Listen free for 30 days
-
Active Measures
- The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $39.07
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
You may also enjoy...
-
Sandworm
- A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers
- Written by: Andy Greenberg
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2014, the world witnessed the start of a mysterious series of cyberattacks. Targeting American utility companies, NATO, and electric grids in Eastern Europe, the strikes grew ever more brazen. They culminated in the summer of 2017, when the malware known as NotPetya was unleashed, penetrating, disrupting, and paralyzing some of the world's largest businesses—from drug manufacturers to software developers to shipping companies. At the attack's epicenter in Ukraine, ATMs froze. The railway and postal systems shut down. Hospitals went dark.
-
-
Surprisingly more boring than I thought.
- By Jake L.S. on 2020-01-18
Written by: Andy Greenberg
-
Three Dangerous Men
- Russia, China, Iran and the Rise of Irregular Warfare
- Written by: Seth G. Jones
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Defense expert Seth Jones argues that the US is woefully unprepared for the future of global competition. While America has focused on building fighter jets, missiles, and conventional warfighting capabilities, its three principal rivals - Russia, Iran, and China - have increasingly adopted irregular warfare: cyber attacks, the use of proxy forces, propaganda, espionage, and disinformation to undermine American power. Jones details the key steps the United States must take to alter how it thinks about - and engages in - competition before it is too late.
Written by: Seth G. Jones
-
Countdown to Zero Day
- Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon
- Written by: Kim Zetter
- Narrated by: Joe Ochman
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The virus now known as Stuxnet was unlike any other piece of malware built before: Rather than simply hijacking targeted computers or stealing information from them, it proved that a piece of code could escape the digital realm and wreak actual, physical destruction—in this case, on an Iranian nuclear facility.
-
-
Very interesting, technical but easy enough to understand.
- By Jon on 2023-12-07
Written by: Kim Zetter
-
The Modern Mercenary
- Private Armies and What They Mean for World Order
- Written by: Sean McFate
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was 2004, and Sean McFate had a mission in Burundi: to keep the president alive and prevent the country from spiraling into genocide without anyone knowing that the United States was involved. The United States was, of course, involved, but only through McFate's employer, the military contractor DynCorp International. Throughout the world similar scenarios are playing out daily. The United States can no longer go to war without contractors.
-
-
Very interesting book on a timely subject
- By Eugene Epshteyn on 2019-10-12
Written by: Sean McFate
-
This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends
- The Cyberweapons Arms Race
- Written by: Nicole Perlroth
- Narrated by: Allyson Ryan
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Zero day: a software bug that allows a hacker to break into your devices and move around undetected. One of the most coveted tools in a spy's arsenal, a zero day has the power to silently spy on your iPhone, dismantle the safety controls at a chemical plant, alter an election and shut down the electric grid (just ask Ukraine). For decades, under cover of classification levels and non-disclosure agreements, the United States government became the world’s dominant hoarder of zero days.
-
-
Illuminating at all levels
- By Anonymous User on 2021-10-15
Written by: Nicole Perlroth
-
Putin's Wars
- From Chechnya to Ukraine
- Written by: Mark Galeotti
- Narrated by: David Sibley
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Putin's Wars is a timely overview of the conflicts in which Russia has been involved since Vladimir Putin became prime minister and then president of Russia, from the First Chechen War to the two military incursions into Georgia, the annexation of Crimea and the eventual invasion of Ukraine itself. But it also looks more broadly at Putin's recreation of Russian military power and its expansion to include a range of new capabilities, from mercenaries to operatives in a relentless information war against Western powers.
Written by: Mark Galeotti
-
Sandworm
- A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers
- Written by: Andy Greenberg
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2014, the world witnessed the start of a mysterious series of cyberattacks. Targeting American utility companies, NATO, and electric grids in Eastern Europe, the strikes grew ever more brazen. They culminated in the summer of 2017, when the malware known as NotPetya was unleashed, penetrating, disrupting, and paralyzing some of the world's largest businesses—from drug manufacturers to software developers to shipping companies. At the attack's epicenter in Ukraine, ATMs froze. The railway and postal systems shut down. Hospitals went dark.
-
-
Surprisingly more boring than I thought.
- By Jake L.S. on 2020-01-18
Written by: Andy Greenberg
-
Three Dangerous Men
- Russia, China, Iran and the Rise of Irregular Warfare
- Written by: Seth G. Jones
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Defense expert Seth Jones argues that the US is woefully unprepared for the future of global competition. While America has focused on building fighter jets, missiles, and conventional warfighting capabilities, its three principal rivals - Russia, Iran, and China - have increasingly adopted irregular warfare: cyber attacks, the use of proxy forces, propaganda, espionage, and disinformation to undermine American power. Jones details the key steps the United States must take to alter how it thinks about - and engages in - competition before it is too late.
Written by: Seth G. Jones
-
Countdown to Zero Day
- Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon
- Written by: Kim Zetter
- Narrated by: Joe Ochman
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The virus now known as Stuxnet was unlike any other piece of malware built before: Rather than simply hijacking targeted computers or stealing information from them, it proved that a piece of code could escape the digital realm and wreak actual, physical destruction—in this case, on an Iranian nuclear facility.
-
-
Very interesting, technical but easy enough to understand.
- By Jon on 2023-12-07
Written by: Kim Zetter
-
The Modern Mercenary
- Private Armies and What They Mean for World Order
- Written by: Sean McFate
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was 2004, and Sean McFate had a mission in Burundi: to keep the president alive and prevent the country from spiraling into genocide without anyone knowing that the United States was involved. The United States was, of course, involved, but only through McFate's employer, the military contractor DynCorp International. Throughout the world similar scenarios are playing out daily. The United States can no longer go to war without contractors.
-
-
Very interesting book on a timely subject
- By Eugene Epshteyn on 2019-10-12
Written by: Sean McFate
-
This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends
- The Cyberweapons Arms Race
- Written by: Nicole Perlroth
- Narrated by: Allyson Ryan
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Zero day: a software bug that allows a hacker to break into your devices and move around undetected. One of the most coveted tools in a spy's arsenal, a zero day has the power to silently spy on your iPhone, dismantle the safety controls at a chemical plant, alter an election and shut down the electric grid (just ask Ukraine). For decades, under cover of classification levels and non-disclosure agreements, the United States government became the world’s dominant hoarder of zero days.
-
-
Illuminating at all levels
- By Anonymous User on 2021-10-15
Written by: Nicole Perlroth
-
Putin's Wars
- From Chechnya to Ukraine
- Written by: Mark Galeotti
- Narrated by: David Sibley
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Putin's Wars is a timely overview of the conflicts in which Russia has been involved since Vladimir Putin became prime minister and then president of Russia, from the First Chechen War to the two military incursions into Georgia, the annexation of Crimea and the eventual invasion of Ukraine itself. But it also looks more broadly at Putin's recreation of Russian military power and its expansion to include a range of new capabilities, from mercenaries to operatives in a relentless information war against Western powers.
Written by: Mark Galeotti
-
Red Famine
- Stalin's War on Ukraine
- Written by: Anne Applebaum
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1929 Stalin launched his policy of agricultural collectivization - in effect a second Russian Revolution - which forced millions of peasants off their land and onto collective farms. The result was a catastrophic famine, the most lethal in European history. At least five million people died between 1931 and 1933 in the USSR. But instead of sending relief, the Soviet state made use of the catastrophe to rid itself of a political problem.
-
-
A must read
- By Amazon Customer on 2018-04-09
Written by: Anne Applebaum
-
Tracers in the Dark
- The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency
- Written by: Andy Greenberg
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the last decade, a single innovation has massively fueled digital black markets: cryptocurrency. Crime lords inhabiting lawless corners of the internet have operated more freely—whether in drug dealing, money laundering, or human trafficking—than their analog counterparts could have ever dreamed of. By transacting not in dollars or pounds but in currencies with anonymous ledgers, overseen by no government, beholden to no bankers, these black marketeers have sought to rob law enforcement of their chief method of cracking down on illicit finance: following the money.
-
-
Loved this
- By janie g on 2023-04-22
Written by: Andy Greenberg
-
Spam Nation
- The Inside Story of Organized Cybercrime - from Global Epidemic to Your Front Door
- Written by: Brian Krebs
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Spam Nation, investigative journalist and cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs unmasks the criminal masterminds driving some of the biggest spam and hacker operations targeting Americans and their bank accounts. Tracing the rise, fall, and alarming resurrection of the digital mafia behind the two largest spam pharmacies - and countless viruses, phishing, and spyware attacks - he delivers the first definitive narrative of the global spam problem and its threat to consumers everywhere.
-
-
Wonderfully in-depth look into Russian email spam
- By Mitchell on 2018-10-10
Written by: Brian Krebs
-
Freezing Order
- A True Story of Russian Money Laundering, State-Sponsored Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath
- Written by: Bill Browder
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Browder’s young Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was beaten to death in a Moscow jail in 2009, Browder cast aside his business career and made it his life’s mission to pursue justice for Sergei. One of the first steps of that mission was to uncover who had killed Sergei and profited from the $230 million corruption scheme that he had exposed. As Browder and his team tracked the money that flowed out of Russia—through the Baltics and Cyprus and on to Western Europe and the Americas—they discovered that Vladimir Putin himself was one of the beneficiaries of the crime.
-
-
I loved it!
- By Sam on 2022-05-09
Written by: Bill Browder
-
On Tyranny (Expanded Audio Edition)
- Updated with Twenty New Lessons from Russia's War on Ukraine
- Written by: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this exclusive audiobook edition, which includes eight hours of new content, Snyder combines the original essays from On Tyranny with twenty new lessons that answer the questions everyone is asking about this war. With forays into history, he clarifies the causes of the Russian invasion and the meaning of Ukrainian resistance, and explains the war's connections to threats to democracy here in the United States and around the world. Linking past and present, speaking only from notes, he guides the listener into the larger moral universe of On Tyranny.
-
-
Trump Derangement Syndrome as academic essay.
- By R. Ward on 2022-11-06
Written by: Timothy Snyder
-
Putin's People
- How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West
- Written by: Catherine Belton
- Narrated by: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Putin’s People, the investigative journalist and former Moscow correspondent Catherine Belton reveals the untold story of how Vladimir Putin and the small group of KGB men surrounding him rose to power and looted their country. Delving deep into the workings of Putin’s Kremlin, Belton accesses key inside players to reveal how Putin replaced the freewheeling tycoons of the Yeltsin era with a new generation of loyal oligarchs, who in turn subverted Russia’s economy and legal system and extended the Kremlin's reach into the United States and Europe.
-
-
Fascinatingly Depressing
- By Anonymous User on 2022-08-03
Written by: Catherine Belton
Publisher's Summary
This revelatory and dramatic history of disinformation traces the rise of secret organized deception operations from the interwar period to contemporary internet troll farms
We live in the age of disinformation - of organized deception. Spy agencies pour vast resources into hacking, leaking, and forging data, often with the goal of weakening the very foundation of liberal democracy: trust in facts. Thomas Rid, a renowned expert on technology and national security, was one of the first to sound the alarm. Even before the 2016 election, he warned that Russian military intelligence was "carefully planning and timing a high-stakes political campaign" to disrupt the democratic process. But as crafty as such so-called active measures have become, they are not new.
The story of modern disinformation begins with the clash between communism and capitalism after the Russian Revolution, which would come to define the Cold War. In Active Measures, Rid reveals startling intelligence and security secrets from materials written in more than 10 languages across several nations, and from interviews with current and former operatives. He exposes the disturbing yet colorful history of professional, organized lying, revealing for the first time some of the century's most significant operations - many of them nearly beyond belief. A White Russian ploy backfires and brings down a New York police commissioner; a KGB-engineered, anti-Semitic hate campaign creeps back across the Berlin Wall; the CIA backs a fake publishing empire, run by a former Wehrmacht U-boat commander that produces Germany’s best jazz magazine. Rid tracks the rise of leaking, and shows how spies began to exploit emerging internet culture many years before WikiLeaks. Finally, he sheds new light on the 2016 election, especially the role of the infamous "troll farm" in St. Petersburg as well as a much more harmful attack that unfolded in the shadows.
Active Measures takes the listener on a guided tour deep into a vast hall of mirrors old and new, pointing to a future of engineered polarization, more active and less measured - but also offering the tools to cut through the game of deception.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
What listeners say about Active Measures
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- A humble student
- 2024-01-05
Biased and partial analysis
Boy O Boy!! What a new twist on an old trick. You had fooled me completely. The presentation reminded me of a certain uncle Kubark, an honest and truthful saint of a guy. He never cheated in any card game but won almost all of them. So I was fooled. But unfortunately for you, Teller here knew of a certain Uncle George Orwell whose Animal Farm he once visited. Teller whispered into my ear, "Four legs good, two legs bad". He thinks that you know the true meaning. So no trophy for you. Penn and Teller (Faux).
P.S: The book should have a negative price.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- AxWRR53
- 2022-05-07
Neat history
Some remarkable stories about misinformation directed at the public and governments — a reminder of how we have to re-interpret the past as previously secret information is revealed, and how many events which we observe have causes that we are ignorant about.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Count Erklock
- 2020-10-21
Excellent and engaging book, but one-sided
In this ambitious and interesting account, Thomas Rid retraces the history of how systematic disinformation has been used by intelligence services for political gain, from the onset of 20th century to the alleged hacking of the 2016 American elections by "Russian hackers". Of course, the 20th century did not invent disinformation, deception and mass manipulation, but it propelled them to levels of efficiency never imagined before, thanks to an array of new communication technologies and people (radio, magazines, newspaper, journalists). High-level covert disinformation tactics carried out by intelligence services are referred to as "active measures". The absolutely staggering levels of disinformation we're witnessing today have had their foundations laid down more than a century ago.
I found this book this book both instructive and important, mostly because it focused on "real fake events", rather than propaganda theory of something of the kind. It will bring you up-to-date on the levels of sophistication we have achieved in our ability to lie to and to manipulate one another through disinformation.
My only criticism is that the author's lens is almost exclusively focused on the former Soviet Union and East German Republic, and current-day Russia. I'm fairly confident that the U.S and other Western countries were no innocent bystanders in the race for weapons of mass disinformation. I understand that the book is already 14 hours long, but it would have gained in credibility with a more balanced account. If you describe a boxing match, please let me know what both boxers are doing, not just one. Else, well, the book is at risk of choking on its own food (being considered as an "active measure")?
Despite its "focus", I strongly recommend it. It's a detailed and powerful overview of the history of "active measures". It may change the way you look at information and news. It has certainly made me more cautious, and looking for divergent points of view to get "the big picture". If however you feel depressed about the current state of the political discourse in the West, and by the orgy of disinformation that can be found on the net, then this book won't help. Take the blue pill and forget about it.
As the color of the book's cover page shows, it's a red pill: take it and see how deep our current rabbit hole goes.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!