| Abstract |
HISTORY OF SPECIFIC SUBJECTS. INTERCEPT is the previously untold - and highly classified - story of the melding of technology and espionage. Gordon Corera's compelling narrative takes us from the Second World War through the Cold War and the birth of the internet to the present era of hackers and surveillance. Rich with historical detail and characters, as well as astonishing revelations about espionage carried out in recent times by the UK, US and China, this is the secret history of how spying drove the rise of the computer. Within the confines of Britain's Second World War code-breaking establishment at Bletchley Park, the work of men like Alan Turing led to the birth of electronic espionage and the first computer, Colossus. In the following decades, computers have transformed the business of espionage, from Cold War spy hunting to today's data-driven pursuit of terrorists and industrial-scale cyber-espionage against corporations. |
