Little Brother Series

I had listened to the original "Little Brother" probably a decade ago. My wife and I were on a road trip from Colorado to Yosemite for a friend's wedding and some rock climbing. At the time I remembered liking it. Being a technology person interested in cybersecurity with some libertarian leanings (at the time - I have long since been dissuaded) I found the topic of government surveillance and overreach quite interesting.

I hadn't realized that there was a sequel. So a year ago when I discovered there was a sequel I bought a paperback book that included both Little Brother and its sequel Homeland. I figured that Little Brother was good enough that I'd like to have a physical copy to pass on to my kids. I didn't plan on rereading it, but after reading the first chapter of Homeland, I realized I'd forgotten enough that I should go back and reread it.

When I finished Homeland, I wondered if there was more. To my delight, I discovered that there was, so I got a copy of Attack Surface and immediately devoured it.

Basic Plot Summaries

Here are some basic plot summaries for anyone unfamiliar with the series - I'll try not to include too many spoilers.

Little Brother

The basic plot behind Little Brother is that there is a terrorist attack in San Francisco and the main character Marcus Yallow and his friends get picked up by DHS in the aftermath - mostly due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Marcus makes the "mistake" of standing up for his rights and initially refusing to allow them access to his phone, which causes the DHS to torture him before releasing him.

Marcus decides to get back at the DHS by waging a campaign to show the public that the DHS is torturing and harassing innocent civilians. There is a bunch of cat-and-mouse back and forth that goes on. The book dives into a lot of the technical details of government surveillance technology and how to evade and subvert it.

The title Little Brother is an homage to Big Brother from Orwell's 1984. In 1984, Big Brother (the dear dictator) is always watching. Little Brother is referencing the fact that with the ubiquity of cell phones now, we the people can be Little Brother always watching Big Brother by recording and exposing the excesses of the government.

Homeland

The second book is basically more of the same as the first book. At this point, Marcus has a job working for a Congressman's campaign. An old contact leaks him some damning information about one of his torturers and he has to decide what to do with that information. Again there is a bunch of cat and mouse back and forth reminiscent of any good spy tale.

Attack Surface

Attack Surface doesn't follow Marcus, but rather one of the other characters from the previous books. She's actually kind of on the other side. After the terror attack,k she volunteers to help the DHS track down terrorists. That grew into a job helping some government contractors in Iraq, eventually leading to working for some large defense contractors that sell surveillance tech to the US government and a variety of foreign governments.

Of course, as you might predict she has some misgivings about her work, particularly when it is used to target some of her friends. She manages to collect some whistleblower information and again there is a cat-and-mouse game over what happens to that information. The other books are written much more linearly. This book alternates between 2 storylines. One connects the dots between her connection to Marcus in the first book and the second book and her role in that story. The other story talks about her helping her friend fight some of the surveillance tools that she created.

Themes

All 3 books deal with digital privacy and government surveillance tech and its use and abuse.

First 2 books

The first 2 books kind of share the same theme in my mind. That is making the audience aware of government surveillance and how it works and the need for digital privacy. Cory does a lot of preaching through Marcus. There are large sections of the book where Marcus explains things like cryptography and it's obvious Cory is trying to educate the audience. Overall the books are somewhat hopeful. The overall message seems to be the government is using technology to surveil and oppress you, but you can use technology to fight back and resist.

Attack Surface

The second book is much less optimistic. Masha, the main character, at several points declares "We are all screwed". She points out, rightfully, the defenders' dilemma. As a defender, we have to be perfect every time. Attackers only need to find one chink in our armor. As lay people, we don't really stand a chance against an army of people (government/military workers and contractors) whose full-time job is to find chinks in our armor. By the end of the book, Cory is a little more hopeful. The parting message is we can't hope to hold out forever just relying on technology. However, we can still use technology to fight back. It can't win the fight long term and it can give us some space and breathing room. The real way to win is to use that breathing room to create political solutions. Create laws that limit government surveillance, keep it in check, and make it more transparent. That's how we win.

Applicability

Given the fact that our government in the US is currently going through a hostile takeover by a bunch of Nazis, I would say this is an applicable book. People who don't agree with what's going on would do well to read it. It talks a lot about going to protests and what to expect from law enforcement and what countermeasures you can take. None of them are foolproof and they are still better than walking in naively.