Theresa Payton outlines some hard truths about cyber security and what is being created to deceive the general public. This book was eye opening, for a person that went into this not knowing much about what people are capable of using the internet. It is scary to think, that people are constantly being manipulated by the screens in front of them and the power people on the other end.

If you, like me, are somewhat terrified and also uneducated about the prospect of foreign nations hacking and hijacking our elections, this is the book for you to read. Payton is a cybersecurity expert and has been working in the field for decades, long before "fake news" and "Russian bots" were even a thing. She knows her stuff, and she vows to give you the truth about the problem, give you tools on how to spot manipulation, and tell you what you can do to combat election fraud. I would highly recommend pairing this read with Samuel Woolley's The Reality Game: How the Next Wave of Technology Will Break the Truth, which focuses more on "fake news" and propaganda broadly rather than just as it relates to elections and politics (although the two are intimately intertwined).

There are three things that set this book apart in my mind.

First, Payton acknowledges that believing in all of this may make you sound like a conspiracy theorist, and indeed, it does often seem that the more you know about the truth, the bigger your tin hat gets. However, she emphasizes the fact that foreign governments meddling in our elections and the elections of other democracies is not really driven by a conservative or liberal ideology, and not by wanting Americans to believe one certain thing. For example, the Russian Internet Research Agency was shown to be behind many "anti-vax" memes and content - but why would Russia care if we vaccinate our babies or not? The answer is that they really don't - in fact, Russia's vaccination rate is just about 100%, Payton writes - rather, they're trying to sow seeds of uncertainty in our institutions and authority figures that we've long trusted and who tell us what is best. These foreign nations and bad actors want us to become unstable: "[They] seek to divide you from your loved ones on social and political issues. They want to muddy the waters—distort the truth. Confusion breeds suspicion and mistrust. And if you mistrust your institutions, those institutions destabilize. And once they topple, guess who's left standing? [...] The endgame is to make you doubt everything you believe—which leaves you open to believing anything."

The second is the true breadth of fakery that is really possible, and how truly easy most of it is. After reading this book, you'll start to see bots and fake accounts everywhere. For small payments, bad actors can create verified Facebook pages with millions of likes and views; they can create entirely fake profiles, each with their own VPN, to simulate the activity and life of a real person. They can create fake press releases that look totally real, even manufacturing "citizen-written" government petitions. Another major reason for all of this manipulation is the simple fact that there is a ton of money in it. Again, it's not so much about the specific ideology as it is about one ideology raking it in a lot more for whoever is behind the fake news. When Payton interviewed some Macedonian hackers and asked why they're so pro-Trump, they responded, "'We don't work for Trump or Russia. We work for money. It's all about the money.' They would post stories about all of the Democratic and Republican candidates. They didn't care about making winners or losers. It was all about earning money for clicks. However, when they checked what made them real revenue, it was positive press on Sanders, negative press on Hillary, and positive press on Trump."

Lastly, Payton presents a fascinating interview with a real-life hacker, who she names Hacker X, getting him to divulge many of the intimate details of how he worked, who (vaguely) funded him, what he did, and what the results of his work were. I think this is one of the most interesting parts of the book - although at times it feels stranger than fiction - so I won't reveal any more about that; you'll just have to pick it up.

Thank you to Rowman and Littlefield for the ARC - I highly recommend reading this short but fascinating book on a topic we should all be more educated on.