Hacker's Mind

Long associated with computing technology, a hack is way to subvert a system's rules to the hacker's benefit in a way that is unanticipated and unintended by the system's designers. In A Hacker's Mind, Bruce Schneier takes the term out of the world of computing and uses it to analyze the social systems that underpin our society: from tax laws to financial markets and beyond. He reveals an array of powerful actors who deploy hacks to bend our economic, political, and legal systems to their will. In Schneier's estimation, "even the loopholes have loopholes," and this is by design. Left unchecked, and supercharged by techniques from artificial intelligence, these hacks threaten to upend our financial markets, weaken our democracy, and infiltrate our own cognitive systems. But if we can understand the hacking mindset properly, we can improve existing systems, predict and defend against hacks, and realize a more equitable world.

“They say that rules are made to be broken, but more often rules are gamed, finessed, worked around, or subverted--in short, hacked. No one is better equipped than Bruce Schneier to explain how this often-perverse use of human ingenuity can undermine the institutions that civilized life depends on. A Hacker's Mind is an important source of new insights on the forces that can sap the vigor and integrity of modern society.--Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of Rationality A Hacker's Mind brilliantly explains how our society and democracy are being shaped by people taking the 'hacking' mentality into realms that weren't designed to be hacked. Bruce Schneier shows how hacking, the tool of the rebel and the outsider, can also be used by the rich and powerful to win in business and politics, at great cost to the civic commitment needed for our free society. A great read and an important book!--Timothy H. Edgar, author of Beyond Snowden An essential new perspective on hacking: the bad and the ugly, but also a surprisingly optimistic way of using a hacker mentality to solve society's complex problems.--Marietje Schaake, international policy director at Stanford University Cyber Policy Center and member of European Parliament, 2009-2019 By uncovering how the rich, powerful, and clever are misusing our institutions for their own gain, A Hacker's Mind will transform how you think about the challenges our society faces and how to fix them. Erudite and funny, Bruce Schneier's book is a must-read for anyone concerned about our democracy in the digital and data age.--Beth Simone Noveck, author of Solving Public Problems”

"An essential new perspective on hacking: the bad and the ugly, but also a surprisingly optimistic way of using a hacker mentality to solve society’s complex problems." -- Marietje Schaake, international policy director at Stanford University Cyber Policy Centre and member of European Parliament, 2009–2019
"A Hacker’s Mind brilliantly explains how our society and democracy are being shaped by people taking the ‘hacking’ mentality into realms that weren’t designed to be hacked. Bruce Schneier shows how hacking, the tool of the rebel and the outsider, can also be used by the rich and powerful to win in business and politics, at great cost to the civic commitment needed for our free society. A great read and an important book!" -- Timothy H. Edgar, author of Beyond Snowden
"They say that rules are made to be broken, but more often rules are gamed, finessed, worked around, or subverted—in short, hacked. No one is better equipped than Bruce Schneier to explain how this often-perverse use of human ingenuity can undermine the institutions that civilized life depends on. A Hacker’s Mind is an important source of new insights on the forces that can sap the vigor and integrity of modern society." -- Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of Rationality
"A Hacker's Mind… sheds vital light on the beginnings of our journey into an increasingly complex world." -- Becky Hogge - Financial Times

Bruce Schneier is a renowned security technologist, called a "security guru" by the Economist. He has written more than one dozen books, including the New York Times bestseller Data and Goliath (2014) and Click Here to Kill Everybody (2018). He teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Long associated with computing technology, a hack is way to subvert a system's rules to the hacker's benefit in a way that is unanticipated and unintended by the system's designers. In A Hacker's Mind, Bruce Schneier takes the term out of the world of computing and uses it to analyze the social systems that underpin our society: from tax laws to financial markets and beyond. He reveals an array of powerful actors who deploy hacks to bend our economic, political, and legal systems to their will. In Schneier's estimation, "even the loopholes have loopholes," and this is by design. Left unchecked, and supercharged by techniques from artificial intelligence, these hacks threaten to upend our financial markets, weaken our democracy, and infiltrate our own cognitive systems. But if we can understand the hacking mindset properly, we can improve existing systems, predict and defend against hacks, and realize a more equitable world.

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