Hardly a day passes without news of a major hack, leak, or breach; with the scale of computer use and reliance on digital forms of data, no sector of society is immune to these data dumps, infiltrations, and floods. From the surveillance of dissidents to the hacking of elections to the weaponization of memes, hacking is changing in character, and it is changing the world. In this issue we ask whether hacking and hacks have crossed a techno-political threshold: how are hacks, leaks and breaches transforming our world, creating new collectives, and changing our understanding of security and politics. How has the relationship of hacking and hackers to their own collectives, to governments, and to the tools and techniques been transformed recently? What does it mean to be a hacker these days, and how does it differ from engineering, from "cyber-security," from information warfare or from hacktivism?

When people think of hackers, they usually think of a lone wolf acting with the intent to garner personal data for identity theft and fraud. But what about the corporations and government entities that use hacking as a strategy for managing risk? Why Hackers Win asks the pivotal question of how and why the instrumental uses of invasive software by corporations and government agencies contribute to social change. Through a critical communication and media studies lens, the book focuses on the struggles of breaking and defending the “trusted systems” underlying our everyday use of technology. It compares the United States and the European Union, exploring how cybersecurity and hacking accelerate each other in digital capitalism, and how the competitive advantage that hackers can provide corporations and governments may actually afford new venues for commodity development and exchange. Presenting prominent case studies of communication law and policy, corporate hacks, and key players in the global cybersecurity market, the book proposes a political economic model of new markets for software vulnerabilities and exploits, and clearly illustrates the social functions of hacking.

This illuminating book examines and refines the commonplace "wisdom" about cyber conflict-its effects, character, and implications for national and individual security in the 21st century. "Cyber warfare" evokes different images to different people. This book deals with the technological aspects denoted by "cyber" and also with the information operations connected to social media's role in digital struggle. The author discusses numerous mythologies about cyber warfare, including its presumptively instantaneous speed, that it makes distance and location irrelevant, and that victims of cyber attacks deserve blame for not defending adequately against attacks. The author outlines why several widespread beliefs about cyber weapons need modification and suggests more nuanced and contextualized conclusions about how cyber domain hostility impacts conflict in the modern world. After distinguishing between the nature of warfare and the character of wars, chapters will probe the widespread assumptions about cyber weapons themselves. The second half of the book explores the role of social media and the consequences of the digital realm being a battlespace in 21st-century conflicts. The book also considers how trends in computing and cyber conflict impact security affairs as well as the practicality of people's relationships with institutions and trends, ranging from democracy to the Internet of Things.

Now in a fully revised and updated edition, this essential text provides a comprehensive introduction to Central and Eastern Europe, including the Baltics and Ukraine. Broad but nuanced, it offers a reader-friendly overview of the globally and regionally significant changes and challenges the region faces. Divided into two parts, the book first presents thematic chapters on key issues, including nationalism and challenges to democratic institutions and practices, the contentious politics of memory, debates over demography and migration in a region with a shrinking population, and Russian efforts to retain regional influence through hard and soft power. The case-study chapters that follow highlight key political developments after communism as well as providing a strong foundation for readers on regional history and the political and economic experiences of the communist years. Each covers the foundational topics of political history, political competition, economic development, social problems, relationships with European institutions, and threats to good governance. For students and specialists alike, this book will be an invaluable resource on this dynamic region of Europe.

A practical guide to understanding and analyzing cyber attacks by advanced attackers, such as nation states. Cyber attacks are no longer the domain of petty criminals. Today, companies find themselves targeted by sophisticated nation state attackers armed with the resources to craft scarily effective campaigns. This book is a detailed guide to understanding the major players in these cyber wars, the techniques they use, and the process of analyzing their advanced attacks. Whether you’re an individual researcher or part of a team within a Security Operations Center (SoC), you’ll learn to approach, track, and attribute attacks to these advanced actors. The first part of the book is an overview of actual cyber attacks conducted by nation-state actors and other advanced organizations. It explores the geopolitical context in which the attacks took place, the patterns found in the attackers’ techniques, and the supporting evidence analysts used to attribute such attacks. Dive into the mechanisms of: North Korea’s series of cyber attacks against financial institutions, which resulted in billions of dollars stolen The world of targeted ransomware attacks, which have leveraged nation state tactics to cripple entire corporate enterprises with ransomware Recent cyber attacks aimed at disrupting or influencing national elections globally The book’s second part walks through how defenders can track and attribute future attacks. You’ll be provided with the tools, methods, and analytical guidance required to dissect and research each stage of an attack campaign. Here, Jon DiMaggio demonstrates some of the real techniques he has employed to uncover crucial information about the 2021 Colonial Pipeline attacks, among many other advanced threats. He now offers his experience to train the next generation of expert analysts.

The Russia Scare assesses the scope, character and extent of Russian interference in the affairs of liberal democratic states. This book examines the ‘Russia scare’ in a dynamic manner, stressing the interaction between threat perception, responses and subsequent policies. What forms did this threat take, what were the instruments used, how effective were the deployed tools and who were the allies with whom Russia worked in these endeavours? Above all, what impact did interference have on target societies? The book explores why Russia engaged in such activities, what the probable chain of command was (if any) and the role of the Russian leadership in all of this, as well as investigating the response of Western societies and governments. The author sifts the real from the imagined, which can only be achieved by establishing the larger historical context. He scrutinises the fundamental question: was Russia before the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 really engaged in a sustained ‘hybrid warfare’ campaign to sow discord and undermine Western democracies? If so, what were the strategic purposes underlying such an activity? Various hypotheses are analysed, notably that Russian post-Cold War activity is nothing exceptional in the context of great power confrontation; that all great powers are engaged in one way or another in such actions, and thus contextualisation is important; and that Russia’s subversive activity was often exaggerated, even misrepresented. Responses potentially amplified the elements of subversion represented by the original threat. Threats exist, but responses always need to be calibrated so as not to inflict self-harm on the integrity of liberal democracy itself. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars and academics of international relations, comparative politics, security and defence studies, global governance and Russian politics, as well as politicians, political advisers, NGOs, diplomats and journalists.