Cyberwars documents the always intriguing and sometimes terrifying story of how a few individuals have manipulated this far-reaching new medium for personal or political gain.

Jean Guisnel, preeminent journalist and a specialist on defense issues, describes blow by blow the battles on the Internet waged by people who "make Mata Hari and James Bond look like antiques" (Le Figaro). Brilliant hackers like Kevin Mitnik - modern-day "pirates" - pose real security threats to governments and industry. International terrorists plot their attacks and are tracked by secret service organizations online, and drug traffickers do business and launder money there.

Electronic economic espionage between governments have become the order of the day. In the wake of the Cold War, the world's intelligence organizations play out deadly new games on the Net.

Examining Clinton's ill-fated "Clipper" initiative, his call for a national data-encryption standard that would make it possible for law-enforcement agencies, if authorized by a court, to decode private voice and data communications, as well as the Communications Decency Act, aimed at protecting minors from "inappropriate" Internet material, Guisnel assesses the implications of pervasive surveillance for the inherently democratic medium of the Internet.

With these issues being the focus of ongoing debates in government and the private sector, Cyberwars couldn't be more timely.