The Plot to Hack America

The New York Times–bestselling author and counterterrorism expert tells the story of the 2016 Russian attacks on our democracy, and those who enabled them. In April 2016, computer technicians at the Democratic National Committee discovered that someone had accessed the organization’s servers and conducted a theft that is best described as Watergate 2.0. In the weeks that followed, the nation’s top computer security experts discovered that the thieves had helped themselves to everything: sensitive documents, emails, donor information, even voice mails. Soon after, the Democratic congressional campaign, the Clinton campaign, and members of the media were also hacked. Credit card numbers, phone numbers, and contacts were stolen. In short order, the FBI found that more than twenty-five state election offices had their voter registration systems probed or attacked by the same hackers. Western intelligence agencies tracked the hack to Russian spy agencies and dubbed them the “Cyber Bears.” The media was soon flooded with the stolen information channeled through Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. It was a massive attack on America but the Russian hacks appeared to have a singular goal—elect Donald J. Trump as president. In this book, the author of Defeating ISIS, career intelligence officer, and MSNBC terrorism expert Malcolm Nance recounts Vladimir Putin’s rise through the KGB to spymaster-in-chief and spells out how he performed the ultimate political manipulation—convincing Trump to abandon seventy years of American foreign policy. The Plot to Hack America is the compelling true story of how Putin’s spy agency, run by the Russian billionaire class, used the promise of power and influence to cultivate Trump as well as his closest aides to become unwitting assets of the Russian government in their quest to end 240 years of free and fair American democratic elections. “The Plot to Hack America reads like a spy thriller, but it’s all too real.” —US Daily Review