The Financial Times and consulting firm McKinsey & Company recently announced their Business Book of the Year for 2021: “This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends,” by journalist Nicole Perlroth.
The book, published in February by Bloomsbury, takes a sobering look into the world of cyberattacks, and the increasingly sophisticated and brazen hackers operating in the shady world of cybercrime.
“The world has largely ignored the realities and profound implications of the arms race between hackers, cybercriminals and businesses and national governments,”
Magnus Tyreman, McKinsey’s European managing partner
The book takes a look into hackers’ abilities to launch attacks that cost companies billions of dollars, steal valuable data from governments, shut down power grids, or just spy on your smartphone.
“This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends” also looks at some of the biggest cyberattacks in recent years, including last year’s huge SolarWinds hack that provided Russian-linked hackers with access to sensitive data from the U.S. government and companies like Microsoft and Intel.
On Wednesday this week, Perlroth was named to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s first ever Cybersecurity Advisory Committee.
The other five finalists for Business Book of the Year for 2021:
- “The World for Sale,” by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy – A look at commodities traders
- “Empire of Pain,” by Patrick Radden Keefe — Purdue Pharma and the role of the Sackler family in the opioid epidemic
- “The Conversation,” by Robert Livingston – An exploration of conversations about race at work
- “The New Climate War,” by Michael E. Mann’s — Ideas for corporations to tackle climate change
- “The Aristocracy of Talent,” by Adrian Wooldridge – A look at meritocracy in the workplace