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Spam Nation: The Inside Story of Organized Cybercrime―from Global Epidemic to Your Front Door Paperback – Picture Book, 1 May 2015
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A New York Times bestseller and winner of a 2015 Prose Award!
There is a threat lurking online. A secret war with the power to destroy your finances, steal your personal data, and endanger your life.
In Spam Nation, investigative journalist and cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs unmasks the criminal masterminds driving some of the biggest spam and hacker operations targeting Americans and their bank accounts. Tracing the rise, fall, and alarming resurrection of the digital mafia behind the two largest spam pharmacies―and countless viruses, phishing, and spyware attacks―he delivers the first definitive narrative of the global spam problem and its threat to consumers everywhere.
Blending cutting-edge research, investigative reporting, and firsthand interviews, this terrifying true story reveals how we unwittingly invite these digital thieves into our lives every day. From unassuming computer programmers right next door to digital mobsters like "Cosma"―who unleashed a massive malware attack that has stolen thousands of Americans' logins and passwords―Krebs uncovers the shocking lengths to which these people will go to profit from our data and our wallets.
Not only are hundreds of thousands of Americans exposing themselves to fraud and dangerously toxic products from rogue online pharmacies, but even those who never open junk messages are at risk. As Krebs notes, spammers can―and do―hack into accounts through these emails, harvest personal information like usernames and passwords, and sell them on the digital black market. The fallout from this global epidemic doesn't just cost consumers and companies billions, it costs lives too.
Fast-paced and utterly gripping, Spam Nation ultimately proposes concrete solutions for protecting ourselves online and stemming this tidal wave of cybercrime―before it's too late.
"Krebs's talent for exposing the weaknesses in online security has earned him respect in the IT business and loathing among cybercriminals... His track record of scoops...has helped him become the rare blogger who supports himself on the strength of his reputation for hard-nosed reporting." ―Bloomberg Businessweek
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication date1 May 2015
- ISBN-101492603236
- ISBN-13978-1492603238
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"Armed with reams of information sent to him by feuding hackers and cybercrooks, Krebs explores just how and why these spammers get away with so much...By exposing our digital weaknesses and following the money, he presents a fascinating and entertaining cautionary tale. Krebs's work is timely, informative, and sadly relevant in our cyber-dependent age." - Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Brian Krebs is an award-winning journalist, founder of the highly acclaimed cybersecurity blog KrebsonSecurity.com, and author of the New York Times bestseller, Spam Nation. For 14 years, Krebs was a reporter for The Washington Post, where he authored the acclaimed Security Fix blog. He has appeared on 60 Minutes, CBS This Morning, CNN, NPR, Fox, ABC News, and in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, USA Today, and more, and has been profiled in the New York Times and Bloomberg's BusinessWeek.
Product details
- Language : English
- Paperback : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1492603236
- ISBN-13 : 978-1492603238
- Best Sellers Rank: 133,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 357 in Computer Security
- 393 in True Crime Biographies
- 636 in Digital Lifestyle
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Brian left the Washington Post after editorial management at WP decided that Cybercrime was an area that was a little too risky for its appetite.
Brian went on to found his own Website www.krebsonsecurity.com a daily blog dedicated to in-depth cyber-security news and investigation. Brian has become one of the most informed and prolific writers on the subject of Cybercrime.
His first book SPAM Nation chronicles the activities of two leading Russian figures of the Pharmaceutical SPAM racket, Igor Gusev and Victor Vrublevsky, who leaked detailed information about the other in an effort to destroy the other.
This book is a worthy read as it details the feud that developed between key Cybercrime characters and the supporting cast of corrupt banks, less than diligent ISP’s, crooked beauracrats and victims of toxic counterfeit drugs bought over the Internet from “Canadian Pharmacies”. These two individuals (Vrublevsy and Gusev), are responsible for a large percentage of SPAM that has plagued your and everyone else’s inboxes for the past 10 years.
It provides insight into motives, modus-operandi and the environment, sponsored by corrupt bureaucrats who enable Cybercrime to flourish in Eastern Europe, Russia and parts of Asia.
Why is it worth reading? Because YOU and YOUR IDENTITY are under constant threat from billions of SPAM emails and social engineering scams generated by a sophisticated, determined, patient and growing cadre of Cyber criminals.
If you have not received a letter from your bank or institution where you hold a credit account offering free credit protection services, advising that you that your credentials may have been stolen and that your account may be compromised in the past 12 months, it is almost certain you will receive one in the next 12 months.
Pharma Spam provided the trainer-wheels for the first generation of hackers. They made $millions selling counterfeit pharmaceuticals, manufactured in India, sold via online “Canadian” Pharmacies to Americans who could not afford or could not acquire drugs for any number of serious illnesses and addictive needs.
The Botnets that infected and continue to compromise millions of PC’s, causing them to generate billions of Spam emails daily still exist. They provide a platform to develop and launch more sophisticated phishing and spear-phishing attacks.
Hackers have perfected their craft in what history will record as the “wild-west” days of the Internet.
Ten years ago, these miscreants were making $millions.
Now they are making $Billions.
An increasing variety of clever scams, including impersonation of senior executives using look-alike URL’s to launch phishing and spear phishing attacks (social engineering), to gain access to the corporate network and commit fraud; extortion, identity theft, credit card theft, website ransom and Intellectual Property theft.
The epilogue, A Spam-free World: How you can protect yourself from Cyber-crime, is worth the price of the book ten times over.
If you don’t want to read the book, then please observe Brian’s three simple rules to protect your identity… and never click on a suspicious link or a link unless you can expose and validate that the underlying hyperlink is genuine.
Rule 1: If you didn’t go looking for it, do not install it.
Rule 2: If you installed it, update it.
Rule 3: If you no longer need it, remove it.
If you are interested in any subject related to Cybercrime, follow @Briankrebs on Twitter, make #Cybercrime a Twitter hashtag that you track and read daily and visit Brian’s website, it’s a must.
Finally, if you have never heard of and don’t know what “social engineering” is, then you had better do some research in a hurry, before you become the next victim of identity theft and fraud.
Krebs paints a candid yet accurate picture of the spam underworld and it's kingpins. Though a factual detailing of events during the last decade of the spam scene, it's far from a tedious read as the major players in this world are extremely colourful characters and the ways in which their empires are run is truly fascinating.
A five star read from Mr Krebs - Bravo!