VERAX

While reporting on the high civilian death toll from drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, the authors set out to investigate a suspected link to the U.S. government’s reliance on inaccurate electronic surveillance, delving into the workings of corporations that sell surveillance programs and the military and intelligence agencies that buy them. Their book reveals the stories of the daring journalists and whistleblowers—from Edward Snowden to the lesser-known NSA Four to former drone operators—who made sure the world would know the truth. The gripping account covers the many ways that governments track people, through both targeted surveillance and indiscriminate data collection; and how spy programs and hardware tools get turned into cyberweapons, attacking the infrastructure of hostile states and providing data used to guide drone killings.