Darknet Diaries

179: The Courthouse - Revisited

In this episode we follow up with Gabby and Justin from Episode 59 - two seasoned penetration testers who tell us a story about the time when they tried to break into a courthouse but it went all wrong, and what happened in the aftermath. Sponsors This show is brought to you by Doppel. Doppel stops AI attacks with digital risk protection, human risk management, and email security on a unified social engineering defense platform. doppel.com This show is brought to you by Sinch. Sinch is the cloud communications platform businesses build on to send SMS, make calls, and verify identity at scale — including the one-time codes and two-factor prompts that stand between an account and whoever's trying to get into it. Learn more at https://s.sinch.com/4xc8dnz Support for this show comes from ThreatLocker. ThreatLocker is a Zero Trust Platform that gives organizations control over what can run and what users and devices can access. It combines prevention with real time detection and automated response, helping security teams stop unauthorized activity and quickly contain compromised machines. Learn how ThreatLocker can strengthen your defenses at threatlocker.com/Darknet. View all active sponsors. Sources Full list of sources on the show page: https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/179/

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LOW - Trailer

After 8 years, LOW is finally here. A story about the weight of being and the wreckage of waking up. Five episodes. Five descents. LOW is an audio journey into the unlit corners of human experience. Choices we made in the dark, the silences we carry, and what remains when we stop running from ourselves. LOW a new Limited Series from the Jack Rhysider will be releasing to the public for free soon, but you can hear it now as a Darknet Diaries Plus subscriber. Go to plus.darknetdiaries.com and subscribe for access to all five episodes of LOW along with twelve bonus episodes of Darknet Diaries and every episode ad-free.

178: Ubiquiti

Nickolas Sharp worked for Ubiquiti, a company that makes networking equipment. He noticed that there were some security problems at work. He tried to point them out, but didn't feel like he was being listened to enough. What do you do when the company you work for isn't securing their software up to your standards? Well, he thought he needed to teach them a lesson, but in the end, he learned an even bigger lesson. Sponsors This show is brought to you by Drata. Drata is the trust management platform that uses AI-driven automation to modernize governance, risk, and compliance, helping thousands of businesses stay audit-ready and scale securely. Learn more at drata.com/darknetdiaries. This show is sponsored by Material Security. Your cloud office (think Google Workspace or Microsoft 365) is the core of your business, but it’s often protected by scattered tools and manual fixes. Material is a purpose-built detection and response platform that closes the gaps those point solutions leave behind. From email threats to misconfigurations and account takeovers, Material monitors everything and steps in with real-time fixes to keep your data flowing where it should. Learn more at https://material.security. Support for this show comes from ThreatLocker. ThreatLocker is a Zero Trust Platform that gives organizations control over what can run and what users and devices can access. It combines prevention with real time detection and automated response, helping security teams stop unauthorized activity and quickly contain compromised machines. Learn how ThreatLocker can strengthen your defenses at threatlocker.com/Darknet. View all active sponsors. Sources Full list of sources on the show page: https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/178/

177: National Public Data

This is the story of the hacker known as "USDoD". When he was young he had a vengeance on the US, and this lead him down a road of continual data breaches, until he hacked into National Public Data, which is when his spree went one step too far. Sponsors Support for this show comes from ThreatLocker. ThreatLocker is a Zero Trust Platform that gives organizations control over what can run and what users and devices can access. It combines prevention with real time detection and automated response, helping security teams stop unauthorized activity and quickly contain compromised machines. Learn how ThreatLocker can strengthen your defenses at threatlocker.com/Darknet. This show is sponsored by Maze. Maze uses AI agents to triage and remediate cloud vulnerabilities by figuring out what’s actually exploitable, not just what’s theoretically risky. They remove the noise, prioritize vulns that matter, and manage remediation, so your team stops wasting time on meaningless vulns. Visit MazeHQ.com/darknet for more information. This show is sponsored by Sentry.IO. Sentry wants to help you monitor your environment for problems. They do error tracking, stack tracing, debugging, all so that your developers can diagnose, fix, and optimize the performance of their code. This makes it so developers ship more reliable code faster. Learn more at sentry.io. View all active sponsors. Sources Full list of sources on the show page: https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/177/

176: NSL

One day Nick got a visit from the FBI demanding he give them data on one of his customers. They asked for it in the form of a National Security Letter or NSL. Something wasn’t right about this letter. It seemed to violate the constitution. So he set out to change the law. Learn more about Nicks work at calyxinstitute.org and phreeli.com. Check out Cindy’s book Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance (https://amzn.to/4gXuK2J). Sponsors Support for this show comes from ThreatLocker®. ThreatLocker® is a Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform that strengthens your infrastructure from the ground up. With ThreatLocker® Allowlisting and Ringfencing™, you gain a more secure approach to blocking exploits of known and unknown vulnerabilities. ThreatLocker® provides Zero Trust control at the kernel level that enables you to allow everything you need and block everything else, including ransomware! Learn more at www.threatlocker.com. Support for this episode comes from NetSuite. NetSuite gives you visibility and control of your financials, planning, budgeting, and of course - inventory - so you can manage risk, get reliable forecasts, and improve margins. NetSuite helps you identify rising costs, automate your manual business processes, and see where to save money. KNOW your numbers. KNOW your business. And get to KNOW how NetSuite can be the source of truth for your entire company. Visit www.netsuite.com/darknet to learn more. This show is sponsored by Maze. Maze uses AI agents to triage and remediate cloud vulnerabilities by figuring out what’s actually exploitable, not just what’s theoretically risky. They remove the noise, prioritize vulns that matter, and manage remediation, so your team stops wasting time on meaningless vulns. Visit MazeHQ.com/darknet for more information. View all active sponsors. Sources https://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/11/gagged_for_6_years_nick_merrill https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/u-s-nicholas-merrill-v-loretta-e-lynch-14-cv-9763-vm/ https://clearinghouse.net/case/12966/ https://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/dec/06/fbi-national-security-letter-gag-order-nick-merrill https://www.aclu.org/documents/national-security-letters https://www.eff.org/cases/re-matter-2011-national-security-letter Cindy’s Book: Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance

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175: Bayrob

Bayrob

174: Pacific Rim

For six years, Sophos fought a secret cyber war against a state-backed hacking group targeting its firewalls. This forced Sophos to drastically change tactics to properly secure their firewalls. Was it ethical? Was it effective? They disrupted nine zero-day attacks, exposed who was hacking them, and forced the hackers to change tactics. But at what cost? You have to listen to one of the most audacious corporate cyber defenses ever conducted. Sponsors Support for this show comes from ThreatLocker®. ThreatLocker® is a Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform that strengthens your infrastructure from the ground up. With ThreatLocker® Allowlisting and Ringfencing™, you gain a more secure approach to blocking exploits of known and unknown vulnerabilities. ThreatLocker® provides Zero Trust control at the kernel level that enables you to allow everything you need and block everything else, including ransomware! Learn more at www.threatlocker.com. This show is sponsored by Meter, the company building networks from the ground up. Meter delivers a complete networking stack - wired, wireless, and cellular - in one solution that’s built for performance and scale. Alongside their partners, Meter designs the hardware, writes the firmware, builds the software, manages deployments, and runs support. Learn more at meter.com. Support for this show comes from Drata. Drata is the trust management platform that uses AI-driven automation to modernize governance, risk, and compliance, helping thousands of businesses stay audit-ready and scale securely. Learn more at drata.com/darknetdiaries. Sources https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2024/10/31/pacific-rim-timeline/ https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/seven-hackers-associated-chinese-government-charged-computer-intrusions-targeting-perceived https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/cyber/guan-tianfeng

173: Tarjeteros

In the streets of the Dominican Republic, a new economy thrives in the shadows. It’s built not on tourism or sugar, but on stolen data. They call them tarjeteros. And they are making a lot of money from stolen credit cards. This is a story about one group of tarjeteros who came to the US, and let loose on New York city. Sponsors Support for this show comes from ThreatLocker®. ThreatLocker® is a Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform that strengthens your infrastructure from the ground up. With ThreatLocker® Allowlisting and Ringfencing™, you gain a more secure approach to blocking exploits of known and unknown vulnerabilities. ThreatLocker® provides Zero Trust control at the kernel level that enables you to allow everything you need and block everything else, including ransomware! Learn more at www.threatlocker.com. This show is sponsored by Maze. Maze uses AI agents to triage and remediate cloud vulnerabilities by figuring out what’s actually exploitable, not just what’s theoretically risky. They remove the noise, prioritize vulns that matter, and manage remediation, so your team stops wasting time on meaningless vulns. Visit MazeHQ.com/darknet for more information. Support for this show comes from Privacy.com. Privacy allows you to create virtual spending cards instantly to use for purchases. Get your $5 sign-up bonus at privacy.com/darknet. You can use it on your first purchase! Privacy has a free plan with no transaction fees for domestic purchases. Protect your financial identity online with virtual cards.

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172: SuperBox

What if there was a device which gave you endless movies and TV shows without ads? Ok great sign me up! In this episode we interview “D3ada55”, who found such a device, but as she gazed into it, she discovered it gazing back at her. Sponsors Support for this show comes from ThreatLocker®. ThreatLocker® is a Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform that strengthens your infrastructure from the ground up. With ThreatLocker® Allowlisting and Ringfencing™, you gain a more secure approach to blocking exploits of known and unknown vulnerabilities. ThreatLocker® provides Zero Trust control at the kernel level that enables you to allow everything you need and block everything else, including ransomware! Learn more at www.threatlocker.com. This episode is sponsored by Meter, the company building networks from the ground up. Meter delivers a complete networking stack - wired, wireless, and cellular - in one solution that’s built for performance and scale. Alongside their partners, Meter designs the hardware, writes the firmware, builds the software, manages deployments, and runs support. Learn more at meter.com. This episode is sponsored by Exaforce. Exaforce was created to handle the complete security operations workflow - detect, triage, investigate, respond. Exabots autonomously manage every stage, eliminating gaps between alert and action that slow down traditional security operations. And how it works is simple too: the exabots ingest all security data and then semantically connects it to understand the full context of security events and how they relate to each other. Learn more at exaforce.com/darknet-diaries.

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171: Melody Fraud

Melody Fraud

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170: Phrack

Phrack is legendary. It is the oldest, and arguably the most prestigious, underground hacking magazine in the world. It started in 1985 and is still running today. In this episode we interview the Phrack staff to hear some stories about what it’s like running a hacker magazine for 40 years. phrack.org Sponsors Support for this show comes from ThreatLocker®. ThreatLocker® is a Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform that strengthens your infrastructure from the ground up. With ThreatLocker® Allowlisting and Ringfencing™, you gain a more secure approach to blocking exploits of known and unknown vulnerabilities. ThreatLocker® provides Zero Trust control at the kernel level that enables you to allow everything you need and block everything else, including ransomware! Learn more at www.threatlocker.com. Support for this show comes from Drata. Drata is the trust management platform that uses AI-driven automation to modernize governance, risk, and compliance, helping thousands of businesses stay audit-ready and scale securely. Learn more at drata.com/darknetdiaries. This episode is sponsored by Meter, the company building networks from the ground up. Meter delivers a complete networking stack - wired, wireless, and cellular - in one solution that’s built for performance and scale. Alongside their partners, Meter designs the hardware, writes the firmware, builds the software, manages deployments, and runs support. Learn more at meter.com.

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169: MoD

Legion of Doom, step aside. There’s a new elite hacker group in town, and they’re calling themselves Masters of Deception (MoD). With tactics that are grittier and more sophisticated than those of the LoD, MoD has targeted high-profile entities and left an indelible mark on the internet. This is part 2 of the LoD/MoD series. Part 1 is episode 168: “LoD”. Sponsors Support for this show comes from ThreatLocker®. ThreatLocker® is a Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform that strengthens your infrastructure from the ground up. With ThreatLocker® Allowlisting and Ringfencing™, you gain a more secure approach to blocking exploits of known and unknown vulnerabilities. ThreatLocker® provides Zero Trust control at the kernel level that enables you to allow everything you need and block everything else, including ransomware! Learn more at www.threatlocker.com. This show is sponsored by Red Canary. Red Canary is a leading provider of Managed Detection and Response (MDR), helping nearly 1,000 organizations detect and stop threats before they cause harm. With a focus on accuracy across identities, endpoints, and cloud, we deliver trusted security operations and a world-class customer experience. Learn more at redcanary.com. This show is sponsored by Maze. Maze uses AI agents to triage and remediate cloud vulnerabilities by figuring out what’s actually exploitable, not just what’s theoretically risky. They remove the noise, prioritize vulns that matter, and manage remediation, so your team stops wasting time on meaningless vulns. Visit MazeHQ.com/darknet for more information. Sources Book: Masters of Deception Book: The Hacker Crackdown https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,982254-1,00.html https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/14/nyregion/reprogramming-convicted-hacker-his-line-friends-phiber-optik-virtual-hero.html https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/101/pg101-images.html https://phrack.org/issues/31/5 https://www.thisamericanlife.org/2/small-scale-sin

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168: LoD

The Legion of Doom (LoD) wasn’t just a “hacker group”, it captured the essence of underground hacking in the 80s/90s. BBSes, phreaking, rival crews, and the crackdowns that changed everything. From those humble beginnings came a legacy that still echoes through modern security culture today. This is part 1 of the LoD/MoD saga. Part 2 is episode 169: “MoD”. Sponsors Support for this show comes from ThreatLocker®. ThreatLocker® is a Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform that strengthens your infrastructure from the ground up. With ThreatLocker® Allowlisting and Ringfencing™, you gain a more secure approach to blocking exploits of known and unknown vulnerabilities. ThreatLocker® provides Zero Trust control at the kernel level that enables you to allow everything you need and block everything else, including ransomware! Learn more at www.threatlocker.com. This show is sponsored by Rippling. Rippling is the unified platform for Global HR, Payroll, IT, and Finance. They’ve helped millions replace their mess of cobbled-together tools with one system designed to give leaders clarity, speed, and control. With Rippling, you can run your entire HR, IT, and Finance operations as one, or pick and choose the products that best fill the gaps in your software stack. Learn more rippling.com/darknet. This show is sponsored by Meter, the company building networks from the ground up. Meter delivers a complete networking stack - wired, wireless, and cellular - in one solution that’s built for performance and scale. Meter’s full-stack solution covers everything from first site survey to ongoing support, giving you a single partner for all your connectivity needs. Go to meter.com/darknet to book a demo now! Sources Book: Masters of Deception (https://amzn.to/4q3O0gJ) Book: The Hacker Crackdown (https://amzn.to/3N4bovY)

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167: Threatlocker

A manufacturer gets hit with ransomware. A hospital too. Learn how Threatlocker stops these types of attacks. This episode is brought to you by Threatlocker. Sponsors This episode is sponsored by ThreatLocker®. ThreatLocker® is a Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform that strengthens your infrastructure from the ground up. With ThreatLocker® Allowlisting and Ringfencing™, you gain a more secure approach to blocking exploits of known and unknown vulnerabilities. ThreatLocker® provides Zero Trust control at the kernel level that enables you to allow everything you need and block everything else, including ransomware! Learn more at www.threatlocker.com.

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166: Maxie

Maxie

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165: Tanya

Tanya Janca is a globally recognized AppSec (application security) expert and founder of We Hack Purple. In this episode, she shares wild stories from the front lines of cybersecurity. She shares stories of when she was a penetration tester to an incident responder. You can sign up for her newsletter at https://newsletter.shehackspurple.ca/ Sponsors Support for this show comes from ThreatLocker®. ThreatLocker® is a Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform that strengthens your infrastructure from the ground up. With ThreatLocker® Allowlisting and Ringfencing™, you gain a more secure approach to blocking exploits of known and unknown vulnerabilities. ThreatLocker® provides Zero Trust control at the kernel level that enables you to allow everything you need and block everything else, including ransomware! Learn more at www.threatlocker.com. This episode is sponsored by Hims. Hims offers access to ED treatment options ranging from trusted generics that cost up to 95% less than brand names to Hard Mints, if prescribed. To get simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, Hair Loss, Weight Loss, and more, visit https://hims.com/darknet. Support for this show comes from Drata. Drata is the trust management platform that uses AI-driven automation to modernize governance, risk, and compliance, helping thousands of businesses stay audit-ready and scale securely. Learn more at drata.com/darknetdiaries. View all active sponsors. Books Alice and Bob Learn Secure Coding by Tanya Janca Alice and Bob Learn Application Security by Tanya Janca

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164: Oak Cliff Swipers

He started small, swiping cards, buying gift cards, and cashing out. It spiraled into a full‑blown criminal enterprise. Dozens of co‑conspirators, stacks of stolen plastic, and a lifestyle built on chaos. Meet Nathan Michael, leader of Oak Cliff Swipers. Sponsors Support for this show comes from ThreatLocker®. ThreatLocker® is a Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform that strengthens your infrastructure from the ground up. With ThreatLocker® Allowlisting and Ringfencing™, you gain a more secure approach to blocking exploits of known and unknown vulnerabilities. ThreatLocker® provides Zero Trust control at the kernel level that enables you to allow everything you need and block everything else, including ransomware! Learn more at www.threatlocker.com. Support for this show comes from Pantheon. Pantheon keeps your site fast, secure, and always on. That means better SEO, more conversions, and no lost sales from downtime. But this isn’t just a business win; it’s a developer win too. Your team gets automated workflows, isolated test environments, and zero-downtime deployments. Visit Pantheon.io, and make your website your unfair advantage. Support for this show comes from Adaptive Security. Deepfake voices on a Zoom call. AI-written phishing emails that sound exactly like your CFO. Synthetic job applicants walking through the front door. Adaptive is built to stop these attacks. They run real-time simulations, exposing your teams to what these attacks look like to test and improve your defences. Learn more at adaptivesecurity.com.

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163: Ola

Ola

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162: Hieu

All Hieu Minh Ngo wanted was to make money online. But when he stumbled into the dark web, he found more than just opportunity, he found a global dark market. What started as a side hustle turned into an international crime spree. Find Hieu on X: https://x.com/HHieupc. Sponsors Support for this show comes from ThreatLocker®. ThreatLocker® is a Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform that strengthens your infrastructure from the ground up. With ThreatLocker® Allowlisting and Ringfencing™, you gain a more secure approach to blocking exploits of known and unknown vulnerabilities. ThreatLocker® provides Zero Trust control at the kernel level that enables you to allow everything you need and block everything else, including ransomware! Learn more at www.threatlocker.com. Support for this show comes from Drata. Drata is the trust management platform that uses AI-driven automation to modernize governance, risk, and compliance, helping thousands of businesses stay audit-ready and scale securely. Learn more at drata.com/darknetdiaries. This show is sponsored by Red Canary. Red Canary is a leading provider of Managed Detection and Response (MDR), helping nearly 1,000 organizations detect and stop threats before they cause harm. With a focus on accuracy across identities, endpoints, and cloud, we deliver trusted security operations and a world-class customer experience. Learn more at redcanary.com.

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161: mg

In this episode we talk with mg (https://x.com/MG), the brilliant (and notorious) hacker and hardware engineer behind the OMG Cable. A seemingly ordinary USB cable with extraordinary offensive capabilities. Learn more about mg at: o.mg.lol Sponsors Support for this show comes from ThreatLocker®. ThreatLocker® is a Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform that strengthens your infrastructure from the ground up. With ThreatLocker® Allowlisting and Ringfencing™, you gain a more secure approach to blocking exploits of known and unknown vulnerabilities. ThreatLocker® provides Zero Trust control at the kernel level that enables you to allow everything you need and block everything else, including ransomware! Learn more at www.threatlocker.com. Support for this show comes from Axonius. Axonius transforms asset intelligence into intelligent action. With the Axonius Asset Cloud, customers preemptively tackle high-risk and hard-to-spot threat exposures, misconfigurations, and overspending. The integrated platform brings together data from every system in an organization’s IT infrastructure to optimize mission-critical risk, performance, and cost measures via actionable intelligence. Covering cyber assets, software, SaaS applications, identities, vulnerabilities, infrastructure, and more, Axonius is the one place to go for Security, IT, and GRC teams to continuously drive actionability across the organization. Bring truth to action with Axonius. Learn more at axonius.com.

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