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Book Review: This Machine Kills Secrets by Andy Greenberg

Jason

This Machine Kills Secrets – How WikiLeakers, Cypherpunks, and Hacktivists Aim to Free the World’s Information is written by Forbes journalist Andy Greenberg and provides a historical recount of the use of the cryptography revolution. This takes the story from the Pentagon Papers of 1971 to the WikiLeaks of 2010 and beyond with several organizations’ attempts to build the next generation Leak software.

The book gives each party their own time with the chapter break-out as follows:

Prologue

Part One – Leaker Present, Leaker Past

Part Two – The Evolution of Leaking

Part Three – The Future of Leaking

Conclusion – The Machine

It is first and foremost well-cited with lots of original research and interviews. The book tells the story of the people involved more than the software that enabled all of it. Much of what has happened surrounding the Pentagon Papers, cryptography, WikiLeaks, Aaron Barr, IMMI, and other related topics has been left untold to the public because of its political football nature and the technical details could easily be overwhelming. This Machine Kills Secrets does a good job of conveying what went on behind closed doors and weaving it into the narrative without getting too technical.

This Machine Kills Secrets is 384 pages long and proved an excellent source of information on more recent information that has not yet made it into the history books (but probably will). I enjoyed the read but it did take me a while to get through it. The topic includes politics, technical information, conversations, and subtle actions. It is impressive that such material could be presented in a way that is not dry and actually conveyed some of the drama and tension going on with the events.

That being said, the book was not without its flaws. WikiLeaks and hacktivists are loaded terms as are some of the actions described in the book. As everyone has their own opinion, thinking some of the people as heroes while others see them as villains, the author equally presents his own opinion in the writing. It did not seem to get in the way too much but it did give the book or individual segments their own spin and bias. It was not blatantly obtrusive but it was noticeable like something in your peripheral vision.

My only other complaint about the book would have to be regarding its structure. As you can see from the Table of Contents I included above, the book is divided well into separate sections but also large chapters. Each chapter is sub-divided into smaller chunks. My complaint with this structure is that these sections alternate between two or more stories. This makes the individual stories seem like they take longer, the material less cohesive, and their context harder to grasp. In some sections of the book, where things are happening simultaneously or showing a historical parallel, the interweaving makes sense but other times it just makes the reading longer and more tedious.

Here are some of the “characters” included in the book, by order of appearance, helpfully provided at the beginning of the book.

I would recommend this book because it is a great non-fiction, technology-related read. If you would like to learn more about some of the people in the list above, this provides good context and in-depth research, often with first-hand accounts. You can pick up This Machine Kills Secrets by Andy Greenberg from Amazon. Book review summary: 3.5/5 stars

If this book interests you, you might also check out other sources that the author listed as particularly helpful:

Daniel Ellsberg’s memoir Secrets, Suelette Dreyfus and Julian Assange’s Underground, Steven Levy’s Crypto, and Daniel Domscheit-Berg’s memoir Inside WikiLeaks.