This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race

Perlroth reveals that This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends contains the findings of her seven-year investigation into the world of hacking, digital espionage, and cyberweaponry. She conducted hundreds of interviews and faced significant difficulty in securing sources due to the secrecy that is characteristic of the industry. Many of Perlroth’s informants would only speak on the condition of anonymity. Despite many strenuous hours of fact-checking via written records and corroborating testimonies, Perlroth acknowledges any errors and omissions in the book as her own. She also acknowledges the necessity of excluding extensive information that could not be verified, but she believes that even her incomplete account should provide valuable information to the public.

Shortly prior to the completion of the text, Perlroth visited Kyiv, Ukraine, to witness the impact of one of the most intense cyberattack campaigns in history. Since 2014, Ukraine has been the target of a coordinated series of hacks, online misinformation campaigns, and digital sabotages that have been orchestrated and sponsored by the Russian government. These cyberattacks culminated in the 2017 “NotPetya” attack, which turned off thousands of private and public computer systems in the city of Ukraine for several hours—including monitoring systems in nearby nuclear facilities and other locations vital to public infrastructure.