page_title: The Plot to Hack America
section_title: Composition and publication
hierarchical_section_title: The Plot to Hack America / Composition and publication
caption_attribution_description: English: Malcolm Wrightson Nance is a retired United States Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer in naval cryptology and author, scholar, and media commentator on international terrorism, intelligence, insurgency and torture
context_page_description: The Plot to Hack America: How Putin's Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election is a non-fiction book by Malcolm Nance about what the author describes as Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It was published in paperback, audiobook, and e-book formats in 2016 by Skyhorse Publishing. A second edition was also published the same year, and a third edition in 2017. Nance researched Russian intelligence, working as a Russian interpreter and studying KGB history.
  Nance described the black propaganda warfare known as active measures by RT and Sputnik News. He recounts Vladimir Putin's KGB rise, and details Trump campaign ties to Russia. Nance concludes that Putin managed the cyberattack by hacker groups Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear.
  The Wall Street Journal placed the book in its list of "Best-Selling Books" for the week of February 19, 2017, at seventh place in the category "Nonfiction E-Books". New York Journal of Books called it "an essential primer for anyone wanting to be fully informed about the unprecedented events surrounding the 2016 U.S. presidential election." Napa Valley Register described Nance's work as "the best book on the subject".
context_section_description: Before beginning research for The Plot to Hack America, Nance gained counter-intelligence experience as a U.S. Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer in naval cryptology, where he served from 1981–2001. He garnered expertise within the fields of intelligence and counterterrorism. The author learned about Russian history as an interpreter for Russian, and began working in the intelligence field through research into the history of the Soviet Union and its spying agency the KGB. He devoted years of research to analyzing foreign relations of Russia.
  Prior to analyzing the Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, Nance's background in counter-intelligence analysis included management of a think tank called Terror Asymmetrics Project on Strategy, Tactics and Radical Ideologies, consisting of Central Intelligence Agency and military intelligence officers with direct prior field experience. Nance's books on counter-terrorism include An End to al-Qaeda, Terrorist Recognition Handbook, The Terrorists of Iraq, Defeating ISIS, and Hacking ISIS.
  Nance began work on The Plot to Hack America incidentally, while already engaged in writing Hacking ISIS. During the course of research for Hacking ISIS, he discovered computer hacking of Germany's legislative body, the Bundestag, and French television station TV5Monde. At the time, the hacks were thought to be caused by ISIS, but instead they were traced back to Russian hacking group, the Cyber Bears. Nance knew this was a Russian intelligence GRU operated group, and realized the attribution to ISIS was a false flag operation to throw investigators off the trail. This gave Nance prior knowledge of Russian intelligence tactics, through the Cyber Bears, to infiltrate servers for purposes of disrupting government in the case of Germany, and injecting propaganda in the case of France. After the 2016 hack on the DNC, it was apparent to Nance that the identical foreign agency had carried out the attack, GRU. Nance's suspicions were borne out as accurate when security firm CrowdStrike determined Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear were behind the attack. Nance saw this as akin to the Watergate scandal, albeit a virtual attack instead of a physical break-in to Democratic facilities.
  Nance told C-SPAN that for the majority of his working life he has identified as a member of the U.S. Republican Party, describing himself as being from the "Colin Powell School of Republicanism", and The Plot to Hack America was written out of a desire as an intelligence expert to document the background behind the attack by a foreign power on U.S. democratic institutions. Nance realized the gravity of the attack because he considered that such an operation must have been sanctioned and managed by former KGB officer Vladimir Putin himself. Nance is a member of the board of directors for the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. Through this work at the museum, Nance befriended former KGB general Oleg Kalugin, who advised him "once KGB always KGB". Nance considered that Putin's objectives would not have been simply to harm Hillary Clinton but actually to attempt to achieve the ascendancy of Donald Trump to U.S. president.
  The Plot to Hack America was first published in an online format on September 23, 2016, the same day United States Intelligence Community assessments about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections were delivered to President Barack Obama. The appendix to the book notes this timing, and points out, "Many of the conclusions that were included in the consensus opinion of the principal three intelligence agencies, the NSA, the CIA, and the FBI, are identical to The Plot to Hack America". Its first paperback format was published on October 10, 2016. A second edition was released the same year, in addition to an eBook format. Another edition was published in 2017, along with an audiobook narrated by Gregory Itzin. The author was the subject of hecklers when he appeared at an event to discuss his work at Books & Books in Miami, Florida in 2017.
caption: Malcolm Nance, author of The Plot to Hack America
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