Sarah Schumacher

This was a depressing read, even if much of it covered ground I’ve read about before.

My first impression was that barely 30 pages in, the demeaning descriptions given of stereotypical hacker appearance, mannerisms, and interests were incredibly off-putting. Perhaps she was trying to add color to the personalities, but I did not appreciate that. Fortunately it subsided the partway through the book.

My thoughts were as follows:

1. This book is extremely U.S. focused.
2. Oh look, another example of taxpayer money being used for nefarious purposes (buying zero days).
3. The Internet + hardware complexity is a double edged sword for recon.
4. The human element (in spycraft) still matters.
5. “Snowden was a low-level admin. The NSA’s capabilities were far, far more expansive than what Snowden had revealed.” - former TAO hacker.
6. People who do dumb tech things (the weakest link) also happens at the government level, but with much more severe consequences.
7. Google, Facebook and especially the iPhone changed the game.
8. “Mike McConnell, the former director of national intelligence, would later tell me, “In looking at any computers of consequence—in government, in Congress, at the Department of Defense, aerospace, companies with valuable trade secrets-we've not examined one yet that has not been infected,” by China."”
9. The reason the US is paranoid about Huawei or TikTok, etc, is because the US has hacked everything, so they know/assume China has too. It’s projection, but it’s also documented.
10. Russian grid hack access is the equivalent of the spiderman pointing meme. Stuxnet was the US pointing first, the Ukraine attacks are Russia pointing at the US. You touch us we do this to you.

This was a depressing read, even if much of it covered ground I’ve read about before.

My first impression was that barely 30 pages in, the demeaning descriptions given of stereotypical hacker appearance, mannerisms, and interests were incredibly off-putting. Perhaps she was trying to add color to the personalities, but I did not appreciate that. Fortunately it subsided the partway through the book.

My thoughts were as follows:

1. This book is extremely U.S. focused.
2. Oh look, another example of taxpayer money being used for nefarious purposes (buying zero days).
3. The Internet + hardware complexity is a double edged sword for recon.
4. The human element (in spycraft) still matters.
5. “Snowden was a low-level admin. The NSA’s capabilities were far, far more expansive than what Snowden had revealed.” - former TAO hacker.
6. People who do dumb tech things (the weakest link) also happens at the government level, but with much more severe consequences.
7. Google, Facebook and especially the iPhone changed the game.
8. “Mike McConnell, the former director of national intelligence, would later tell me, “In looking at any computers of consequence—in government, in Congress, at the Department of Defense, aerospace, companies with valuable trade secrets-we've not examined one yet that has not been infected,” by China."”
9. The reason the US is paranoid about Huawei or TikTok, etc, is because the US has hacked everything, so they know/assume China has too. It’s projection, but it’s also documented.
10. Russian vs US hacking is the equivalent of the spiderman pointing meme. The best defense is an offense kind of things - we know you’re in our systems, but we’re in yours too so watch yourself.
11. Industrial controllers have all already been hacked, including nuclear plants. Just assume Russia could take down the US power grid at any time (see Ukraine).
12. US election interference by Russia was just as much social (Twitter trolls and fake Facebook nonsense, etc.) as it was attempting to hack systems.
13. Google has taken security much more seriously after finding out the NSA was tapping all their data.
14. Microsoft is PISSED about the constant government stockpiling of zero days and has gotten a lot better about catching bugs and bug bounty programs.

This is certainly a recommended read, but it wasn’t a fun one the month before the election. The last third of the book deals heavily with the political impact of the new world of cyber warfare. If you’ve never read anything about Stuxnet, or NotPetya or know very little about cybersecurity in general, this is a good place to start.

A good, short read on positioning with a list of steps and an overview of how to do them. By the end when she showed an example of her positioning sheet, I felt like it was essentially the business model canvas, but it is a little different. Worth the read if you’re new to this area.

As someone who has read/listened to a lot of information about positioning I didn’t find much that was new or ground-breaking.

Currently reading this, and I want to make a note that barely 30 pages in the demeaning descriptions given of stereotypical hacker appearance, mannerisms, and interests are incredibly off putting and unprofessional. Perhaps she’s trying to add color to the personalities, but I’m not a fan.

An incredible, wrenching story that is 100% true to life and not at all surprising to those of us who’ve grown up like Tia. I can’t recommend this book enough. If you’re confused by the fundamentalist Christian ideology that’s being politically pushed on Americans, and how those women choose to be complicit in their own oppression, this book will give you a look behind the curtain and how damaging it is (and hard to get out), when you’ve been raised with this ideology.

I also want to highlight the dates - the Republican rhetoric and fearmongering was very much present decades before Trump. This is not new, it’s just reached its final form.

"The fundamentalists and evangelicals, now one and the same since the Trump administration, wanted to cast the fallen son of TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting as a single bad apple. But he wasn’t a single bad apple—he was a product of their making. Duggar was the fruit of a high-control system that taught children from infancy to suppress their needs and conform or be beaten. It taught firstborn sons would become eventual patriarchs. It gave young children a premature and inappropriate amount of authority over their younger siblings. It taught males are entitled to gratification and servitude from females who can’t say no either to men or to God. Josh Duggar registered no guilt for his crimes because since childhood, he’d grown up with an external moral compass, and a feeling of entitlement to women’s bodies. Remembering that IBLP homeschool groups want to run our country the way they run their homes, I suddenly realized why it mattered so much that I talk about what it’s like in those households. I could tell the public what it’s really like. No female vote. No consent. No contraception. No choice. No careers. Courtship marriages. Stay-at-home daughters and parentified older siblings. Closets. Suppression. Book bans. Harsh discipline. Rigid roles. High control. Shame. As bad as it would be for women, it would be worse for anyone gay. Worse for anyone of color. Bad for anyone except a straight white patriarch … and I knew from experience it wasn’t really good or healthy for them either. We all deserve better." (Tia Levings, A Well-Trained Wife)

Currently reading this, and I want to make a note that barely 30 pages in the demeaning descriptions given of stereotypical hacker appearance, mannerisms, and interests are incredibly off putting and unprofessional. Perhaps she’s trying to add color to the personalities, but I’m not a fan.