GraSPP Research Seminar
Title: The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber Age
Speaker: Mr. David Sanger, National security correspondent and senior writer of The New York Times
Date: Tuesday, March 19th 2019
Time: 16:00-17:30
Venue: Seminar Room, 3rd Floor, Ito International Research Center, The University of Tokyo (MAP)
SMBC Academia Hall, 4th Floor, International Academic Research Building, The University of Tokyo (MAP)
Language: English
Capacity: 80 person
Registration: Needed. Please register from here
Co-hosted by: Security Studies Unit, Policy Alternatives Research Institute
Abstract:
The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber Age is the startling inside story of how the rise of cyber weapons transformed geopolitics like nothing since the invention of the atomic bomb. Cheap to acquire, easy to deny, and usable for a variety of malicious purposes—from crippling infrastructure to sowing discord and doubt—cyber is now the weapon of choice for democracies, dictators, and terrorists. Two presidents—Bush and Obama—drew first blood with Operation Olympic Games, which used malicious code to blow up Iran’s nuclear centrifuges, and yet America proved remarkably unprepared when its own weapons were stolen from its arsenal and, during President Trump’s first year, turned back on the US and its allies. The government was often paralyzed, unable to threaten the use of cyber weapons because America was so vulnerable to crippling attacks on its own networks of banks, utilities, and government agencies.
Moving from the White House Situation Room to the dens of Chinese government hackers to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley, New York Times national security correspondent David Sanger—who broke the story of Olympic Games in his previous book—reveals a world coming face-to-face with the perils of technological revolution. The Perfect Weapon is the dramatic story of how great and small powers alike slipped into a new era of constant sabotage, misinformation, and fear, in which everyone is a target.
Speaker’s Biography:
David E. Sanger is a national security correspondent and a senior writer. In a 36-year reporting career for The New York Times, he has been on three teams that have won Pulitzer Prizes, most recently in 2017 for international reporting. His newest book, “The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber Age,’’ examines the emergence of cyberconflict as the primary way large and small states are competing and undercutting each other, changing the nature of global power.