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Computer inner workings in the neon light

Overall a very good read in a field with a paucity of choices. The author gets a bit ivory-tower academic at times, overplaying criticism of others and likewise overplaying his own man-against-the-machine type. In fact, most of what I read here agrees rather than disagrees with most of what I've read in what little else has been published in the field. It's well-organized and covers germane topics. Once he gets over the professorial peer criticism and fascination with theory for its own sake, he makes tightly-strung together arguments across a number of areas relevant to cyber activity. His focus on "unpeace" as a state between peace and war and normal in today's cyber realm is particularly on point.
He weighs pros and cons for permitting private actors active defense against cyber attacks, but weighs in against in the final analysis. In no other domain are individuals prevented from defending themselves from attack, and I find it breathtaking that he breezily dismisses this in as short a section as he does. He clearly has not reviewed both the moral and practical case thoroughly, or at least he fails to convince the reader he has given the short attention he pays it. A government's "monopoly on violence" is specifically a monopoly on retribution and restitution, since we do not trust individuals to judge their own cases objectively. It claims no monopoly on deterrence or on intervention during an attack, all of which private parties are free to engage in across all other domains. For instance, I can use locks and alarms, I can be alert and look around at my surroundings, and for the most part, I can carry a variety of weapons, all for deterrence. If someone draws a gun on me, no one would convict me of a crime for punching the assailant in the face in self-defense, by way of intervention. However, should I track down an attacker and exact my own brand of justice after the fact of an attack, then I would place myself on the wrong side of the law. That Kello would support eliminating all forms of defense from private parties is a substantial shift from the way our society deals with defense across the board otherwise and requires at least more consideration from Kello.
Anyone interested in cyber warfare, espionage, and/or policy will find this work indispensable. A good read and then some.

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