61 pages 2 hours read

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

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2021

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EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses

Epilogue Summary

A decade ago, the biggest threats to global security were physical, but now they are digital. The COVID-19 pandemic has just highlighted how divided the world is, and with the cyber arms race is well underway, pushing the world to the brink of catastrophe. Perlroth does not profess to have all the answers to this problem, but she believes that she is helping by bringing these issues to the attention of the general public. 


She proposes that the opensource code on which much of the world’s digital infrastructure is dependent needs to be secured. Some European countries are pioneering grants and programs to support opensource developers, and she contends that this process should take place on a much larger scale. In certain industries, like the medical field, software developers should be required to list the sources of their code so that it can be checked for vulnerabilities. Work also needs to be done on mitigating the damage that hackers can cause once they have accessed key systems; potential solutions involve “sandboxing” and isolating programs and apps. Perlroth notes that because individual users are usually the weakest link in any security plan, they need to get in the habit of updating their systems and programs promptly, using two-factor authentication, and creating strong passwords.

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