This Machine Kills Secrets

How Wikileakers, Cypherpunks, and Hacktivists Aim to Free the World's Information

By: Andy Greenberg

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

The machine that kills secrets is a powerful cryptographic code that hides the identities of leakers and hacktivists as they spill the private files of government agencies and corporations bringing us into a new age of whistle blowing. With unrivaled access to figures like Julian Assange, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, and Jacob Applebaum, investigative journalist Andy Greenberg unveils the group that brought the world WikiLeaks, OpenLeaks, and BalkanLeaks.

This powerful technology has been evolving for decades in the hands of hackers and radical activists, from the libertarian enclaves of Northern California to Berlin to the Balkans. And the secret-killing machine continues to evolve beyond WikiLeaks, as a movement of hacktivists aims to obliterate the world's institutional secrecy. Never have the seemingly powerless had so much power to disembowel big corporations and big government.

©2012 Andy Greenberg (P)2012 Tantor

Critic reviews

"With complete access to many of the key hackers and leakers, Greenberg delves eloquently into the magicians of the all-powerful technology that shatters the confidentiality of any and all state secrets while tapping into issues of personal privacy." ( Publishers Weekly)

Well-researched, a great story

If you are all interested in the world of online surveillance, data privacy, and technology to both subvert and protect these, this book is very valuable. Unless you have a technical background things get a little dense at times but the author manages to present all the important issues in the form of a story, a story of a movement dedicated to freedom of information. Highly recommended, especially in the light of recent news stories...

Great Foundation for the Leak movement

Fantastic book. The author is excellent and thorough. While this is several years ago it now being 2023. This book is a fantastic foundation for the leak movement. I look forward to a potential new book getting us up to speed with this topic.

Interesting book, bored narrator

A curious contemporary history, foiled by a narrator that sounded like a bored David Cross.

Incredible insight into the world of secrets...

What made the experience of listening to This Machine Kills Secrets the most enjoyable?

This book will get anyone interested in the modern world of secrets and information that can drastically influence where power is kept: the masses or the elite masters. The book covers important events in the secrets arena, from the Pentagon Papers to OpenLeaks.

Powerful topic, well-researched and written, and (uniquely) not much stigma of personal bias. Mr. Greenberg makes sure to lay out the facts first before reacting to them (as evidenced by the descriptions of the feud between Assange and Domscheit-Berg).

If you have not been introduced to the topic then you will see the world with new perspectives afterwards. Both easy-to-absorb and insightful.

Highly-recommended; gripping and informative, non-fiction at its very best!

Good listen

I liked tracers in the dark better than this book, but still a very worthwhile listen. Would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in cryptology or modern computing.

Good writing, a little outdated by now

A great book. The personal stories behind the histories of cryptography and whistleblowing are deeply captivating and profoundly informative. There are times when the book's age shows itself however (e.g. this is a book about whistleblowing and leaks, with no mention of Snowden), but it is well worth the read.
Also, while it could be just me, there were a couple times where it fealt the author was pushing libertarian on the reader/listener a bit too hard (just a few instances, though; don't let that deter you from choosing this book).