Dear Kindle Reader:
It was about time.
It was about time to take the original version of “Information Warfare,” first released in Spring of 1994 and make it available on a Kindle.
While this book and its subsequent iteration are still used in schools around the world, it was largely updated and supplanted by “Information Warfare: 2nd Edition” (see below). Nonetheless, the premises are still sound and many of the terms, I am humbly proud to say, have entered the common lexicon.
You may well read this and think, “how obvious” and “of course!” but remember, this book caused a big stink when it came out now almost seven years ago. The US Government thought there was too much classified information in it and the Brits wanted to ban it. But that was then and this is now, with us all, hopefully, more educated and less naïve of the electronic world.
Finally, after much cajoling, my publisher has allowed me to put the book that started it all on the Internet. I know that the Electronic Pearl Harbor many of have spoken of has not occurred – thankfully. I know that some people consider my work that of a Chicken Little; that’s OK. The debate is encouraged and has contributed to greater security than I thought possible when I wrote this, what seems so many years ago.
A lot of the stories and data are old and that’s why web sites and newsletters have replaced a lot of the print media for fast updates: that is good.
But the foundations are still the same I believe.
We do not have an Electronic Bill of Rights. There is no privacy and the situation is getting worse.
Corporate security is not any better largely because we complicate the systems and expect an easy security fix. Ain’t gonna happen that way.
At the national level, I, as much as any one, have been surprised to see that nation states are doing what this book predicted. Well, maybe not that surprised.
All in all, I want to thank everyone for the tremendous support over the years which has encouraged me to continue working along lines that a few others demean.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Winn Schwartau
Sometime in the year 2010
It was about time.
It was about time to take the original version of “Information Warfare,” first released in Spring of 1994 and make it available on a Kindle.
While this book and its subsequent iteration are still used in schools around the world, it was largely updated and supplanted by “Information Warfare: 2nd Edition” (see below). Nonetheless, the premises are still sound and many of the terms, I am humbly proud to say, have entered the common lexicon.
You may well read this and think, “how obvious” and “of course!” but remember, this book caused a big stink when it came out now almost seven years ago. The US Government thought there was too much classified information in it and the Brits wanted to ban it. But that was then and this is now, with us all, hopefully, more educated and less naïve of the electronic world.
Finally, after much cajoling, my publisher has allowed me to put the book that started it all on the Internet. I know that the Electronic Pearl Harbor many of have spoken of has not occurred – thankfully. I know that some people consider my work that of a Chicken Little; that’s OK. The debate is encouraged and has contributed to greater security than I thought possible when I wrote this, what seems so many years ago.
A lot of the stories and data are old and that’s why web sites and newsletters have replaced a lot of the print media for fast updates: that is good.
But the foundations are still the same I believe.
We do not have an Electronic Bill of Rights. There is no privacy and the situation is getting worse.
Corporate security is not any better largely because we complicate the systems and expect an easy security fix. Ain’t gonna happen that way.
At the national level, I, as much as any one, have been surprised to see that nation states are doing what this book predicted. Well, maybe not that surprised.
All in all, I want to thank everyone for the tremendous support over the years which has encouraged me to continue working along lines that a few others demean.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Winn Schwartau
Sometime in the year 2010
