This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends

The Cyberweapons Arms Race

By: Nicole Perlroth

Narrated by: Allyson Ryan

Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's Summary

Bloomsbury presents This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends by Nicole Perlroth, read by Allyson Ryan.

Zero day: a software bug that allows a hacker to break into your devices and move around undetected. One of the most coveted tools in a spy's arsenal, a zero day has the power to silently spy on your iPhone, dismantle the safety controls at a chemical plant, alter an election and shut down the electric grid (just ask Ukraine).

For decades, under cover of classification levels and non-disclosure agreements, the United States government became the world’s dominant hoarder of zero days. US government agents paid top dollar - first thousands and later millions of dollars - to hackers willing to sell their lock-picking code and their silence.

Then the United States lost control of its hoard and the market.

Now those zero days are in the hands of hostile nations and mercenaries who do not care if your vote goes missing, your clean water is contaminated or our nuclear plants melt down.

Filled with spies, hackers, arms dealers and a few unsung heroes, written like a thriller and a reference, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends is an astonishing feat of journalism. Based on years of reporting and hundreds of interviews, The New York Times reporter Nicole Perlroth lifts the curtain on a market in shadow, revealing the urgent threat faced by us all if we cannot bring the global cyber arms race to heel.

©2021 Nicole Perlroth (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic Reviews

"The best kind of reportage...a rollicking fun trip, front to back and an urgent call for action before our wired world spins out of our control. I've covered cybersecurity for a decade and yet paragraph after paragraph I kept wondering: 'How did she manage to figure *that* out? How is she so good?’'' (Garrett M. Graff, Wired, author of New York Times best seller The Only Plane in the Sky) 

"A stemwinder of a tale of how frightening cyber weapons have been turned on their maker. Perlroth takes a complex subject that has been cloaked in techspeak and makes it dead real for the rest of us." (Kara Swisher, co-founder of Recode and host of the New York Times podcast Sway)

Decent story, cringeworthy narration and editing

Hands down the worst narrated book I've ever purchased from Audible. The narrator constantly mispronounces words. For example, she spells out "S-C-I-F" instead of saying "skiff." There is, last I checked, no "r" in "Kiev."

Just as bad, the text itself is full of minor errors. Dune is not set in the "not too distant" future. Sentences show up again, word for word, so often that I had to check whether the audio was skipping.

Information security is an important subject and the author has a story worth telling, but the editing and narration are so bad they undermine the book. Not worth the listen.

Can't get past all of the mispronounced words...

For a non-fiction book about hacking it does a good job of keeping the narrative interesting. BUT please, at least listen back and correct the reading errors.... The names of nations were mispronounced throughout. And there were several times when words stood out so much for being pronounced wrong. I had to go and google to see if there was just a regional difference in how people say things...nope just sloppy editing of the audiobook. Example Abhorrent: pronounced A-boar-rent?!?...just several times where the reader just missed the word and kept going. If I were the author I would be upset with the quality of the audiobook.

Great book, but mispronunciations are distracting

This is a very well reported and written book. Lots of puzzle pieces assembled in a way that you get a very clear idea of how it all intersects.

However, the narrator's pronunciation gaffes are very distracting.

It's Kyiv, not Kreeve
Bogotá does not rhyme with "pagoda"
It's Ahmadinejad, not....whatever the narrator tried to say when she pronounced the name.

Even though Nicole Perlroth likely knows all too well how these cities and people names are pronounced, the narrator clearly does not. The effect is that it makes the author sound like she doesn't know what she's talking about or is somehow faking it. That is unfortunate because Perlroth clearly has done her research (and has demonstrated her verbal abilities in multiple interviews surrounding this book's release). Perhaps they should have just let her do the audio book.

Anyway, the book itself is great, and Allison Ryan's narration is generally good, but I just wish she had been given guidance on pronouncing some of the names properly, since those mistakes do detract from an otherwise great book

1st Third was good

I really enjoyed the first portion of the book. It was exactly what I expected to read about, and what I'd hoped the whole book was about. The later part of the book went on to her "I Hate Trump" campaign that I did not care to read about at all! I almost shut it off several times but wanted to hear the end, and how she tied it all together. I was very disappointed.

I enjoyed the first third. Second third got off topic. Third, mphhh

First third off book was good. Well written. On topic. The one I bought the book to hear about.
Second third just went into a series of cyber attacks that were ok but I’ve read/listened to other books on. Author covered material well, but not what I was looking for. Third. I was disappointed. Author got very political. Very much not what I wanted to hear about. I can watch junk news for that.
There was also a glitch in my copy. Third to the last chapter was two hours by itself and repeated parts of chapter over.

An inconvent truth.

The conversation around Stuxnet is accurate. Much of the other stuff is described by someone who just doesn't understand computers. Sure, the NSA has back doors to just about every platform but the way its described is too Hollywood for me. I've been in IT since 1992 and have a degree in Electrical Engineering (digital design emphasis) and some of it just doesn't jive. Especially at the end, the google conversation. That was basically fictional.

Unoriginal

A low fidelity summary of a far better book Countdown to Zero Day. Inauthentic. The author’s primary connection to the subject matter is a journalist poking around the edges with few insights, reveals or original facts. Clumsily injects herself into the story.

Highly recommend - narration ok

The content was enlightening.
This has only become a more urgent and relevant topic since it's publication.

If I had the book in print I would both re-read and skim over a lot of the detail.

Ditto to the other reviews that note the final chapter is a repeat that I also thought it was a technical error but I guess intentional.

The narration was a bit distracting. Like 99% great interrupted by occasional fingernail on the blackboard. It seemed like a very good narrator perhaps didn’t know how to pronounce a few words. Nobody reviewed or edited?

In defense of the narrators seemingly weird pronunciation of Kiev as "kreev", ugh, it appears there are varied opinions about "correct" Ukrainian. Considering that "Ki-ev" is quite broadly said, including by Ukrainians and Russians, IMO that would have been a better editorial choice for the narration.

Technical question/detail, why are there no chapter titles?

nothing new or original, horrible narration

This book is written by a Journalist lacking understanding of her subject and it shows. She also has a hard time staying away from partisan politics. This is the kind of "omg" tech drivel one can read in the New York Times etc. Don't expect to heat anything new or origibal.

Also: the narration makes it really hard to stay focused on the text.

Message blurred by political bashing

This author presents information that everyone should be educated about. However, I can't recommend it to anyone because the message is lost in her very evident hatred of President Trump. She makes it clear that she adores former President Obama and the First Lady, but despises former President Trump and nearly everyone in the Republican Party. This book is a very partisan book, written by a very liberal person full of contempt and hatred. It is too bad she couldn't keep her own personal political beliefs out of the book because the underlying message was one that should be very public. She can only see the bad in some people while only seeing the good in some others. I wish I could recommend her book, but I can't. Her own political views over shadow her very important message. Such a shame.