LOW - Now Available

What if you got infected by a friend who wanted to spy on you? This is the story of how BlackShades spread to more than half a million machines, and 97 people got arrested.SponsorsSupport 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.Support for this show comes from Ramp. Ramp is a financial operations platform bringing spending visibility and control to AI. With Ramp, you can see spending across AI providers and set real-time controls and guardrails by team and model. Stop guessing where your AI spend is going. Get started with Ramp. Learn more at ramp.com/darknet.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/DarknetView all active sponsors.SourcesFull list of sources on the show page: https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/182/

Imagine driving down the road and your phone loses signal. Not just a lost signal, but it starts displaying SOS. Meaning no service configured at all. You can't make any calls, no data, no service. What goes through your head?In this episode we hear from Ricky Handschumacher who learned how to slip inside a stranger’s phone, and would rummage through it looking for things he thought were valuable.We also hear a story from Mark Kreitzman who started Efani because of people like Ricky.SponsorsSupport for this show comes from DeleteMe. DeleteMe is a hands-free subscription service that will remove your personal information that’s being sold online to data brokers. Our mission is to provide everyone with the power to control their digital identity. We empower individuals and organizations to reclaim their privacy by removing personal data from online sources. For 20% off our privacy plans, please visit JoinDeleteMe.com/DarknetDiaries and use code: “darknet” at checkout.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.comSupport 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7yLKVnQcNg&t=7s https://www.wsj.com/tech/cybersecurity/getting-cheated-in-a-videogame-led-him-to-a-world-of-online-crime-874392e7 https://darknetdiaries.com/transcript/118/ https://whatismyipaddress.com/mobile-security-sim-swapping

The word Conti struck fear in IT departments across the world. It's a type of ransomware that you hope to never come across. Like most ransomware gangs, the Conti group fell apart. But what's special about this story is how it fell apart. Because it fell apart in a very public, messy, scandalous way. Featuring investigative journalist Geoff White and cyber threat researcher Alex Holden.SponsorsThis 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.comThis 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 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.SourcesFull list of sources on the show page: https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/180/

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 is now available for everyone to hear, where ever you get your podcasts.

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.SponsorsThis 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.comThis 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/4xc8dnzSupport 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.SourcesFull list of sources on the show page: https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/179/

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.SponsorsThis 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.SourcesFull list of sources on the show page: https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/178/

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.SponsorsSupport 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.SourcesFull list of sources on the show page: https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/177/

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).SponsorsSupport 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

It started with a fake car listing on eBay.What looked like a simple online scam quietly grew, over more than a decade, into one of the most sophisticated cybercrime operations the FBI had ever traced. Custom malware. Opsec off the charts. Fleets of infected computers mining cryptocurrency for someone else. Millions of dollars siphoned from victims who had no idea.This is the story of Bayrob and the three men from Romania who were behind it. And the long, strange road that led American investigators to their door.SponsorsSupport 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.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 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 Chainguard. Chainguard provides secure open source artifacts that are built from source so engineers can be confident that what they’re using in production matches the source bit-for-bit. Chainguard’s trusted open source has minimal vulnerabilities, provable provenance, and malware-resistance by design, defending against supply chain attack risk without adding any engineering toil. Head to chainguard.dev to see how secure your software supply chain can really be.

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.SponsorsSupport 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