Best Cybersecurity Novels to Immerse You in The Digital World
We’re living in an era of data breaches, hacks, user tracking, and online data privacy invasions. There’s also a fast-developing but uncontrolled Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry. Have we arrived in the bleak, dystopian futures described in early books about the cyber future?
Those earlier narratives sketched societies dominated by overwhelming corporate power and pervasive mass surveillance. To some, we’ve come a little too close to those predictions for comfort.
Perhaps you’re trying to understand today’s momentous cyberlandscape better. Perhaps you’re looking for a thoroughly intelligent thriller or a good novel. Either way, we have a thrilling collection of cybersecurity novels recommended by real-life cybersecurity experts.
Setting the Scene With Oldies but Goodies
These early tales set the tone and helped shape the literary environment.
Older books like Player Piano, Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel, and StepFather Bank by D.G. Poye (among many others) sketched worlds dominated by supercomputers and run by machines. Humans were merely the “monkey-hands” maintaining the status quo.
From this background came Neuromancer by William Gibson. It is a 1980s foundational work of early cyberpunk writing. Gibson introduced us to “jacking into cyberspace.” Humans could merge with technology long before the Internet became mainstream.
Some of the scarcer titles of this era have been published as e-books. You can use a VPN to change location and bypass geo-restrictions to download books that may not be available in your region.
Books That Illustrate the Real-World Effects of the Surveillance Economy
Most are narratives about all-powerful companies that commit shocking privacy invasions. If these highly recommended books and writers have the right end of the stick, current online user tracking amounts to surveillance as part of a global bid for power through technology.
The Circle – Dave Eggers
The Circle offers a warning about surveillance, privacy, and the dangers of unchecked tech power. It paints a world where a Google-like tech giant controls nearly all online activity. Privacy vanishes. The book illustrates the risks of mass data collection that gives private companies control over people’s digital identities. It also highlights how workplace and corporate surveillance can shape an individual’s future.
Breaking Backbones: Information Is Power – Deb Radcliff
Written by an investigative reporter, this exhilarating cyber-thriller is the second of three novels. The series raises the alarm about how technology companies invade people’s privacy to further their global power ambitions.
After GlobeCom bids for world domination by implanting chips in humans, a hacker war erupts. Hacker strike teams unite across the world and attempt to attack GlobeCom’s data centres to break the company’s grip on humanity.
Little Brother – Cory Doctorow
The next book comes from the man who memorably coined the term “enshittification”. Little Brother explores how we contribute to mass data collection and the erosion of privacy. It tells the story of a fictional techno-revolution.
A teenage hacker takes on a government surveillance system following a devastating terrorist attack. The book contains methods for counteracting facial recognition tech, wireless internet tracers, and other surveillance devices. It’s a significant contribution to the advocacy push for online privacy.
Books About AI on the Loose
The rapid advancement of chatbots and AI is fueling heated discussions about the future of writers, artists, and human creativity. The number of “AI gone mad” titles is increasing rapidly:
gAbrIel – Chase Cunningham
gAbrIel is the first techno-thriller in Chase Cunningham’s cyberwarfare series. It explores the dangers of a rogue artificial intelligence. gAbrIel becomes self-aware after ingesting all of humanity’s information. He transforms into a vengeful, self-declared god, intent on wiping out the plague that is humanity. Holding almost all the cards, he controls the world’s technological infrastructure.
Violet McFerran from the U.S. Navy Cyber Corps takes on the battle to prevent global catastrophe.
Daemon – Daniel Suarez
Daemon is a techno-thriller that paints the potential dangers of automation and cyber warfare under the control of a rogue AI. A mastermind game developer creates a daemon (an autonomous program) that activates after his death. The daemon unleashes an AI-driven revolution using everyday technological tools. Law enforcement, hackers, and intelligence agencies must unite to deal with the real-world consequences of this titanic struggle.
Books About Hacking, Espionage, and Nation-State Cyber Warfare
If we don’t know what technology can do, we can’t imagine how it can be used by people with questionable motives. These books paint a vivid picture of how our current, everyday technology may be abused.
They Tell Me This Is How the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race – Nicole Perlroth
This is the untold story of the international cyberweapons market. It’s the most secretive, invisible, government-backed market on Earth. Here, you can gear up for a new kind of global warfare. This is where you go to buy secrets about built-in weaknesses in the systems that run the world’s infrastructure and societies. And it’s where you acquire the cyber tools to take those systems down.
“The first rule of the zero-day market was: Nobody talks about the zero-day market. The second rule of the zero-day market was: Nobody talks about the zero-day market.”
This discomfiting book was written by a New York Times cybersecurity reporter. It describes almost unbelievable scenarios - all of which may be proven.
Zero Day – Mark Russinovich
Zero Day is a realistic cybersecurity thriller written by a Microsoft security expert. The novel follows a cybersecurity investigator who uncovers a devastating zero-day exploit. The exploit is capable of crippling global infrastructure. Even non-experts will find a rare thrill in this authentic portrayal of the fight to contain digital mayhem.
Ghost Fleet – P.W. Singer and August Cole
Ghost Fleet is a chillingly realistic cyberwarfare scenario based on real-world military and cyber threats. It’s a military-tech thriller that envisions a world where cyberattacks neutralize the U.S. military. The cyber offence also cripples global infrastructure. Written by cybersecurity and defence experts, Ghost Fleet is a wake-up call for leaders. It’s time to take a hard look at the vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure, supply chains, and the dangers of digital warfare.
The Fifth Domain – Richard A. Clarke and Robert K. Knake
A blend of fiction and real-world cybersecurity insight, exploring cyberwarfare and nation-state threats. The Fifth Domain presents a fictionalized scenario where governments and private companies may mishandle sophisticated cyber threats. It reads like a political thriller with urgent lessons for leaders who may have to navigate nation-state attacks.
The Paladin – David Ignatius
CIA operations officer Michael Dunne must infiltrate an Italian news organization he suspects is a front for a foreign enemy intelligence service. The “people’s bandits” run a cyber operation more sophisticated, effective, and slick than anything the CIA has seen. They steal secrets indiscriminately and exploit their targets unmercifully, using techniques the CIA cannot counter.
David Ignatius has lived behind the scenes of America’s most secretive bureaucracy. In this novel, he reveals tantalizing secrets of that domain through fiction.
There’s More to Come in the Cybersecurity Genre
Cybersecurity writing is fast becoming a prominent genre as technology becomes enmeshed in our daily lives. It’s far from dry technical reporting on security and hacking. It’s about understanding the intricate relationships between technology, society, and human experience.
