Akin to the edge-of-your-seat opening sequence in a James Bond movie, Newton Lee warns that the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump could be exploited by adversaries and extremists to spread misinformation and incite political violence in order to destabilize American democracy.
From September 11 attacks and Sony-pocalypse to Israel’s 9/11 and MOAB (Mother of All Breaches), the author demonstrates investigative acumen like Sherlock Holmes in crimefighting and peacemaking while navigating the landscape of counterterrorism and cybersecurity as well as war and peace in an eye-opening book “Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity: Total Information Awareness (2024 Edition)” published by Springer Nature.
Graduated from the FBI Citizens Academy in 2021, Lee praises the unsung heroes at the FBI who work incessantly to protect Americans from terrorist attacks and cybercrimes. The author quotes FBI Director Christopher Wray who says that the trained FBI personnel have state-of-the-art tools and skillset like James Bond.
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Lee shares his unique perspective from Hollywood during the September 11 terrorist attacks when he was working at Disney. The FBI informed The Walt Disney Company about the possibility that a Hollywood studio could be a terrorist target. After the closure of Florida’s Disney World in the morning of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, new security measures were quickly put in place at all Disney offices and theme parks worldwide.
The author draws a parallel between September 11 attacks in 2001 and Israel’s 9/11 on October 7, 2023. He points out that Osama bin Laden was once considered an American ally during the Soviet war whereas the Israeli government had supported the Hamas’ regime in Gaza when Hamas ousted the Palestinian Authority from power in 2007. Lee asserts the age-old proverb that the enemy of your enemy is not your friend.
Lee opines that “war is legitimized state-sponsored terrorism in a grand scale.” The book presents plenty of well-researched facts that enable the author to connect the dots in support of his anti-war stance. In spite of military conflicts, he examines how social media has made it possible for people from different parts of the world to communicate and spread the message of peace. He offers interesting ideas for individuals to take part in promoting world peace by listening to foreign music, learning foreign languages, traveling to foreign countries, marrying a foreigner, and so on.
The author describes the rise and fall of Total Information Awareness (TIA) — the establishment of the Information Awareness Office (IAO) in 2002 and the appointment of Admiral John Poindexter, former National Security Adviser to President Regan as the office head. The program did not last long as the public distrust of Poindexter and Total Information Awareness led to the shutdown of both TIA and IAO by Congress in 2003.
However, Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks and PRISM revealed the secret resurrection of TIA. The public outcry over the government dragnet programs resulted in the passing of a bill by the U.S. House of Representatives to curb domestic surveillance by the NSA. But other contentious issues remain today. In particular, Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 permits the American government to conduct targeted surveillance of foreign persons located in the United States. Section 702 was reauthorized by U.S. Congress in April 2024 as Attorney General Merrick B. Garland says that Section 702 is indispensable to the Justice Department’s work to protect Americans from terrorist and cyber attacks.
The book demystifies the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program by highlighting its objectives and goals. The author argues that total information awareness has helped to deter terrorism and stabilize international relations. Therefore, responsible use of surveillance and espionage makes the world a safer place. Some of the technologies that have been developed in the fight against terrorism include Project Argus: Bio-surveillance Priming System—a bio-surveillance AI program designed to detect and track early reports of foreign biological events.
The second half of the book focuses on the history, strategies, and technologies of cybersecurity. Cyber warfare is analyzed as a weapon of mass disruption in finance, infrastructure, government, military operations, and Internet of Things (IoT). The author opines that when cyberattacks harm human lives, cybercriminals should be charged for terrorism.
Lee talks about the use of artificial intelligence in our everyday lives, from ChatGPT to the use of intelligent CCTV to monitor and report incidents of crime. According to John McCarthy, who coined the term artificial intelligence, AI is defined as the science and engineering of making intelligent machines. The author explains three fundamental AI techniques: knowledge representation, knowledge acquisition, and knowledge inference. He agrees with CIA Counterterrorism Center director Henry “Hank” Crumpton that dealing with terrorism is more like managing diseases. To that end, Lee presents Dynamic Mental Models (DM2) that can be applied equally well in disease diagnosis as well as counterterrorism.
In the chapter on cyberattack prevention and countermeasures, Lee offers advice on mitigation from denial of service (DoS, DDoS, DRDoS) attacks, data breach prevention, password protection, software upgrades, security patches, fake software downloads, smartphone security as well as fighting back against phishing, spoofing, and deepfakes. Another chapter describes Lee’s early involvement in DARPA’s first-ever Cyber Grand Challenge with the debut of DESCARTES (Distributed Expert Systems for Cyber Analysis, Reasoning, Testing, Evaluation, and Security) along with an algorithm for autonomous vulnerability scanning and patching of binaries.
The book also includes articles and chapters written by other contributing authors: Gamification of Penetration Testing (by Darren Manners), USB Write Blocking and Forensics (by Philip Polstra), Cybersecurity Training in Medical Centers (by Ray Balut and Jean C. Stanford), The Quantum Computing Threat (by Skip Sanzeri), and Secure Communications for Quantum and Beyond: Orchestrated Cryptography for Agility and Policy (by Chris Cap, Scott Kawaguchi, Joey Lupo, Chris Trinidad).
Quantum computing has been garnering a lot of attention due to its unique feature of employing quantum mechanics to solve complex problems faster than any classical computers. However, quantum computers will soon be able to break the cryptography that we are relying on today to secure energy grids, satellites, military weapons, and financial systems. Cybersecurity professional Skip Sanzeri warns that quantum computers, in the wrong hands, can become the most powerful terrorism device.
In closing, Lee concludes that neither Sherlock Holmes nor James Bond can stop terrorism and cybercrimes without the cooperation and vigilance of everyone, not just the authorities and governments. Lee’s “Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity: Total Information Awareness (2024 Edition)” is a must-read page turner infused with knowledge and wisdom that challenges our beliefs and opens our mind to a more peaceful high-tech world. The book is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Counterterrorism-Cybersecurity-Total-Information-Awareness/dp/3031631250/
