The United States is being bombarded with cyber-attacks. From the surge in ransomware groups targeting critical infrastructure to nation states compromising the software supply chain and corporate email servers, malicious cyber activities have reached an all-time high. Russia attracts the most attention, but China is vastly more sophisticated. They have a common interest in exploiting the openness of the Internet and social media—and our democracy—to erode confidence in our institutions and to exacerbate our societal rifts to prevent us from mounting an effective response. Halting this digital aggression will require Americans to undertake sweeping changes in how we educate, organize and protect ourselves and to ask difficult questions about how vulnerable our largest technology giants are.

If we are waiting for a “Cyber 9/11” or a “Cyber Pearl Harbor,” we are misunderstanding how our adversaries wage cyber warfare. This is a timely and critically important book. No other book has analyzed the threat of cyber warfare with the depth and knowledge brought to the subject by the authors.

It has now become a cliché to argue that a “whole of government” or “whole of society” response is necessary to respond to this crisis, but that concept has never been more important. It will take many years and billions of dollars to even begin to secure our IT systems and prevent the slow rot that is destroying America. Using language that the layman can understand, we wish to educate Americans about what has happened and inspire them to seek solutions.

Early Praise for Battlefield: Cyber.

 “Influence operations.” Once an exotic term from spy novels, remote from our daily lives, today it’s a reality that touches all of us through our networked devices. Russia and China have gotten entry to our homes and to our minds, seeking to influence and disorient us. McLaughlin and Holstein are Paul Reveres for the 21st century, shouting the alarm and explaining how citizens, IT firms, and government must rebalance relations with China to protect our democratic system.

Andrew J. Nathan, one of America’s top China-watchers and Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science, Columbia University