The Arnold A. Institute of War and Peace Studies presents:
Book Event: Full Stack Spies
Friday, October 9, 2026
12pm-2pm
1302 IAB
CUID Only. Advance Registration Required.
Pizza Provided.
With Dr. Ahana Datta Fasel (via Zoom), Durham University, UK Research and Innovation, Privacy International
Moderated by Jason Healey, Member, Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies; Senior Research Scholar, School for International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Book Description:
Even the most elite hackers use common technologies to steal state secrets, which help intelligence agencies to catch them. Are these hackers simply reckless, or do their operations reveal something deeper about their nation-state patrons?
Over a globally interconnected Internet, nations must constantly toe the delicate line of maintaining stability-developing shared tech protocols that they themselves must also break, in order to spy. This is the paradox at the heart of cyber espionage: states need to cooperate if they are to compete. As the US and China vie for strategic advantage through a new form of statecraft in cyber space, an intensifying cat-and-mouse game makes cyber security more difficult, more expensive and more unpredictable for us all.
Full Stack Spies examines the dynamic, interdependent relationships that hackers, cyber defenders, tech giants and nation states forge, leverage and exploit to amass cyber power against a wide range of targets in geopolitics, global trade and finance, the armed forces, and critical infrastructure. But this jostling for cyber dominance makes spying online harder-and, more crucially, undermines long-term trust in cyber space, destabilizing the foundations of digital societies.
Author Bio:
Ahana Datta Fasel advises governments and companies globally on geopolitical, technology, and systemic risk. Previously the Financial Times' cyber chief, she has held senior cyber roles in the UK government, serving the Ministry of Justice, the Cabinet Office, and the National Cyber Security Centre. She is a strategic advisor on national security and defense to UK Research and Innovation and a trustee of Privacy International. She has held visiting fellowships at Cornell, Cambridge, Imperial and Durham, and her editorials have appeared in Foreign Policy, FT, and Columbia Journalism Review. She holds a PhD from University College London.