Review in 2012. Before coming to WIRED, Greenberg worked as a senior reporter for Forbes magazine. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, filmmaker Malika Zouhali-Worrall.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 143 reviews
February 6, 2016
This book was published in 2012 but still feels up to date in 2016. Andy Greenberg has created a masterful work of both journalism and storytelling. I found the book a complete pleasure to read.
The early part describes Ellsberg, the most prolific state leaker of the Kissinger era, who had to spend over a year bringing papers out of his office, photocopying them, returning them and removing sensitive details in the copies before parting with them. This is contrasted with the presumed copying and removal of computer data files very swiftly by Bradley Manning, allegedly, in order to show that where there are secrets there will be leaks, and that computers are making it far easier, not harder, to remove and distribute information.
Then the book really takes off as Greenberg interviews hackers, leakers, security experts and activists. He's briefly noted the names at the start but I didn't need to refer back at any point. The stories of these people, how they came to use computers, what they accessed and chose to do with it, is what makes this book so great. Everyone from Mudge to Assange is interviewed in person, with extensive use of files and paper sources which are referenced at the end, in case you want to do further reading. Some of the hackers are paranoid, some easygoing, some hack responsibly for a living, some are in government departments, some go to hacker conferences and some have been beaten up by Bulgarian mafia. This is a wonderful assortment of characters and attitudes.
I noted that all the computer hackers described are men. As balance there is one determined female activist in Iceland, Birgitta Jonsdottir, who is given a considerable amount of space; she became a Member of Parliament. Some of the Anonymous hackers who joined the Scientology DDOS protest were female but none are mentioned. Nor are any women attendees mentioned at any of the hacker conferences Greenberg describes attending.
Favourite parts? I enjoyed the explanation of TOR the onion router built and released by US armed forces, and how it can be used for anonymity but how experts can gather details about those using it.
I loved the story of the Boston club the L0pht, a bunch of guys hanging out in the evenings in an attic cracking their own computers and breaking programs. Because they weren't doing any harm, but brought many great minds to bear on problem solving, they were able to astound security agencies, and they had no criminal records. Ideal people to pay to create better state security. But with respectability and money, sadly the group fell apart. It wasn't fun anymore. The rock singer called Mudge was among this group, a stronger personality than the others, and Greenberg interviewed him, still doing it for a living.
I particularly loved the epic hack by Anonymous when the group was threatened by a security agency. They hacked their way in to the agency, stole all the internal e-mails and defaced the website and twitter feed, and how they did it is all laid out for us to see. Though they don't seem to have given an interview, just records.
The Assange - Domscheit-Berg - Architect trio came to prominence with Wikileaks and vast amounts of data being released from corrupt Africans to war reports to bank leaks to US embassy cables. If you don't know who the Architect is, you still won't, but Greenberg even got to interview him which makes me think that the hackers really trusted the journalist by that time. And the wry twist is that of course, as the title shows, the machine that kills secrets leaked the secrets of Wikileaks and split it apart.
A hacker conference was busy trying to establish if later leak sites were safe to leak to, and they would have been failing to protect the identities of the leakers. Probably the people we admire the most after closing the book is the group BalkanLeaks, revealing scandal after corruption to do with Bulgaria. Despite close personal intimidation. Reading this section, we see why we need whistleblowers and a means by which the information can make its way to the media.
Well done.
There's also a little ongoing puzzle through the chapters. Have fun.
The early part describes Ellsberg, the most prolific state leaker of the Kissinger era, who had to spend over a year bringing papers out of his office, photocopying them, returning them and removing sensitive details in the copies before parting with them. This is contrasted with the presumed copying and removal of computer data files very swiftly by Bradley Manning, allegedly, in order to show that where there are secrets there will be leaks, and that computers are making it far easier, not harder, to remove and distribute information.
Then the book really takes off as Greenberg interviews hackers, leakers, security experts and activists. He's briefly noted the names at the start but I didn't need to refer back at any point. The stories of these people, how they came to use computers, what they accessed and chose to do with it, is what makes this book so great. Everyone from Mudge to Assange is interviewed in person, with extensive use of files and paper sources which are referenced at the end, in case you want to do further reading. Some of the hackers are paranoid, some easygoing, some hack responsibly for a living, some are in government departments, some go to hacker conferences and some have been beaten up by Bulgarian mafia. This is a wonderful assortment of characters and attitudes.
I noted that all the computer hackers described are men. As balance there is one determined female activist in Iceland, Birgitta Jonsdottir, who is given a considerable amount of space; she became a Member of Parliament. Some of the Anonymous hackers who joined the Scientology DDOS protest were female but none are mentioned. Nor are any women attendees mentioned at any of the hacker conferences Greenberg describes attending.
Favourite parts? I enjoyed the explanation of TOR the onion router built and released by US armed forces, and how it can be used for anonymity but how experts can gather details about those using it.
I loved the story of the Boston club the L0pht, a bunch of guys hanging out in the evenings in an attic cracking their own computers and breaking programs. Because they weren't doing any harm, but brought many great minds to bear on problem solving, they were able to astound security agencies, and they had no criminal records. Ideal people to pay to create better state security. But with respectability and money, sadly the group fell apart. It wasn't fun anymore. The rock singer called Mudge was among this group, a stronger personality than the others, and Greenberg interviewed him, still doing it for a living.
I particularly loved the epic hack by Anonymous when the group was threatened by a security agency. They hacked their way in to the agency, stole all the internal e-mails and defaced the website and twitter feed, and how they did it is all laid out for us to see. Though they don't seem to have given an interview, just records.
The Assange - Domscheit-Berg - Architect trio came to prominence with Wikileaks and vast amounts of data being released from corrupt Africans to war reports to bank leaks to US embassy cables. If you don't know who the Architect is, you still won't, but Greenberg even got to interview him which makes me think that the hackers really trusted the journalist by that time. And the wry twist is that of course, as the title shows, the machine that kills secrets leaked the secrets of Wikileaks and split it apart.
A hacker conference was busy trying to establish if later leak sites were safe to leak to, and they would have been failing to protect the identities of the leakers. Probably the people we admire the most after closing the book is the group BalkanLeaks, revealing scandal after corruption to do with Bulgaria. Despite close personal intimidation. Reading this section, we see why we need whistleblowers and a means by which the information can make its way to the media.
Well done.
There's also a little ongoing puzzle through the chapters. Have fun.
April 15, 2019
Riveting journalistic story-telling into the history of cyber whistleblowing up to Assange's house arrest (2012).
The Good:
--5/5 writing style for the general public, approaching Matt Taibbi levels; the narrations in parallel was quite an enjoyable format and offered interesting comparisons.
--Delightful mix of history and intros to technical bits: Ellsberg/Pentagon Papers, Manning leak, encryption, private/public keys, mix network, cypherpunks, Tor (The Onion Router), Cablegate, Aaron Barr vs. Anonymous, Katrín Jakobsdóttir (Iceland reforms to protect whistleblowers), BalkanLeaks, Assange-Domscheit-Berg fiscal, etc.
The Missing:
--Since this is mostly journalistic story-telling, the ideologies of the numerous characters (towards technology, transparency/privacy, the state, international relations, democracy, political economy, etc.) sometimes emerge in snippets but lack in-depth analysis/commentary. While this book gets top marks for accessibility, I am personally more interested in unpacking and reflecting on the various world-views than on detailing the drama between individuals. This would be the difference between, say, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.
--Further analysis:
-Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet
-When Google Met Wikileaks
-Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future
The Good:
--5/5 writing style for the general public, approaching Matt Taibbi levels; the narrations in parallel was quite an enjoyable format and offered interesting comparisons.
--Delightful mix of history and intros to technical bits: Ellsberg/Pentagon Papers, Manning leak, encryption, private/public keys, mix network, cypherpunks, Tor (The Onion Router), Cablegate, Aaron Barr vs. Anonymous, Katrín Jakobsdóttir (Iceland reforms to protect whistleblowers), BalkanLeaks, Assange-Domscheit-Berg fiscal, etc.
The Missing:
--Since this is mostly journalistic story-telling, the ideologies of the numerous characters (towards technology, transparency/privacy, the state, international relations, democracy, political economy, etc.) sometimes emerge in snippets but lack in-depth analysis/commentary. While this book gets top marks for accessibility, I am personally more interested in unpacking and reflecting on the various world-views than on detailing the drama between individuals. This would be the difference between, say, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.
--Further analysis:
-Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet
-When Google Met Wikileaks
-Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future
September 12, 2012
Because I know the author, I've read the book nearly through twice. As enjoyable as it was in the beginning biographies, I was delighted that the last 10% of the story gets MUCH more dramatic & compelling.
Despite the accurate & journalistic tone, Greenberg managed to gracefully incorporate foreshadowing & dark irony at the book's end. He deliberately shows that secrecy is even destructive to organizations dedicated to abolish it (when they insist on living in anonymity & deep secrecy themselves.).
I am very much persuaded that cyberleaks will continue to rock the world, and that the sources will spread to corporate, private, international and virtually every institution on earth (look at the Vatican for an extreme example!).
I also believe that this book provides us with an important understanding of how these will occur, why they'll accelerate & some of the ways we might expect our world to change.
Very entertaining and compelling narrative about a nearly invisible world.
= -- = -- = --
Lastly, the book title isn't as obscure as I thought. Shows I'm not so culturally deep.
Despite the accurate & journalistic tone, Greenberg managed to gracefully incorporate foreshadowing & dark irony at the book's end. He deliberately shows that secrecy is even destructive to organizations dedicated to abolish it (when they insist on living in anonymity & deep secrecy themselves.).
I am very much persuaded that cyberleaks will continue to rock the world, and that the sources will spread to corporate, private, international and virtually every institution on earth (look at the Vatican for an extreme example!).
I also believe that this book provides us with an important understanding of how these will occur, why they'll accelerate & some of the ways we might expect our world to change.
Very entertaining and compelling narrative about a nearly invisible world.
= -- = -- = --
Lastly, the book title isn't as obscure as I thought. Shows I'm not so culturally deep.
December 4, 2012
He had me at "lattice-based homomorphic cryptography." While this book exists because its author to a chance to interview Julian Assange just before he became a figure of international notoriety, it is not really a history of Wikileaks. Instead, it's looking at the relationship between anonymity and the exposure of sensitive information, an issue that has a surprisingly rich and fraught history in the technology world. When Greenberg first launches into an explanation of the math behind various cryptographic techniques, I thought I wasn't going to make it. But that feeling passed quickly, once I realized there was a reason to understand it. The story here is a bit messy -- its jumps can be a bit jarring -- but the book more than makes up for it in amusement and importance.
January 13, 2014
I read this book on my flight back to England (the second one, since I missed the first one by that much). The plane is one of those newer models that has entertainment units in the back of every seat, and to my surprise they had different movies on offer from those available when I flew back to Canada a few weeks ago. One of those movies was The Fifth Estate, which also tells the story of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. So this review will also be a bit of a review of that movie. But I’ll save you the suspense: This Machine Kills Secrets is way better than the The Fifth Estate.
Andy Greenberg doesn’t just tell the story of Julian Assange. He tells the story how the global climate that allowed WikiLeaks to coalesce came itself into being. For this, he stretches back to Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. He discusses the origins of public key encryption and PGP, of the cypherpunks, Tor, and all the predecessors who paved the way for Assange and WikiLeaks. Greenberg explores the tension between the government and anti-establishment groups. Each group wants to keep or expose certain secrets. Is there ever a time when leaks are acceptable, even if they are unlawful? What if such leaks place people in danger? Or are we truly living in a post-privacy age, where there should be no secrets and everything should be open?
I like the narrative technique that Greenberg uses here: each chapter typically consists of two stories, and he alternates between these stories, developing them in parallel. For example, in chapter 6 he describes both the ascension of Birgitta Jo’nsdo’ttir to the Icelandic parliament and the genesis of Bivol and BalkanLeaks at the hands of Atanas Tchobanov and Assen Yordanov. He discusses Jo’nsdo’ttir’s involvement in politics and how she becomes involved with WikiLeaks; meanwhile, explains how Tchobanov and Yordanov’s desire to replicate WikiLeaks on a smaller, more contained scale has met with success because of their commitment to the anonymity of their sources. By switching back and forth, Greenberg creates an interesting pacing that keeps the chapters feeling fresh, even when they are very long.
This is not a long book, but it contains a wealth of information. With each chapter, Greenberg delves further into the tools and social movements that emerged in the crucible of the early 1990s Internet. It all starts with Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, which Greenberg contrasts with the more recent leak by Chelsea Manning. From here, Greenberg traces other instances of leaking, as well as the technology and related hacking movements that make such leaks possible. He mentions Anonymous and the HBGary hack. But, most importantly, he places WikiLeaks in context of other leaks and thus explains how WikiLeaks forever changed what it meant to leak confidential or classified information.
WikiLeaks, Greenberg argues, arrived on the world stage at the perfect time. Technology had advanced to a point where a massive leak, orders of magnitude beyond the Pentagon Papers, was quite feasible. Thanks to the Internet, it was not only easy to distribute leaked documents but virtually impossible to remove them from circulation once they had been distributed. (This is particularly evident as Greenberg describes the circumstances whereby the complete, unredacted set of State Department cables became widely available after someone leaked the encrypted file and Assange unwittingly allowed his password to that file to be published.)
But WikiLeaks is also somewhat of a special case. It has encouraged copycats, which have met with varying degrees of success. But the tenets of leaking and anonymous whistleblowing have not exactly become cemented within our culture. WikiLeaks itself has a much lower profile these days, still smarting from Assange’s more personal controversies. Greenberg doesn’t pull the punches, cataloguing the fall from grace, as it were, for WikiLeaks and Assange, as well as the difficulties faced by those like Domscheit-Berg, who strives to create a successor to WikiLeaks in OpenLeaks.
This Machine Kills Secrets is much more nuanced and much more detailled than The Fifth Estate. The movie only focuses on the relationship between Assange and Domscheit-Berg. It begins when the two first begin working together and ends shortly thereafter. There is no mention of OpenLeaks and very little in terms of language or explanation about WikiLeaks--in short, there is very little to differentiate this movie from generic hacker movie fare. It does nothing to place WikiLeaks into the historical context of leaking and civil disobedience. Maybe the only good thing it does is demonstrate the conflict between those who want to leak everything, unedited, and those who feel a duty to prevent needlessly endangering people mentioned in leaked material. (Plus, I enjoyed seeing Alexander Siddig, Laura Linney, and Stanley Tucci in that subplot.)
This is a must-read for anyone interested in cryptography, hacking, security, and leaking. Pick up this new edition if you can--this was on my to-read list from when it first came out last year, prior to Snowden’s megaleak. This new edition has Greenberg’s thoughts on Snowden included as an afterword, and it really helps to put the rest of the book in perspective. I’m glad it was included, because otherwise the book would have felt a little obsolete in light of how Snowden’s megaleak has changed things--or not changed things. Because, as Greenberg is quick to point out, the story of leaks has not yet finished. We aren’t living in a post-leak world. We’re still living in the middle of this revolution, and it’s too early yet to tell which way it will go. That’s up to us.
Andy Greenberg doesn’t just tell the story of Julian Assange. He tells the story how the global climate that allowed WikiLeaks to coalesce came itself into being. For this, he stretches back to Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. He discusses the origins of public key encryption and PGP, of the cypherpunks, Tor, and all the predecessors who paved the way for Assange and WikiLeaks. Greenberg explores the tension between the government and anti-establishment groups. Each group wants to keep or expose certain secrets. Is there ever a time when leaks are acceptable, even if they are unlawful? What if such leaks place people in danger? Or are we truly living in a post-privacy age, where there should be no secrets and everything should be open?
I like the narrative technique that Greenberg uses here: each chapter typically consists of two stories, and he alternates between these stories, developing them in parallel. For example, in chapter 6 he describes both the ascension of Birgitta Jo’nsdo’ttir to the Icelandic parliament and the genesis of Bivol and BalkanLeaks at the hands of Atanas Tchobanov and Assen Yordanov. He discusses Jo’nsdo’ttir’s involvement in politics and how she becomes involved with WikiLeaks; meanwhile, explains how Tchobanov and Yordanov’s desire to replicate WikiLeaks on a smaller, more contained scale has met with success because of their commitment to the anonymity of their sources. By switching back and forth, Greenberg creates an interesting pacing that keeps the chapters feeling fresh, even when they are very long.
This is not a long book, but it contains a wealth of information. With each chapter, Greenberg delves further into the tools and social movements that emerged in the crucible of the early 1990s Internet. It all starts with Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, which Greenberg contrasts with the more recent leak by Chelsea Manning. From here, Greenberg traces other instances of leaking, as well as the technology and related hacking movements that make such leaks possible. He mentions Anonymous and the HBGary hack. But, most importantly, he places WikiLeaks in context of other leaks and thus explains how WikiLeaks forever changed what it meant to leak confidential or classified information.
WikiLeaks, Greenberg argues, arrived on the world stage at the perfect time. Technology had advanced to a point where a massive leak, orders of magnitude beyond the Pentagon Papers, was quite feasible. Thanks to the Internet, it was not only easy to distribute leaked documents but virtually impossible to remove them from circulation once they had been distributed. (This is particularly evident as Greenberg describes the circumstances whereby the complete, unredacted set of State Department cables became widely available after someone leaked the encrypted file and Assange unwittingly allowed his password to that file to be published.)
But WikiLeaks is also somewhat of a special case. It has encouraged copycats, which have met with varying degrees of success. But the tenets of leaking and anonymous whistleblowing have not exactly become cemented within our culture. WikiLeaks itself has a much lower profile these days, still smarting from Assange’s more personal controversies. Greenberg doesn’t pull the punches, cataloguing the fall from grace, as it were, for WikiLeaks and Assange, as well as the difficulties faced by those like Domscheit-Berg, who strives to create a successor to WikiLeaks in OpenLeaks.
This Machine Kills Secrets is much more nuanced and much more detailled than The Fifth Estate. The movie only focuses on the relationship between Assange and Domscheit-Berg. It begins when the two first begin working together and ends shortly thereafter. There is no mention of OpenLeaks and very little in terms of language or explanation about WikiLeaks--in short, there is very little to differentiate this movie from generic hacker movie fare. It does nothing to place WikiLeaks into the historical context of leaking and civil disobedience. Maybe the only good thing it does is demonstrate the conflict between those who want to leak everything, unedited, and those who feel a duty to prevent needlessly endangering people mentioned in leaked material. (Plus, I enjoyed seeing Alexander Siddig, Laura Linney, and Stanley Tucci in that subplot.)
This is a must-read for anyone interested in cryptography, hacking, security, and leaking. Pick up this new edition if you can--this was on my to-read list from when it first came out last year, prior to Snowden’s megaleak. This new edition has Greenberg’s thoughts on Snowden included as an afterword, and it really helps to put the rest of the book in perspective. I’m glad it was included, because otherwise the book would have felt a little obsolete in light of how Snowden’s megaleak has changed things--or not changed things. Because, as Greenberg is quick to point out, the story of leaks has not yet finished. We aren’t living in a post-leak world. We’re still living in the middle of this revolution, and it’s too early yet to tell which way it will go. That’s up to us.
October 6, 2012
Suspenseful, inspiring, humorous, and overall just a fantastic job of journalistic storytelling. I started quite a few books related to questions of democracy and technology, and specifically hacker culture, all at the same time, and this one is easily the best. Greenberg takes technological and political issues of great complexity - not to mention delicate personal relationships, such as that between Julian Assange and former Wikileaks staffers - and provides the perfect amount of context, explanation, and nuance, while always managing to keep his stories moving. I'm already waiting for another book from Greenberg to pick up on the ideas and events he only briefly mentions in the final chapter of this one.
February 2, 2013
By Andy Greenberg. Grade: B+
WHAT IS THE MACHINE THAT KILLS SECRETS? WikiLeaks brought to light a new form of whistle-blowing, using powerful cryptographic code to hide leakers’ identities while they spill the private data of government agencies and corporations. But that technology has been evolving for decades in the hands of hackers and radical activists, from the libertarian enclaves of Northern California to Berlin to the Balkans. And the secret-killing machine continues to evolve beyond WikiLeaks, as a movement of hacktivists aims to obliterate the world’s institutional secrecy. With unrivalled access to such major players as Julian Assange, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, and WikiLeaks’s shadowy engineer known as the Architect, (never before interviewed) reporter Andy Greenberg unveils the world of politically motivated hackers–who they are and how they operate. This is the story of the code and characters–idealists, anarchists, extremists–who are transforming the next generation’s notion of what activism can be.
Whoa.
The Machine That Kills
When I read the synopsis, I thought this book would merely be an extension of the WikiLeaks, an insight into the back-end of how these leaks happened. This in itself is pretty interesting, enough to kindle your curiosity. But boy, was I wrong.
The book begins by giving comparative accounts of two leakers, a chronological account of how leaking developed. Gradually, it gets into the current scenario of leaking, how hackers or “hacktivists”, with the advent of technology, have taken it upon themselves to ensure transparency and freedom of information. The story then unfolds into how and why leaking came to the fore and what lies in the future.
There are a couple of things which impressed me the most about the story, or in this case, the content due to its relevance in modern context. It shows both how and why WikiLeaks made such ripples. Everybody knows WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, but people think that Julian Assange got lucky, found some documents and made them public. The other thing is that it also shows how WikilLeaks is just a part of a very big ideology – an ideology which grows behind firewalls, hides in plain sight and prepares to strike with sheer brutality using the force of technology.
As far as writing is concerned, the pace of the book is pretty slick. The author has mostly restricted himself to relevant and in some instances, instrumental details. The events were arranged sequentially in a proper fashion. Many a times, the author has used switching, or moving between two similar or parallel sub-plots, to emphasise and compare them.
Reading this novel reminded me of Zeitgeist: the movie. The real significance of the reason behind writing this book can be understood only in countries like USA where everything is so tech-based that it leaves everything vulnerable to monitoring. Nobody can be certain as to when Big Brother is watching. The book really latches on to the reader and lets go only once you’re done with it.
For the conspiracy theorists, this book will both tease your tastebuds and fortunately, provide a sound basis for making claims. For the interested, this will be an insight into the relevance and magnitude of the leaking events happening around the world. Regardless, this is a book sure to impress readers with its wit and at the same time, amaze them with the stark gravity of its message.
Originally reviewed at www.vaultofbooks.com
WHAT IS THE MACHINE THAT KILLS SECRETS? WikiLeaks brought to light a new form of whistle-blowing, using powerful cryptographic code to hide leakers’ identities while they spill the private data of government agencies and corporations. But that technology has been evolving for decades in the hands of hackers and radical activists, from the libertarian enclaves of Northern California to Berlin to the Balkans. And the secret-killing machine continues to evolve beyond WikiLeaks, as a movement of hacktivists aims to obliterate the world’s institutional secrecy. With unrivalled access to such major players as Julian Assange, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, and WikiLeaks’s shadowy engineer known as the Architect, (never before interviewed) reporter Andy Greenberg unveils the world of politically motivated hackers–who they are and how they operate. This is the story of the code and characters–idealists, anarchists, extremists–who are transforming the next generation’s notion of what activism can be.
Whoa.
The Machine That Kills
When I read the synopsis, I thought this book would merely be an extension of the WikiLeaks, an insight into the back-end of how these leaks happened. This in itself is pretty interesting, enough to kindle your curiosity. But boy, was I wrong.
The book begins by giving comparative accounts of two leakers, a chronological account of how leaking developed. Gradually, it gets into the current scenario of leaking, how hackers or “hacktivists”, with the advent of technology, have taken it upon themselves to ensure transparency and freedom of information. The story then unfolds into how and why leaking came to the fore and what lies in the future.
There are a couple of things which impressed me the most about the story, or in this case, the content due to its relevance in modern context. It shows both how and why WikiLeaks made such ripples. Everybody knows WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, but people think that Julian Assange got lucky, found some documents and made them public. The other thing is that it also shows how WikilLeaks is just a part of a very big ideology – an ideology which grows behind firewalls, hides in plain sight and prepares to strike with sheer brutality using the force of technology.
As far as writing is concerned, the pace of the book is pretty slick. The author has mostly restricted himself to relevant and in some instances, instrumental details. The events were arranged sequentially in a proper fashion. Many a times, the author has used switching, or moving between two similar or parallel sub-plots, to emphasise and compare them.
Reading this novel reminded me of Zeitgeist: the movie. The real significance of the reason behind writing this book can be understood only in countries like USA where everything is so tech-based that it leaves everything vulnerable to monitoring. Nobody can be certain as to when Big Brother is watching. The book really latches on to the reader and lets go only once you’re done with it.
For the conspiracy theorists, this book will both tease your tastebuds and fortunately, provide a sound basis for making claims. For the interested, this will be an insight into the relevance and magnitude of the leaking events happening around the world. Regardless, this is a book sure to impress readers with its wit and at the same time, amaze them with the stark gravity of its message.
Originally reviewed at www.vaultofbooks.com
July 25, 2020
3.75 (I'm sure if the current year was 2012, it would have been a 5)
This book could really benefit from an updated edition which adds a few chapters for what has happened since 2012. For example, Edward Snowden.
There would also be an opportunity to followup on some of the book's predictions. For example, the book writes... that the government claims...that new and improved security systems are in place to prevent future mass government leaks, and that Chelsea Manning would be the 'last mega-leaker'.
The fact that there are new updates to the story shouldn't take anything away from this book though. It was interesting to hear about the characters who invented Tor testing out the idea with paper envelopes inside of other envelopes. Each recipient only being able to decipher where to send the inner envelope off to next, without being able to read the contents, or know the message's point of origin, or even its final destination. Interesting stuff.
A word of caution about the audiobook. I had the physical book and the audiobook. Most chapters have a 'present' and 'past' story line interwoven that contrast two similar characters in different eras. In the paper book, you can tell when the time frame changes due to graphics printed on the pages. The audiobook reads straight from one paragraph in the past to a paragraph in the present without taking a breath, or any indication that you may have jumped 40 years in the story. The audiobook could (at first) be hard to follow if you didn't know when the travel travel jumps happened. You get used to it, and in the paper book it is perfectly fine.
This book could really benefit from an updated edition which adds a few chapters for what has happened since 2012. For example, Edward Snowden.
There would also be an opportunity to followup on some of the book's predictions. For example, the book writes... that the government claims...that new and improved security systems are in place to prevent future mass government leaks, and that Chelsea Manning would be the 'last mega-leaker'.
The fact that there are new updates to the story shouldn't take anything away from this book though. It was interesting to hear about the characters who invented Tor testing out the idea with paper envelopes inside of other envelopes. Each recipient only being able to decipher where to send the inner envelope off to next, without being able to read the contents, or know the message's point of origin, or even its final destination. Interesting stuff.
A word of caution about the audiobook. I had the physical book and the audiobook. Most chapters have a 'present' and 'past' story line interwoven that contrast two similar characters in different eras. In the paper book, you can tell when the time frame changes due to graphics printed on the pages. The audiobook reads straight from one paragraph in the past to a paragraph in the present without taking a breath, or any indication that you may have jumped 40 years in the story. The audiobook could (at first) be hard to follow if you didn't know when the travel travel jumps happened. You get used to it, and in the paper book it is perfectly fine.
May 17, 2019
This book is a comprehensive overview of the unauthorized (and often illegal) sharing and obtaining of information, with subjects ranging from Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers to the cypherpunks and crypto-anarchists of the incipient Internet to the rise and fall of WikiLeaks to Chelsea Manning's release of classified U.S. government information. In a journalistic style, Greenberg depicts both technical and ethical aspects of a decades-long debate over cryptography, government, and whistleblowing.
Authoritarian regimes create forces which oppose them by pushing against a people’s will to truth, love and self-realization. Plans which assist authoritarian rule, once discovered, induce further resistance. Hence such schemes are concealed by successful authoritarian powers until resistance is futile or outweighed by the efficiencies of naked power. This collaborative secrecy, working to the detriment of a population, is enough to define their behavior as conspiratorial.
Julian Assange, "Conspiracy as Governance"
March 9, 2013
First thing out the gate: I'm not expert enough to comment on all of the facts presented in this book, and it's possible that some have been indulged or stretched a bit. It's well cited, and Greenberg's a good journalist, but you never know.
That said, this was one of the best paced and most exciting tech journalism books I remember reading. It really recalls the seminal Steven Levy stuff, like "Hackers" and "Crypto," but working with characters that many people will recognize from the news. (Or in some cases, from events and mailing lists and the like.)
Anyway, there are a lot of disparate events and the book covers 40 years of history, and yet Greenberg does a great job of making a very cohesive and well-paced narrative out of it all. If you're interested in leaks and crypto and the subversive corners of the tech community, I'd give this a very hearty recommendation. Even if you're not though, I think it's enjoyable enough as a story that you'd get along, and then come away with some understanding of why people are so worked up about it.
That said, this was one of the best paced and most exciting tech journalism books I remember reading. It really recalls the seminal Steven Levy stuff, like "Hackers" and "Crypto," but working with characters that many people will recognize from the news. (Or in some cases, from events and mailing lists and the like.)
Anyway, there are a lot of disparate events and the book covers 40 years of history, and yet Greenberg does a great job of making a very cohesive and well-paced narrative out of it all. If you're interested in leaks and crypto and the subversive corners of the tech community, I'd give this a very hearty recommendation. Even if you're not though, I think it's enjoyable enough as a story that you'd get along, and then come away with some understanding of why people are so worked up about it.
July 6, 2012
Andy gives us a behind the scenes look at the implosion of wikileaks and the intriguing history of leaks and whistle-blowers. A must read for anyone interested in the darker side of the internet and how it can be used to spread transparency and chaos.
March 24, 2020
Добър опит. Дава представа за процесите. Авторът е събрал достатъчно материал, като се е постарал да го изложи, без да налага свое виждане и тълкуване.
April 13, 2020
Content-wise the book is great if not superb. However, quality of writing is not that great when you consider this as a book, not a long newspaper feature.
August 3, 2013
Greenberg creates a series of intriguing character sketches which converge at various points throughout modern hacker history. This character-based approach to telling this very timely narrative is what makes it rich and engaging, and makes the current debate about the ethics of leaking so humanly complex. If you start this book ambivalent about how you feel about organizations like Wikileaks and Anonymous, this isn't likely to clarify anything for you. But it will reveal the many layers of moral, ethical, political and philosophical debate involved.
Greenberg also strikes a nice balance between giving us enough technical background to respect our intelligence, but also not "geeking out" the content to the point of alienating a non-technical person.
This was a surprisingly suspenseful narrative and couldn't be more timely. The fact that Bradley Manning's trial concluded as I was reading it was pure conincidence, but put that news in a completely new context. And the Snowden case hadn't even emerged yet when this was published. I've love to get Greenberg's take on that!
Greenberg also strikes a nice balance between giving us enough technical background to respect our intelligence, but also not "geeking out" the content to the point of alienating a non-technical person.
This was a surprisingly suspenseful narrative and couldn't be more timely. The fact that Bradley Manning's trial concluded as I was reading it was pure conincidence, but put that news in a completely new context. And the Snowden case hadn't even emerged yet when this was published. I've love to get Greenberg's take on that!
October 2, 2013
Свобода, повече свобода, отколкото можем да понесем: http://knigolandia.info/book-review/w...
“Уикилийкс – машината, която убива тайни” е за света на освободената информация това, което е “Големият залог” на Майкъл Луис за кризата – книга за хората, не просто описание на задвижените и видимо невъзможните за спиране процеси. А��ди Грийнбърг е талантлив публицист, който успява да движи паралелно действие за живота и активността на хора от различни точки на света, а понякога от съвсем различни времена. Всъщност очаквах бегло маркиране на дейността на “Уикилийкс” и “Анонимните”, а всъщност получих мащабен текст, който се разтяга от времената преди десетилетия, когато копирането и изнасянето на информация е изисквало месеци тежък труд и огромни рискове – та до наши дни, когато едно момче просто записва на диск секретни данни и си излиза от сградата.
Издателство "Милениум"
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/w...
“Уикилийкс – машината, която убива тайни” е за света на освободената информация това, което е “Големият залог” на Майкъл Луис за кризата – книга за хората, не просто описание на задвижените и видимо невъзможните за спиране процеси. А��ди Грийнбърг е талантлив публицист, който успява да движи паралелно действие за живота и активността на хора от различни точки на света, а понякога от съвсем различни времена. Всъщност очаквах бегло маркиране на дейността на “Уикилийкс” и “Анонимните”, а всъщност получих мащабен текст, който се разтяга от времената преди десетилетия, когато копирането и изнасянето на информация е изисквало месеци тежък труд и огромни рискове – та до наши дни, когато едно момче просто записва на диск секретни данни и си излиза от сградата.
Издателство "Милениум"
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/w...
June 2, 2018
A compelling look at the numerous different methods used to allow for people to anonymously release information. Got lost in all the details at times, but overall an interesting read.
June 23, 2017
It describe the world of how WikiLeaks and the internet anonymity movement started. I found it informative with good narrative. It tells the story of Cypherpunks, hack geeks and how PGP, tor idea came to live. The ideas of several individual and their obsession with privacy, anonymity, and non censorship. What are the main idea about mixer algorithms to hide traffic and the multiple layer of encryption that Tor use. The story then move to Wikileak earlier days and Julian Assange early life. Later days after their major leak of Afghan war documents. The future of such freedom of world information.
April 12, 2013
Truly fantastic book by a thorough, careful and yet non-boring journalist who also happens to be a consummate storyteller. The absolutely spiffing quality of the editing on top of Greenberg's lively and inventive use of language makes it a good read even separate from the subject matter, but when you have even a passing interest in the themes of privacy, governmental transparency, institutionalised secret-keeping, anonymity, intellectual property or Internet security, this book is one you simply must read.
December 27, 2012
Interesting journalism piece on the history of WikiLeaks and the technologies around anonymous whistle-blowing in the technology age.
October 31, 2017
Interesting read, and now I'm sure I'm on some list somewhere for even saying I read this book, but then I was probably already on the list a other reasons. ;-)
As for the book, it was an interesting overview to the people who took Wiki Leaks from a fledgling website that no one heard during it s early years, to one that gets mentioned in the national/global press about once a month. Well, at least it use to get mentioned about once a month, these days its about once a quarter.
This book takes the reader in the the history of the public founders of Wiki Leaks and other online hacktivist websites, giving a brief history into how the designers and creators were before they became their online persona. What driving factors drove them to seek these versus online outlets and what factors keep them going despite the ever growing pressures from global governments to shut them down.
I highly recommend this book as supplement reading material to anyone looking to broaden their reading material into the what some have called the Dark Web and its inhabitants. What it lacks in technical jargon, it makes up with a better understanding of the human nature that drives people to, well, leak.
As for the book, it was an interesting overview to the people who took Wiki Leaks from a fledgling website that no one heard during it s early years, to one that gets mentioned in the national/global press about once a month. Well, at least it use to get mentioned about once a month, these days its about once a quarter.
This book takes the reader in the the history of the public founders of Wiki Leaks and other online hacktivist websites, giving a brief history into how the designers and creators were before they became their online persona. What driving factors drove them to seek these versus online outlets and what factors keep them going despite the ever growing pressures from global governments to shut them down.
I highly recommend this book as supplement reading material to anyone looking to broaden their reading material into the what some have called the Dark Web and its inhabitants. What it lacks in technical jargon, it makes up with a better understanding of the human nature that drives people to, well, leak.
November 29, 2020
I read this because I really liked Andy Greenberg's latest book, Sandworm.
I kind of regret my decision to pick this up because good lord, I do not want to have to talk about Julian Assange and whatever his deal is. But I went in thinking I maybe would learn something about him that I didn't understand before and I'd have something worth saying about my newfound understanding. Unfortunately, this is just more of what I'd already heard. He still seems like a brilliant asshole who's understanding of the world seems kind of incomprehensible.
Honestly, there isn't much here that I didn't already know, which surprises me because I never really thought I was super knowledgeable about WikiLeaks. I paid attention to the news at the time, but I always thought there was more to know if you really wanted to dig into it. So to me this felt more like a refresher course rather than something informative to fill in the details.
I kind of regret my decision to pick this up because good lord, I do not want to have to talk about Julian Assange and whatever his deal is. But I went in thinking I maybe would learn something about him that I didn't understand before and I'd have something worth saying about my newfound understanding. Unfortunately, this is just more of what I'd already heard. He still seems like a brilliant asshole who's understanding of the world seems kind of incomprehensible.
Honestly, there isn't much here that I didn't already know, which surprises me because I never really thought I was super knowledgeable about WikiLeaks. I paid attention to the news at the time, but I always thought there was more to know if you really wanted to dig into it. So to me this felt more like a refresher course rather than something informative to fill in the details.
August 26, 2018
A compelling narrative composed of succinct bios of the key actors in the cypherpunks movement attentive to their particular ethical dispositions on institutions of authority, privacy, and citizens’ rights - leaks dating from the release of the Pentagon Papers to Wikileaks’ Cablegate, and a brief mention of the (then) recent Snowden leaks in the book’s Afterword.
Although spying only a peek into this pervasive problem of privacy in the unavoidable Webs that are essential to the infrastructure of our modern societies, this book was absolutely eye-opening. The secret, intrusive, and omniscient surveillance of our private lives is a threat I’ve been aware of, but this book moves me beyond apathy to start taking better care of my online presence and interactions. It also gives me hope for more reliable sources and transmissions of truth in this mucked up media scene.
Although spying only a peek into this pervasive problem of privacy in the unavoidable Webs that are essential to the infrastructure of our modern societies, this book was absolutely eye-opening. The secret, intrusive, and omniscient surveillance of our private lives is a threat I’ve been aware of, but this book moves me beyond apathy to start taking better care of my online presence and interactions. It also gives me hope for more reliable sources and transmissions of truth in this mucked up media scene.
September 3, 2017
This book started out extremely promising. It talked about Leakers, how leaks happen, and the hurdles to leaking. It breifly went over how much easier Bradley Manning leaked his trove of documents compared to Daniel Ellsberg, and the troubles that both of them faced. However, this book took a turn for the worst when it started talking about Julian Assange. The book put too much focus on him and very quickly got caught up in the nuances of WikiLeaks and the drama it faced. The book became very technical and didn't do a great job explaining the difficult technical principles that the author was trying to discuss. I also felt the book had some loose ends. Despite this, I would still say this book was very interesting and a great read if your looking for something about leakers or WikiLeaks.
November 21, 2020
This book was written like a magazine article, which didn't really work in the longer format. Also, Greenberg never bothered to fact check his sources or do much research at all, so the book was mostly just a recounting of what several dubious characters said. If the reader ignores Greenberg's editorializing, and just focuses on what the subjects were saying, then the book provided a glimpse into the flaws inherent in each source.
The one redeeming factor of the book was that it provided a kind of history of the cypherpunk scene and a biography of some of the key players. It gave some insight into why some of the characters turned out the way they did.
The one redeeming factor of the book was that it provided a kind of history of the cypherpunk scene and a biography of some of the key players. It gave some insight into why some of the characters turned out the way they did.
December 25, 2018
I'm giving this book 3 stars because it's sorely in need of an updated afterward. The story and characters are all super interesting and it definitely gives some great insights into the cypherpunk movement and the motivations of the people around WikiLeaks. Unfortunately, the book was written pre-Snowden and an extra chapter detailing the fallout from his leaks and what's happened with the leaking community/environment in general over the past 5 years would have been really helpful. As the book stands now, it just seems dated given the subject matter.
December 9, 2019
Interesting, though not really my thing. I read this book mostly as research for a story thread I'm working on in my own writing. When I realized this book was published in 2012, I thought, "Yikes, that's so out of date." But I gradually realized that this is an historical review of social protest and action via divulging secrets, going back to the 60s and even before that. So it's dated analysis isn't a reason not to read it. Disinterest in political infighting and politics in general, is.
January 23, 2021
I read /This Machine Kills Secrets: How WikiLeakers, Cypherpunks, and Hacktivists Aim to Free the World's Information/, by Andy Greenberg:
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/bo...
The first third or so of the book was awesome, with Assange and Chelsea Manning and WikiLeaks history I didn't know all of... the rest of the book is still recommended if you're not familiar with all that's been happening in those and related worlds.
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/bo...
The first third or so of the book was awesome, with Assange and Chelsea Manning and WikiLeaks history I didn't know all of... the rest of the book is still recommended if you're not familiar with all that's been happening in those and related worlds.
March 12, 2018
Excelente y muy detallado recuento de todo el movimiento de "wikileaks" y sitios asociados. La investigación se hizo muy a fondo y el recuento es sumamente interesante. Por desgracia, debido a que el tema está en constante cambio, el final se siente muy inconcluso y abrupto. Aún así, hubiera sido una buena idea concluir con algún análisis o aportación propia del autor.
May 24, 2018
If you want to know what the deal with hacktivists and how cyber security intersect then this is your book. The author goes into a mini biography about some of the most famous hacktivists, such as Julian Assange, and explains what they could do and why they do it. Even though this information is a little dated now it's still good to know stuff.
May 24, 2023
Excelente y muy detallado recuento de todo el movimiento de "wikileaks" y sitios asociados. La investigación se hizo muy a fondo y el recuento es sumamente interesante. Por desgracia, debido a que el tema está en constante cambio, el final se siente muy inconcluso y abrupto. Aún así, hubiera sido una buena idea concluir con algún análisis o aportación propia del autor.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 143 reviews