This Machine Kills Secrets: How WikiLeakers, Cypherpunks, and Hacktivists Aim to Free the World's Information

The barbarians aren't at the gates. They're inside. This is the first full account of the cypherpunks who aim to free the world's information, from the Forbes reporter whose work has traced their history and future. What is the machine that kills secrets? WikiLeaks brought to light a new form of whistleblowing, using powerful cryptographic code to hide leakers’ identities while they spill the private data of government agencies and corporations. But that 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. This is the story of the code and the characters€”idealists, anarchists, extremists€”who are transforming the next generation’s notion of what activism Show more