Attack Surface
by Cory Doctorow · first published 2020
63% recommend38% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Fast-paced techno-thriller about surveillance and security that readers find technically credible yet accessible; a good pick for fans of the Little Brother series or anyone wanting fiction grounded in real tech.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Cory Doctorow's Attack Surface is a standalone novel set in the world of New York Times bestsellers Little Brother and Homeland. Most days, Masha Maximow was sure she'd chosen the winning side. In her day job as a counterterrorism wizard for an transnational cybersecurity firm, she made the hacks that allowed repressive regimes to spy on dissidents, and manipulate their every move. The perks were fantastic, and the pay was obscene. Just for fun, and to piss off her masters, Masha sometimes used her mad skills to help those same troublemakers evade detection, if their cause w
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Fiction: Attack Surface - Cory Doctorow Non-Fiction: Engineering General Intelligence Vol 2 - Ben Goertzel Honorable Mention - Fiction Daemon - Daniel Suarez Freedom - Daniel Suarez Billy Summers - Stephen King Elsewhere…
on “Ask HN: What was the best book you read in 2021?” ↗I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone to read Cory Doctorow's novel Attack Surface and to think deeply about the message contained within. He has something significant to say, IMO, about the need for people like "us" (that is, people who care deeply about these issues) to use our knowledge,…
on “It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs” ↗My 3 Favorite this year: 418: I Am a Teapot by Edgar Scott Automatic Reload: A Novel by Ferrett Steinmetz Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow After Meta I had to re-read: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
on “Ask HN: What book(s) did you love reading this year?” ↗Fiction: Attack Surface - Cory Doctorow Non-Fiction: Engineering General Intelligence Vol 2 - Ben Goertzel Honorable Mention - Fiction Daemon - Daniel Suarez Freedom - Daniel Suarez Billy Summers - Stephen King Elsewhere…
on “Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?” ↗…technical solutions to social problems, and those rarely work out in the long term, especially with adversarial parties. Better to solve the problem at the source. That, to me, was the big takeaway from Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow. The idea that you can't "out tech" the State[1]. Because even if you, as an individual, are in fact (smarter|more talented|more capable) than any individual employed by the State, they…
on “Secret Service Says Users Agreed to Location Tracking in Terms and Conditions” ↗…solution here shouldn't be technical; it should be legal. I expect more than a few commenters here will disagree with you. Some rather vehemently. To those that do so, I'd encourage you to read the novel Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow. While it's fiction, in the book, Doctorow makes a pretty compelling argument for the notion that when it comes to privacy, we can't win by "out tech'ing" the governments and corporations.…
on “Xfinity using WiFi signals in your house to detect motion” ↗I haven't gotten to that one yet, but it's on my list! Actually, Attack Surface was my first (and so far only) Cory Doctorow novel, but after reading it, I'm definitely game to dig into more of his oeuvre.
on “It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs” ↗See also Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother" book series -- esp the new one, "Attack Surface". It provides a rare combination of accurate technical details, fairly plausible scenarios, and approachability / suitability for a broad audience.
on “Privacy matters even if “you have nothing to hide”” ↗Amen. Great points. I hope Cory Doctorow sells a billion copies of Attack Surface (the new 3rd vol in his "Little Brother" series), as it's an entertaining and accessible way to introduce these concepts to said "normal people".
on “Portland, Maine passes referendum banning facial surveillance” ↗I recommend Cory Doctorow's recently-published novel "Attack Surface" (3rd installment in the "Little Brother" series). It's entertaining and possibly illuminating, and gets fairly detailed about surveillance tech's application and countermeasures, and ramifications.
on “Campaign “Reclaim Your Face” Calls for a Ban on Biometric Mass Surveillance” ↗Great points. Related tangent: for those interested in this topic of "unlawful massive domestic surveillance", I heartily recommend Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother" novels -- esp the most recent, "Attack Surface". They get the technical details right while remaining accessible and engaging regardless of the reader's geek acumen.
on “macOS has checked app signatures online for over 2 years” ↗Cory Doctorow’s latest book, “Attack Surface”, does a good job of exploring this concept IMO. https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781250757517
on “Build security with the assumption it will be used against your friends” ↗…and my favourite was Eversion by Alastair Reynolds, followed closely by Pushing Ice by the same author. I "discovered" Cory Doctorow this year, reading 4 books (and I have another in my queue), being "Attack Surface" the one I liked most. The only technical book I read was Programming in Lua (4th edition), and still didn't work for me. I guess I don't like Lua, and that's OK.
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗Sounds like we are thinking along very similar lines. Which leads me to wonder: have you by any chance read Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow? I read it a year or so ago, and my takeaway from it was that he is advocating a mindset of something like "Don't try to use technology to 'beat' the powerful players (corporations, governments,…
on “Ask HN: What strongly held beliefs have you changed your mind about recently?” ↗…exemplifying the basic user freedoms being denied to us: the ability to freely process information on my own device. I hate to risk sounding like I'm beating a dead horse, but when I hear this I flash back to Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow. I interpreted his message in that book as something approximately like "you can't out-tech the bad guys", where "bad guys" can mean government surveillance agencies (probably more what…
on “Keep Android Open” ↗