America the Vulnerable

Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare

By: Joel Brenner

Narrated by: Lloyd James

Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's Summary

A former top-level National Security Agency insider goes behind the headlines to explore America's next great battleground: digital security. An urgent wake-up call that identifies our foes; unveils their methods; and charts the dire consequences for government, business, and individuals. Shortly after 9/11, Joel Brenner entered the inner sanctum of American espionage, first as the inspector general of the National Security Agency, then as the head of counterintelligence for the director of national intelligence. He saw at close range the battleground on which our adversaries are now attacking us-cyberspace.

We are at the mercy of a new generation of spies who operate remotely from China, the Middle East, Russia, even France, among many other places. These operatives have already shown their ability to penetrate our power plants, steal our latest submarine technology, rob our banks, and invade the Pentagon's secret communications systems.

Incidents like the WikiLeaks posting of secret U.S. State Department cables hint at the urgency of this problem, but they hardly reveal its extent or its danger. Our government and corporations are a "glass house," all but transparent to our adversaries. Counterfeit computer chips have found their way into our fighter aircraft; the Chinese stole a new radar system that the navy spent billions to develop; our own soldiers used intentionally corrupted thumb drives to download classified intel from laptops in Iraq. And much more.

Dispatches from the corporate world are just as dire. In 2008, hackers lifted customer files from the Royal Bank of Scotland and used them to withdraw $9 million in half an hour from ATMs in the United States, Britain, and Canada. If that was a traditional heist, it would be counted as one of the largest in history. Worldwide, corporations lose on average $5 million worth of intellectual property apiece annually, and big companies lose many times that.

©2011 Joel Brenner (P)2011 Penguin Audio

A Must Listen for Anyone in CyberSecurity

What did you love best about America the Vulnerable?

The author comes from a place of real world authority of this subject and his comments are highly creditable. The content is provided in a manner that is interesting, thought provoking, and free of dry jargon. He takes a very methodical approach to introducing the issues, the ‘so what’ part of the equation, and provides recommendations or commentary. The topics are current, relevant, and timely. If you are someone who is in the C-Level management, IT professional, or an actual Cyber Security professional, this is a mandatory listen.

What about Lloyd James’s performance did you like?

I felt the performance was excellent. Mr. James reading made you feel like the two of you were having a conversation about the subject over a coffee. I would certainly seek other materials by the performer.

wars in the future?

if this is correct, and if we aren't proactive, this is the future. Government sponsored hackers could take down our whole country and disrupt our way of life. Let's hope we're smart and proactive.

Too little too late?

This book is written by one of the most qualified people to speak on the subject of the many vulnerabilities of internetworked devices. Joel Brenner holds many titles, one of which is former inspector general of the NSA. He introduces the current and future threats to America from cyberspace, outlines fictional scenarios of these threats and presents well thought-out solutions to these overarching problems. One of my highlights of this book is discussion on the topic of the many issues with modern day intelligence. Intel services over classify their products and severely limit their own abilities to collaborate as a result. An example presented in the book is the compilation of purely open source information to create a classified conclusion of those events.

All in all, this book is a must read for those wanting to get an insight into the world of cyber security and America's cyber policy.

Secrets of past compromised

book needs revisions as it's telling a story not the story, names mention of officials in government are compromised by foreign governments not friendly to U.S, those officials still in three branches of government, once revisions reflected in this book I'll give it a higher rating

Great book

This book will open your eyes to the modern threat to critical infrastructure. You will see how unprotected our society is. The author was inspector general of the NSA.

same issues

Most of the topics covered are the same you will find in other cyber crime cyber security publishing's. good listening.

Fascinating for us lay people!

Enter the new world of cyber crime and warfare. I'm not an IT guy by any stretch, but this book and performance had my attention all the way through!

Interesting take on the Porn industry

The author is right about the way you want to portray the Porn industry. This is an interesting take on how free porn came to be. The first hand stories are interesting and the book has led me to understand how free porn works, the implications it had on the industry, and the effects it has had in our society.

Great information

I work in IT and deal with networking security issues every day, this book gives the average computer user an inside to what the security world is all about. I really enjoyed the last chapter and the ideas for a better way of communication from one country to another who share the same ideology of a democratic society

Great book!

I enjoyed listening to it. The reader's voice was not one to put me to sleep. The book was very interesting and cited many facts and made many statements that were just eye openers. I feel that the author really does have a good vision of our future.