For example, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other three-letter agencies released this advisory: “Iranian-Affiliated Cyber Actors Exploit Programmable Logic Controllers Across US Critical Infrastructure.”
But backing up a bit, many thoughtful readers are interested in more context, history, examples and deeper-dive stories of what has happened, is happening now and will be happening in the future regarding nation-state hacking.
Which is where a new book by Allie Mellen is so helpful. Mellen is principal analyst for Forrester, and she has owned and operated a successful technical consultancy during her career. Her book covers a wide range of topics and stories related to various cybersecurity themes, trends, power structures and hacking activities by China, Russia and more.
“Cyberattacks are the ultimate geopolitical weapon of the 21st century. They are used to damage presidential campaigns, shut down electric grids, sway public sentiment, and cost businesses and governments alike billions of dollars.
“Popular culture portrays cyberattacks as unstoppable and mysterious actions taken by shadowy, unpredictable forces.
“They aren’t. Code War: How Nations Hack, Spy, and Shape the Digital Battlefield shatters this depiction, revealing nation-state cyberattacks for what they are: calculated, measured actions to achieve state objectives.
“World-renowned cybersecurity expert Allie Mellen draws on her extensive experience with nation-state cyberattacks and AI threats to break down how and why nations deploy cyberattacks in their own unique ways, driven by their military doctrine, national history, and, most importantly, geopolitical strategy.
“Mellen deconstructs the most infamous cyberattacks of our time to reveal how and why attacks like Stuxnet, WannaCry, and NotPetya happened and how their success altered the international landscape. She juxtaposes these attacks against the brutal reality of how nations surveil, manipulate, and control their own citizens’ data.
“An essential resource for individuals, business professionals, and government officials, Code War demonstrates how you can use this knowledge to understand and respond to the practical realities of nation-state cyberattacks.
“Readers will also find:
- An overview of how cyberattacks and defenses operate, where governments most frequently use them, their limitations, and where they provide the most value
- An in-depth breakdown of some of the most important cyberattacks of the modern age, including those targeting the 2016 US Presidential elections, the Olympics, and those against Taiwan, Ukraine, and Tibet
- Deep dives into the histories and attacks perpetrated by governments with the most prolific cyberattacks: China, Russia, and the United States
Some of the topics covered in Code War are shown here:
MY THOUGHTS ON CODE WAR
I really enjoyed this book for several reasons.
First, the overview of our current cybersecurity situation globally is packed with true stories and examples that put the headlines we see every day into context.
Second, I found Part IV on the future to be very insightful and helpful. Here’s how Chapter 43, “Three Broken Promises,” opens:
“Though the United States remains the world’s leading power, it now operates in a competitive environment where influence is increasingly contested. The unipolar era has ended, and the coming decades will define the balance of power in a world no longer centered on a single place.
“Here’s the wrench that is being thrown in the works of all three of these nations — the United States, China and Russia: Leadership across the board is failing to live up to the social contracts it has established with its people.”
The chapter then describes the challenges in all three countries. Part IV goes on to discuss the changes coming with NVIDIA and AI, which the author calls “The Fourth Power.”
In Chapter 45, the case is made that “reality does not exist.” Here is how that chapter ends:
“AI providers are capable of adjusting their models to craft the reality they or the government wants us to have. Visibility into its decisions that models make, opaque, which makes it even more difficult to understand why they produced the outputs they did.
“We have come further than the disinformation-ridden world of the past. We are firmly in a world where reality no longer exists. It is what we decide. Nations, enterprises, and individuals face a battle for believability.”
Finally, in the conclusion in Chapter 45, we see this:
“The one through line in this book is you.
“What do nation-states want? Your data. What do they want to influence? Your worldview. What are you to them? Someone to protect or to persecute.
“What do tech companies want? Your data. What do they want to keep? Your attention. What are you to them? A user to serve and a resource to exploit.”
Mellen elaborates on how cybersecurity is so critical to this conversation and closes with this: “We get to chose what we demand from governments and companies — and what we are no longer willing to accept.”
FINAL THOUGHTS
For decades, Paul Harvey, a legendary American radio broadcaster, famously said “And now you know ... the rest of the story.”
Thoughtful readers still want to know what has happened in our recent global history with technology and hacking. How did we get to this point in 2026 between nation-states and criminal hackers, and where we are going next?
Before focusing on AI hacking and cybersecurity in the future, this book will help you understand the rest of the story regarding the importance of data and the impact on you and your customers.
