Publishers Weekly
★ 11/28/2022
“Hacking is something that the rich and powerful do, something that reinforces existing power structures,” contends security technologist Schneier (Click Here to Kill Everybody) in this excellent survey of exploitation. Taking a broad understanding of hacking as an “activity allowed by the system that subverts the... system,” Schneier draws on his background analyzing weaknesses in cybersecurity to examine how those with power take advantage of financial, legal, political, and cognitive systems. He decries how venture capitalists “hack” market dynamics by subverting the pressures of supply and demand, noting that venture capital has kept Uber afloat despite the company having not yet turned a profit. Legal loopholes constitute another form of hacking, Schneier suggests, discussing how the inability of tribal courts to try non-Native individuals means that many sexual assaults of Native American women go unprosecuted because they were committed by non–Native American men. Schneier outlines strategies used by corporations to capitalize on neural processes and “hack... our attention circuits,” pointing out how Facebook’s algorithms boost content that outrages users because doing so increases engagement. Elegantly probing the mechanics of exploitation, Schneier makes a persuasive case that “we need society’s rules and laws to be as patchable as your computer.” With lessons that extend far beyond the tech world, this has much to offer. (Feb.)
Booklist
"Schneier’s fascinating work illustrates how susceptible many systems are to being hacked and how lives can be altered by these subversions. Schneier's deep dive into this cross-section of technology and humanity makes for investigative gold."
Booklist - Philip Zozzaro
"Schneier’s fascinating work illustrates how susceptible many systems are to being hacked and how lives can be altered by these subversions. Schneier's deep dive into this cross-section of technology and humanity makes for investigative gold."
Beth Simone Noveck
"By uncovering how the rich, powerful, and clever are misusing our institutions for their own gain, A Hacker’s Mind will transform how you think about the challenges our society faces and how to fix them. Erudite and funny, Bruce Schneier’s book is a must-read for anyone concerned about our democracy in the digital and data age."
Science - Viktor Mayer-Schönberger
"That Schneier has pushed himself beyond his own comfort zone, confronting hacking as something bigger and more multifaceted than simply sand in the machinery of digital systems is what makes A Hacker's Mind unique and valuable. If his message is received, our social systems will soon begin to evolve to interact with hacking with greater agility, nuance, and even—in some instances—appreciation."
Frank Bajak
"Schneier provides an easily digestible, mind-opening treatise on how hacking exacerbates inequality."
Timothy H. Edgar
"A Hacker’s Mind brilliantly explains how our society and democracy are being shaped by people taking the ‘hacking’ mentality into realms that weren’t designed to be hacked. Bruce Schneier shows how hacking, the tool of the rebel and the outsider, can also be used by the rich and powerful to win in business and politics, at great cost to the civic commitment needed for our free society. A great read and an important book!"
Pluralist - Cory Doctorow
"For long-time readers of Schneier, the subject matter will be familiar, but this iteration of Schneier's core security literacy curriculum has an important new gloss: power."
Marietje Schaake
"An essential new perspective on hacking: the bad and the ugly, but also a surprisingly optimistic way of using a hacker mentality to solve society’s complex problems."
Dan Piepenbring
"Hairsplitting, workarounds, weaselly little shortcuts: these are all hacks…Reading A Hacker’s Mind, I began to envision modernity as a rat’s nest of interconnected Rube Goldberg machines held together with Scotch tape and faith: a maze of leaks and patches just begging to be hacked. Only the rich and powerful, Schneier believes, have the resources to exploit these vulnerabilities, and they’re seldom penalized; instead, their hacks are normalized and celebrated."
Steven Pinker
"They say that rules are made to be broken, but more often rules are gamed, finessed, worked around, or subverted—in short, hacked. No one is better equipped than Bruce Schneier to explain how this often-perverse use of human ingenuity can undermine the institutions that civilized life depends on. A Hacker’s Mind is an important source of new insights on the forces that can sap the vigor and integrity of modern society."
Prospect - Ethan Zuckerman
"Schneier sees everything from tax avoidance to electoral gerrymandering as hacking and suggests that the hackers we should worry about are not teenagers in hooded sweatshirts, but accountants, lawyers and lobbyists in suits."
Financial Times - Becky Hogge
"A Hacker's Mind…sheds vital light on the beginnings of our journey into an increasingly complex world."
Associated Press
An easily digestible, mind-opening treatise on how hacking exacerbates inequality.”
Financial Times (London)
Sheds vital light on the beginnings of our journey into an increasingly complex world.”
New York Times Book Review
He will make you rethink your assumptions.”
Science
If his message is received, our social systems will soon begin to evolve to interact with hacking with greater agility, nuance, and even―in some instances―appreciation.”
Science - Viktor Mayer-Schônberger
"That Schneier has pushed himself beyond his own comfort zone, confronting hacking as something bigger and more multifaceted than simply sand in the machinery of digital systems is what makes A Hacker's Mind unique and valuable. If his message is received, our social systems will soon begin to evolve to interact with hacking with greater agility, nuance, and even—in some instances—appreciation."
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2022-11-16
A cybersecurity expert examines how the powerful game whatever system is put before them, leaving it to others to cover the cost.
Schneier, a professor at Harvard Kennedy School and author of such books as Data and Goliath and Click Here To Kill Everybody, regularly challenges his students to write down the first 100 digits of pi, a nearly impossible task—but not if they cheat, concerning which he admonishes, “Don’t get caught.” Not getting caught is the aim of the hackers who exploit the vulnerabilities of systems of all kinds. Consider right-wing venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who located a hack in the tax code: “Because he was one of the founders of PayPal, he was able to use a $2,000 investment to buy 1.7 million shares of the company at $0.001 per share, turning it into $5 billion—all forever tax free.” It was perfectly legal—and even if it weren’t, the wealthy usually go unpunished. The author, a fluid writer and tech communicator, reveals how the tax code lends itself to hacking, as when tech companies like Apple and Google avoid paying billions of dollars by transferring profits out of the U.S. to corporate-friendly nations such as Ireland, then offshoring the “disappeared” dollars to Bermuda, the Caymans, and other havens. Every system contains trap doors that can be breached to advantage. For example, Schneier cites “the Pudding Guy,” who hacked an airline miles program by buying low-cost pudding cups in a promotion that, for $3,150, netted him 1.2 million miles and “lifetime Gold frequent flier status.” Since it was all within the letter if not the spirit of the offer, “the company paid up.” The companies often do, because they’re gaming systems themselves. “Any rule can be hacked,” notes the author, be it a religious dietary restriction or a legislative procedure. With technology, “we can hack more, faster, better,” requiring diligent monitoring and a demand that everyone play by rules that have been hardened against tampering.
An eye-opening, maddening book that offers hope for leveling a badly tilted playing field.
