First published 2016
Malcolm Nance reveals how Russian intelligence agencies orchestrated a massive cyber assault on American democracy during the 2016 election. The book opens with the April 2016 discovery that hackers had penetrated Democratic National Committee servers, stealing documents, emails, donor records, and voice messages in what Nance calls Watergate 2.0. The investigation expands as security experts uncover attacks on the broader Democratic Party infrastructure, the Clinton campaign, media allies, and voter registration systems across twenty-five states. Western intelligence identifies the perpetrators as Russian spy agencies nicknamed the Cyber Bears. Nance traces Vladimir Putin's evolution from KGB junior officer to spymaster-in-chief, documenting how Russian operatives and oligarchs cultivated Donald Trump and his inner circle as unwitting assets. The stolen materials flow through WikiLeaks to flood American media, serving Putin's ultimate objective of installing Trump as president and dismantling seventy years of American foreign policy, NATO, and the existing global order.
Genres: history, american, political-science, non-fiction, 21st-century, current-affairs
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: deception, hackers
Setting: America, Democratic National Committee, Russia
Period: 2016
240 pages · Paperback · Skyhorse