This is fascinating. We live in the cyberpunk future that William Gibson and others wrote about in the 1980's. The former US soldier in this article even sounds a bit like Gibson's character Armitage from Neuromancer.
It also reminds me of the "Stealing the Network" book series. Every chapter was written by a notable IT security person and features real technology and techniques. At times it reads like Phrack or the hacking account of Phineas Fisher.
The protagonist's goal is to amass real world power. The books have subtitles like "How to Own a Country" and touch on arms dealing and small armies to protect your own illegal ass.
Although I found it quite entertaining and educating (it introduced me to htop, e.g.), the writing is not top notch and it may be quite dated now (it's over ten years old).
If you like Neuromancer, you might like Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams. It's even more high-tech and morally ambiguous, and writing style very much like Gibson's in Neuromancer.
