Alexander Klimburg was a member of the generation for whom the Internet was a utopian ideal turned reality: a place where ideas, information, and knowledge could be shared and new freedoms enjoyed. Two decades later, the future isn't so bright: increasingly, the Internet is used as a weapon and a means of domination by states eager to exploit or curtail global connectivity in order to further their national interests. In The Darkening Web, Klimburg explains why we underestimate the consequences of this shift at our peril and brings us face-to-face with the range of threats the struggle for cyberspace presents, from an apocalyptic scenario of debilitated civilian infrastructure to a 1984-like erosion of privacy and freedom of expression. At stake are not only our personal data or the electrical grid, but also the Internet as we know it today--and with it the very existence of open and democratic societies.

"With a new afterword"--Cover. Originally published: New York: Penguin Press, 2017.

The body of cyber -- Mind over matter -- Everyone can be a god -- Ruling the domain -- Pin-striped cyber -- No one but US -- Attack to excess -- Strategic innuendo -- Russia's invisible war -- Of Siloviki and cyber crime -- Pwnage diplomacy -- The Chinese cyber dream -- Manning the great firewall -- Handling the barbarians -- Parsing cyber power -- The great cyber game -- An end-to-end world -- Conclusion -- Epilogue -- Afterword.