Many of today's cybersecurity luminaries—including former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos—have roots in a firm called @stake. The following excerpt, from Joseph Menn's upcoming Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World, traces the company's lasting influence.
Two years before 9/11, an intelligence contractor I will call Rodriguez was in Beijing when NATO forces in the disintegrating state of Yugoslavia dropped five US bombs on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three. Washington rapidly apologized for what it said had been a mistake in targeting, but the Chinese were furious. In a nationally televised address, then Chinese vice president Hu Jintao condemned the bombing as “barbaric” and criminal. Tens of thousands of protestors flowed into the streets, throwing rocks and pressing up against the gates of the American embassy in Beijing and consulates in other cities.
Excerpted from Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World. Buy on Amazon.
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The US needed to know what the angry crowds would do next, but the embassy staffers were trapped inside their buildings. Rodriguez, working in China as a private citizen, could still move around. He checked with a friend on the China desk of the CIA and asked how he could help. The analyst told Rodriguez to go find out what was happening and then get to an internet café to see if he could file a report from there. Once inside an internet café, Rodriguez called again for advice on ..
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