Eric O'Neill

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Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America’s First Cyber Spy by Eric O’Neill is a non-fiction book following the author’s investigation into the FBI’s most damaging spy. Mr. O’Neill is a cybersecurity expert and a former FBI agent.

I have read many books about cybersecurity, and many books which spy Robert Hanssen (code name: Gray Day) is mentioned, but I never realized the two subject had anything to do with one another, until now. Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America’s First Cyber Spy by Eric O’Neill is a thrilling memoir about the author’s FBI assignment to “work” for Hanssen while secretly investigating whether he is a Soviet spy or not.

The author starts by introducing the reader to his world of shadows. As an FBI “ghost” he was an expert at surveillance while blending into the background, gathering information without notice. Real spy work some might say.

As a young agent, Mr. O’Neill was tasked at joining the new cybersecurity division that Mr. Hanssen was put in charge of. Unbeknownst to the spy, the author was there to gather information. Unbeknownst to the author, he was part of a much larger investigation into one of the most damaging spies the US has known. Unbeknownst to Hanssen, his who promotion was a simple ruse.

The author got to know the spy very well, the worked close on the same projects and in close proximity. As the sole employee of the new department, Mr. O’Neill got the brunt of Hanssen’s wrath, demeaning mannerisms, insulting style of leadership.
Quite honestly, even if Hanssen wasn’t a spy it would be difficult to find people who’d want to work with him or for him.

The book goes beyond a spy vs. spy case. The author tells about the heavy price that individuals and families pay while one of the partners works a hectic, stressful job that requires lying to everyone (co-workers and family).

Mr. O’Neill wrote a very personal book, which reads like fiction but is a cautionary tale. He tells us what it’s really like working in intelligence in a cohesive, well written memoir. I just wonder what he couldn’t tell us?… (más)

This is a fascinating look at how the FBI tracked the most prolific cyber spy in their midst. Robert Hanssen had been operating successfully as a spy for Russia while holding top secret clearance in the FBI for more than two decades. The author was placed in a position to work directly for Hanssen while trying to obtain the necessary information to convict him. While they ultimately did, America paid a high price for his treason. This book is especially timely with what is going on in today's world with Russia continuing to attempt to interfere in our elections.… (más)

Gray Day by Eric O'neill is an interesting book about early cyberspying. It is probably as interesting for nostalgia as it is for espionage.

This book and author just did not connect with me. I was left not particularly liking him (also not disliking him, just not liking either. As in, I would probably have not liked him had I known him) even while appreciating what he was having to do. That is obviously more about my personality than about the book, some people no doubt liked him tremendously while reading. It is difficult to care about a nonfiction book if you don't care about the person writing about his own exploits.

That aside, it was certainly interesting to read about the early days of both cyberespionage and the wide usage of computers and programs within large bureaucracies. Because the book did not make me just want to keep reading I didn't really get into any flow or suspense. If I was the least bit sleepy, or something else crossed my mind, like, a different book, I had no problem putting this one down and moving on, then coming back whenever I happened to remember it was there. So without any feeling of investment in it or the author, I will say it still was interesting.

I would probably recommend this to readers who really want to know about the early days of cyberespionage and how the Russians have surpassed the US. I would hesitate to recommend to those readers who want to know a true account but also want to be caught up in an espionage tale. This ain't that.

Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads First Reads.… (más)

Since I followed the Robert Hanssen espionage case when it broke and have seen Breach (where O’Neill is played by actor Ryan Phillippe), I was hoping to learn something new about Hanssen the man and the details of the secrets he passed.

This book succeeds on those accounts.

The secrets Hanssen passed, starting in November 1979 and continuing through 1999, included FBI and CIA assets in Soviet and Russian intelligence, nuclear weapon information (though how he got a hold of those is not revealed), continuity-of-government plans by the US government (essentially plans to prevent a “decapitation” of leadership in a nuclear war), methods and operations, and the existence of a secret FBI and NSA tunnel under the Russian Embassy in Washington D.C.

Hanssen, a CPA and holder of an MBA, joined the FBI in 1976. He had a life-long interest in spying. But, though “smart, technically proficient, and analytical” and good with computers, the FBI bureaucracy shunted him aside. As O’Neil says, Hanssen joined the FBI to become a spy. They made him a librarian.

But, as O’Neil notes, career resentment is not what turned Hanssen into a spy. Indeed, in the massive interrogations he submitted to in exchange for his life and his family keeping his government pension, “why” was the one question he has never answered though O’Neil offers a theory.

Hanssen was contemptuous of authority, cunning, observant, and manipulative. But he also made some mistakes, mistakes that a classified FBI Inspector General’s report of almost 700 pages says should have brought his treachery to an end far sooner.

O’Neil’s account is written in what seems to be the formula for modern spy memoirs: a chronological narrative broken up by backfilling details of the author’s life, a lot of talk about the author’s emotions and personal angst and some mention of events, past and future, thematically related to the main story. Here there is also the slight, perhaps unavoidable, whiff of self-promotion and justifiable bragging. The cynic in me suspects this formula is calculated to appeal to males in technical details and females in its emotions and to pad out a 300 page book of large print.
There are other problems as well.

O’Neill, a “cybersecurity expert”, has a long chapter, “There Are No Hackers, Only Spies”, that puts forth his notions of cybersecurity. It offers a justification for how John Podesta, a man who had written on cybersecurity, got his email hacked and why it was the Russians who did it. Oddly, in discussing securing “endpoints” of access to computer networks, there is absolutely no reference to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton using an illegal private server for email. Perhaps the editor or publishers simply didn’t want to get into that controversy.

O’Neill is writing an account of his own life that rearranges, as he notes at the end, chronologies and compresses conversations. Evidently, he or his agent seems to have thought he was doing a screenplay rather than a memoir.

Those are the negatives, but there are plenty of positives too.

For those unfamiliar with the case, the structuring of events works as O’Neill reveals things as he learns them. In December 2000, O’Neill, a “ghost” -- one of the FBI investigators in the Special Surveillance Group that specializes in following and surveilling persons of interest -- is tapped for an odd job. He is to become an undercover agent assigned to Robert Hanssen, a man known to assault subordinates – when he’s not denigrating their IQ – and always armed.

Eventually, O’Neill learns, during his mission which lasts until February 18, 2001, that he is part of a decades long mole hunt. Its target is Hanssen, a man only to be referred to in FBI records as Gray Day.

At first, all the details about O’Neill’s meeting and marry his wife Julianna are somewhat annoying, but they become more important when Hanssen starts blurring the line between O’Neill’s private and work life. You don’t want a potential Russian agent chatting to your wife over the phone. The memoir also shows the strain even a short stint as an undercover agent, especially when suddenly recruited, can place on relationships and career plans. O’Neill finds himself putting in a full day at the FBI, writing up his notes on everything Gray Day did that day, and going to law school at night.

Those familiar with the case will appreciate the many bits of tradecraft whether it is O’Neill’s ghosting days, the psychological manipulation necessary to get a PDA away from Hanssen, the many resources and methods brought to bear on the Gray Day case, quoted letters Hanssen wrote the KGB and GRU, and why O’Neill dubs Hanssen as not only the most dangerous spy in the FBI’s history but America’s first cyber traitor.

And, in case you’re interested, no, O’Neill doesn’t cover in any detail the odder aspects of Hanssen – the explicit sexual stories about his wife he posted to Internet bulletin boards, taping their sex life and showing it to a friend, and consorting with strippers. O’Neill didn’t have a clue about those in his time with Hanssen though he does go into Gray Day trying to recruit him for Opus Dei.

O’Neill’s final judgement of Hanssen the man is complex and seems fair. He had good qualities and bad, and his treachery forced some very needed reforms in not only the information infrastructure of the FBI but its internal security as well.

All in all, this is worth reading for the tradecraft and an up close perspective on Hanssen the traitor.… (más)