In November 2008, Barack Obama, fresh off his historic election victory, entered the White House for a meeting with the outgoing president, George W. Bush. Among the many critical issues discussed was a secret weapon, not of bombs or missiles, but of code—a 150,000-line computer program known as Stuxnet. This cyber …

In the world of cybersecurity, a common misconception is that hacking involves nothing more than pounding away at a keyboard, with a series of numbers and symbols appearing on the screen until, voilà, access is granted. This cinematic portrayal of hacking is far from reality. The truth is, hacking into secure systems …