Spam Nation

Executive Summary: Interesting read, but a bit too much of Mr. Kreb's personal story in places. 3.5 Stars.Audio book: Christopher Lane does a decent job. He has a passable Russian accent, but for some reason he didn't always use it for the Russian characters. I wouldn't have done this in audio except it was on sale. I wouldn't bother with the audio book otherwise, and you'd be better off borrowing this from the library.Full ReviewI continue to be fascinated by computer crime. This is another interesting book in that realm, though not as much as [b:Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground 9319468 Kingpin How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground Kevin Poulsen https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320477825s/9319468.jpg 14202643].This is far from technical, and I think that's fine. Mr. Krebs gives you the basics on botnets and some of the other techniques common for spammers without going into too much detail to scare the layman off.If I have one real complaint about the book is that Mr. Kreb's spends too much time talking about himself, especially at the start. I understand that he plays a part in the story, but he spent part of an early chapter complaining about how the Washington Post would make him sit on stories for month due to red tape and legal concerns.I never really knew the main players in the spam game. I still really don't. That isn't Mr. Kreb's fault though. I'm just really bad at names. He does list them out in the front of the book. Most of the people here were interchangeable to me. This likely wasn't helped by the fact that I did this in audio. It would be nice if the list of people came as a pdf for reference.I still found it interesting. I guess I never realized just how much of spam was driven by online pharmacies. I haven't really had to deal with spam in years. I almost never wander into my spam folder looking for legitimate email. It's interesting that there is a legitimate market for this stuff. It just goes to show the lengths and risks people will take when they can't afford proper health care and medication.Overall I'm glad I picked this up, but it probably would have better borrowed than bought.