Messing with the Enemy

Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News

By: Clint Watts

Narrated by: Joe Knezevich

A former FBI Special Agent, US Army officer, and leading cyber-security expert offers a devastating and essential look at the misinformation campaigns, fake news, and electronic espionage operations that have become the cutting edge of modern warfare - and how we can protect ourselves and our country against them.

Clint Watts electrified the nation when he testified in front of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election. In Messing with the Enemy, the counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and homeland security expert introduces us to a frightening world in which terrorists and cyber criminals don’t hack your computer, they hack your mind. Watts reveals how these malefactors use your social media information and that of your family, friends, and colleagues to map your social networks, identify your vulnerabilities, master your fears, and harness your preferences.

Thanks to the schemes engineered by social media manipulators using you and your information, business executives have coughed up millions in fraudulent wire transfers, seemingly good kids have joined the Islamic State, and staunch anti-communist Reagan Republicans have cheered the Russian government’s hacking of a Democratic presidential candidate’s emails. Watts knows how they do it because he’s mirrored their methods to understand their intentions, combat their actions, and co-opt their efforts.

Watts examines a range of social media platforms - from the first Internet forums to the current titans of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn - and nefarious actors - from Al Qaeda to the Islamic State to the Russian social media troll farm - to illuminate exactly how they use Western social media for their nefarious purposes. He explains how he’s learned, through his successes and his failures, to engage with hackers, terrorists, and even the Russians - and how these interactions have generated methods for fighting back against those that seek to harm people on the Internet. He concludes with a snapshot of how advances in artificial intelligence will make future influence even more effective and dangerous to social media users and democratic governments worldwide. Shocking, funny, and eye-opening, Messing with the Enemy is a deeply urgent guide for living safe and smart in a super-connected world.

©2018 Clint Watts (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

foreign language much?

I'm only 2 hrs into a 9 hr. audio,
but the narrator spits out an onslaught of real life foreign names and groups that blur together
(especially while "multi-tasking").
Maybe others have an easier time following along,
but I'm wondering if either it could have been offered in a "dumbed down" version,
that doesn't require getting a handle on such a slew of arabic names and titles ?
OR if a visual organizational or flow chart could accompany this chapter ?
OR if it would have been better to get the audio "read along" version,
to see it in print as it is being read?

Good book

Very well done. Stays interesting and at times amusing, never overly worrisome – just appropriately cautionary.

Outstanding review of topic

Found the last 3 Chapters the most compiling and relevant to issues we are facing today in cyberspace and with preference bubbles.

Required Listening for today’s world.

Given the current state of affairs in politics and on social media, this book should be required reading for students, and anyone who wants to defend themselves from propaganda campaigns of fake news and social media bots. This book will help people understand how to find real information so they can form their own opinions and think for themselves.

Amazing story, amazing man, amazing life

As a frustrated wannabe super spy, this book quenched my thirst. While the narration was excellent, I would have preferred Mr. Watts! Of course, if he did narrate, it would add an hour just from his laughter!

Must read!!!

A must read to understand whats is going on in this country at this time!!!!!

Essential reading for all the world

Great read! Brings awareness to our collective as well as individual vulnerabilities of soc media consumption. Are destined to continue in our preferences bubbles or can we defend ourselves and western democracy from outside propaganda and misinformation?

So very interesting on so many levels!

I was surprised to find that Clint Watts' description of his own mental outlook on the world fits perfectly with my own, which I have had a hard time figuring out. But more than that, the book is really interesting and somewhat scary, and should really be read by anyone who is interested in what on earth is going on in the cybersphere.
The book really left me wanting more... maybe a step by step/how to ? Just a suggestion!

Peter

This Book Will Scare You -- Read It Anyway

Made me THINK. I realized that it's been a while since I have done that.

"Extremely" informative

I wish I had read this book 5 years ago. It sums up what I have been struggling with in understanding in why our nation has been increasingly more polarized and also how I got sucked into a rabbit hole of misinformation that I wholeheartedly believed on social media. I can't believe this was written pre-Covid. Very engaging and offers up positive solutions to our conflicted state of democracy. Thank you!