Dark Territory

For all the headlines about cyber warfare as a new type of conflict, it in fact dates back nearly 50 years, to the very birth of the Internet. In his new book Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War, Fred Kaplan—drawing on interviews with more than 100 participants in the story (including six NSA directors)—traces the evolution of cyber warfare in every US conflict since the 1991 Gulf War—and warns of the unexplored dangers ahead. And while most news stories on cyber attacks focus on Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran, the first and still most serious hacks were mounted—and the first ideas about cyber war were conceived—by the United States.

Fred Kaplan is the national-security columnist for Slate and the author of four other books , including The Wizards of Armageddon, 1959, Daydream Believers, and, most recently The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War, which was a New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize finalist. A former Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter for The Boston Globe, he graduated from Oberlin College and earned a PhD from MIT.

New America is pleased to welcome Mr. Kaplan for a discussion of his book and the secret history of cyber war.

Follow the discussion online using #DarkTerritory and following @NatSecNAF and @NewAmCyber.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase by check or credit card.

Participants:

Fred Kaplan
Author, Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber-War
Former New America Fellow (Class of 2012)

Moderator: 

Ian Wallace
Co-Director, New America Cybersecurity Initiative