Young men and women who grew up in the digital age are expressing their dissatisfaction with governments, the military and corporations in a radically new way. They are building machines - writing cryptographic software codes - that are designed to protect the individual in a cloak of anonymity, while institutional secrets are uploaded for public consumption. This movement is shining a light on governments' classified documents and exposing abuses of power like never before.

From Australia to Iceland - organisations like Wikileaks, Openleaks, and Anonymous are just some of the more familiar groups that are enabling whistleblowers and transforming the next generation's notion of what activism can be. The revolution won't be televised. It'll be online.

Andy Greenberg, technology writer for Forbes magazine, has interviewed all the major players in this new era of activism including Julian Assange - and blows the cover of a key activist, previously only presumed to exist, named The Architect who accomplished for at least two leak sites exactly what his name implies.

In This Machine Kills Secrets, Greenberg offers a vision of a world in which institutional secrecy no longer protects those in power - from big banks to dysfunctional governments. A world that digital technology has made all but inevitable.

Brilliantly written ... will be one of the most important books of the decade * Birgitta Jonsdottir, Member of the Icelandic Parliament for the Movement & chairperson of the International Modern Media Institution *
Greenberg masterfully portrays a new reality. Radical transparency for firms and governments is not just a decision but a technological fact of life * Don Tapscott, bestselling author of Wikinomics, the Naked Corporation and Macrowikinomics *
Greenberg’s vivid storytelling makes the forces that culminated in Wikileaks–the people, the politics, and especially the technology – come alive * Bruce Schneier, author of Liars and Outliers and Applied Cryptography *
A must-read for those seeking to understand the decades-long struggle between openness and secrecy, anonymity and attribution–and why that might be the most important struggle of the modern era. Meticulously researched, Greenberg provides first-hand accounts of the eccentric pioneers who are coding around censorship, repression, and even traditional law. He also captures the relentless, distributed nature of the movement that’s powering it all * Daniel Suarez, New York Times bestselling author of Daemon and Kill Decision *
[Greenberg] capitalises on his unrivalled access to may of the key players, including those poster boys, Bradley Manning and Julian Assange. * New Scientist *
Greenberg's focus ranges from the unforgettable, such as Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg; to the barely recognisable, such as WikiLeaks associate Jacob Appelbaum, as well as obvious candidates such as Julian Assange and Bradley Manning... will be lapped up by anyone with even a passing interest in the area. * Sunday Business Post *
Some secrets are meant to be kept; some are destined to be exposed. Andy Greenberg’s book is the story of a revolution in societal transparency. It’s an expose of the characters who have put secrets in peril. For those that seek transparency, it’s a riveting tale. For those that must keep secrets, be warned: This book holds up a mirror to your worst fears * Hugh Thompson, Chief Security Strategist at People Security and Adjunct Professor in the computer science department at Columbia University and Florida Institute of Technology *
Andy Greenberg’s compelling account points to a future in which few corporate and government secrets are safe. This is the book you must read to understand the WikiLeaks phenomenon and the growing struggle over the most sensitive institutional secrets * Director of the Business and Economic Reporting Program, New York University Carter School of Journalism *
Andy Greenberg tells a vivid story that weaves together compelling characters and powerful technology that could change politics more profoundly than any technology since the printing press. By the time I was finished, I was both inspired and terrified * David Bacon, IBM, Watson Research Center *

Andy Greenberg has covered cyber security and privacy for Forbes since 2007. Based in New York, Greenberg's reporting has taken him from an autonomous car race in the California desert to Beijing, where he first cut his teeth as a freelance journalist in 2004. Most recently, Greenberg's travels have taken him to Iceland and London, where he produced the world's first cover story on WikiLeaks' Julian Assange.