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One stole directly from the Silk Road when the FBI nabbed one of Ulbricht’s employees and he learned how he could do it after interrogating the employee; and the other provided Government investigative progress to Ulbricht for a fee. One chapter ends with this bit of symbolism: “A violent storm was on the horizon, ominously moving closer to land. The unbelievable true story of the man who built a billion-dollar online drug empire from his bedroom—and almost got away with it. On a warm July evening in 1985, a middle-aged man stood on the pavement of a busy avenue in the heart of Moscow, holding a plastic carrier bag.
It is during this time frame that Ross rents a low-rent apartment for the express purpose of growing magic mushrooms. The author pieces together a vast array of data from Ulbricht’s electronic trail, chat logs, photos, social media, courtroom transcripts, and interviews with family, friends, and participants (excluding Ulbricht) to assemble this riveting story. People have told me he was kind, thoughtful, compassionate, and how he was helpful and caring to everyone, especially to those in society that most people judge and ignore. In 2011, a twenty-six-year-old libertarian programmer named Ross Ulbricht launched the ultimate free market: the Silk Road, a clandestine Web site hosted on the Dark Web where anyone could trade anything — drugs, hacking software, forged passports, counterfeit cash, poisons — free of the government’s watchful eye. Like the last book I reviewed ( The Dark Net), American Kingpin does not meet the Cybersecurity Canon definition of a “must read” book for all cybersecurity professionals.The author did a great job creating all the events based on primary documents and interviews with the people who took down The Silk Road. It was an impressive piece of journalism about a fascinating subject and filled with great storytelling. At Penn State, he participates in political debates, always arguing that the government has no business getting involved in citizens’ private and personal life choices.
Filled with unforgettable characters and capped by an astonishing climax, American Kingpinmight be dismissed as too outrageous for fiction. He’s just trying to survive yet another day in a cage, trusting that the appellate court cares more about the truth than the media does. It would be exaggerating to say that I found this book a struggle, but it didn’t hold my interest as much as I had expected.I give the series a perfect 10 out of 10 rating and I hope the series is expanded to more than just the four (4) scheduled episodes.
There are many issues with the laptop investigation, among them: the laptop crashed during investigation and one agent testified that he didn’t follow the guidelines when investigating it. An outlaw subculture quickly developed, drawing in dealers, acolytes, hackers, and scammers; Ulbricht encouraged the notoriety, developing a menacing alter ego, the “Dread Pirate Roberts. I guess I could google it, but if I had to google every single bit of new slang I don't understand, I would have no time to make pointless rants in the midst of my reviews.
No, cybersecurity also includes some basic philosophical and human issues around the use of technology as good versus evil. It's a fascinating story that I will likely read again, because it very subtly makes you question your beliefs, morals and integrity as it paints you a portrait of a small idea taken to the grandest of scales and turned awry as a result of its successes. In 2011, a twenty-six-year-old programmer named Ross Ulbricht launched the ultimate free market: the Silk Road, a clandestine Web site hosted on the Dark Web where anyone could trade anything – drugs, hacking software, forged passports, counterfeit cash, poisons – free of the government’s watchful eye.
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