Age of Deception

At the heart of cybersecurity lies a paradox: Cooperation makes conflict possible. In Age of Deception, Jon R. Lindsay shows that widespread trust in cyberspace enables espionage and subversion. While such acts of secret statecraft have long been part of global politics, digital systems have dramatically expanded their scope and scale. Yet success in secret statecraft hinges less on sophisticated technology than on political context.

To make sense of this, Lindsay offers a general theory of intelligence performance—the analogue to military performance in battle—that explains why spies and hackers alike depend on clandestine organizations and vulnerable institutions. Through cases spanning codebreaking at Bletchley Park during WWII to the weaponization of pagers by Israel in 2024, he traces both continuity and change in secret statecraft. Along the way, he explains why popular assumptions about cyber warfare are profoundly misleading. Offense does not simply dominate defense, for example, because the same digital complexity that expands opportunities for deception also creates potential for self-deception and counterdeception.

Provocative and persuasive, Age of Deception offers crucial insights into the future of secret statecraft in cyberspace and beyond.

Jon R. Lindsay is an Associate Professor at the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy and the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is the author of Information Technology and Military Power.

This theoretically novel and empirically rich book advances an important debate about cyber conflict—why it happens, how it works, and what it means for international politics. A must-read for anyone interested in how states use intelligence to project power from the shadows.

Rory Cormac, author of How to Stage A Coup and Ten Other Lessons from the World of Secret Statecraft:

Age of Deception convincingly reframes cyber security as a form of secret statecraft. In doing so, Lindsay achieves something rare: a cyber security book that recognizes the long-standing conditions of intelligence operations that predate the internet. This compelling, original book deserves to be read by international relations, cybersecurity, and intelligence scholars alike.

Amy B. Zegart, author of Spies, Lies, and Algorithms:

Deception has always been a tricky business requiring mundane bureaucratic capabilities and technological cunning. Lindsay's landmark study unpacks the essence of deception and its uses in the cyber age. With rich case studies and powerful frameworks, Age of Deception is both timely and timeless.

Joshua Rovner, author of Fixing the Facts:

Secret statecraft is an enduring form of international competition, and one with major implications for contemporary great power politics. In this remarkable book, Lindsay shows how it works. A milestone.

Ron J. Deibert, author of Chasing Shadows:

No one writes with as much authority and depth on the topic of covert operations and secret statecraft than Jon R. Lindsay. This book is a must read for all of those interested in better understanding the unique dynamics of the subterranean realm of global politics.