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Author: Thomas Rid
ISBN No: 9781 84904 2802
Review date: 23/06/2026
No of pages: 218
Publisher: Hurst
Publisher URL:
http://www.hurstpublishers.com.
Year of publication: 25/11/2013
Brief:
Cyber War Will Not Take Place: by Thomas Rid. Published by Hurst 2013, paperback, ISBN 9781 84904 2802. 218 pages, ยฃ14.99. Visit www.hurstpublishers.com.
price
£14.99
The clunky title Cyber War Will Not Take Place is the only disappointment in an outstanding book that takes a fresh and welcome look at cyber security. Thomas Rid, an academic at Kingโs College London, does two important and useful things in his (handily short and readable) book. First, he queries the frankly lazy use of such phrases as โcyber warfareโ and the fear for instance of a โcyber Pearl Harborโ – the fear that someone or some country could knock out our power stations, banks and so on suddenly, by taking control of networked computers. Rid does us a service by pointing out early on, for example, that โcyberโ is an โempty yet trendy buzzwordโ. The military may be grabbing at โcyberโ merely as a way to hold on to its budgets. Second, Rid analyses closely what computers are in fact bringing: not more violence, but less. If we were to judge the book by its cover, Rid is denying that computers will be the weapons of World War Three. Heโs far more insightful. The core of his book covers sabotage, espionage and subversion. Yes, computers are used for all three – the business of the spy and the soldier – and have changed the nature of those deeds. Thankfully for so many books that major on North America, Rid gives room to the UK – for instance Joanthan Evansโ speech to the Worshipful Company of Security Professionals in 2010. To sum up, Rid does a convincing job of showing that the concept of cyber war is inept and impreciseโ, to quote Rid. His important book encourages us to think hard about computers – the explosion of data and the internet; the โstaggeringly lowโ standards of security of the systems that run critical infrastructure. But how to secure the internet, that was built to be open? Rid takes a noble stand against hype and concludes that โdemocratic countries deserve a public debate on cyber security that is far better informed than the status quoโ.
