In Darknet Diaries, Ricky Handschumacher describes using support impersonation and SIM-swapping to steal usernames and cryptocurrency. The episode reports his four-year prison sentence and $7.6 million restitution order.
Darknet Diaries examines Conti’s ransomware operations, attacks on Ireland and Costa Rica, and its apology after leaking royal client data. Researchers describe how internal chat leaks exposed the gang and helped fracture its operations.
Two penetration testers recount their arrests during a contracted Iowa courthouse security assessment, the dispute over authorization, and the dismissal of all charges in January 2020.
Ubiquiti cloud engineer Nickolas Sharp used company access to download private repositories, hide evidence and extort the company. He pleaded guilty to three counts and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Darknet Diaries traces the reported National Public Data breach to exposed admin credentials and password reuse, describing 2.9 billion stolen records, identity theft risks and USDoD’s subsequent arrest in Brazil.
Nick Merrill and Cindy Cohn describe legal battles over FBI national security letters, changes to secrecy requirements, and privacy-by-design services intended to reduce the customer data available for disclosure.
Darknet Diaries recounts how researchers and the FBI investigated Bayrob, using proxy infiltration, unencrypted attachments and phone forensics to connect operators to auction fraud and a botnet of roughly 400,000 systems.
Former Sophos researchers describe Pacific Rim, a years-long series of firewall attacks linked to Chinese operators, and how hot fixes, sinkholing and covert telemetry helped counter exploits. An experimental UEFI bootkit failed.
Darknet Diaries recounts how a Yonkers crew used cloned prepaid debit cards to steal $2.8 million from New York ATMs in 2013. Prosecutor Loretta Lynch explains how processor intrusions enabled inflated withdrawal limits.
Researcher D3ada55 describes unauthenticated root access, aggressive network probing and botnet infections involving SuperBox streaming devices. The interview also examines residential proxy abuse and an FBI warning about compromised IoT devices.
Beatdapp co-founder Andrew Batey describes how stolen streaming accounts, bot networks and manipulated music feeds divert royalties. He explains detection methods and estimates streaming fraud steals $3 billion annually from artists.
Phrack editors recount how a rival group allegedly inserted destructive commands into copied articles, discuss the magazine’s role in exploit education, and describe its community-led revival and 2025 anniversary issue.
Darknet Diaries traces Masters of Deception's telecom intrusions, its feud with Legion of Doom, and the federal investigations that followed, alongside early EFF challenges to computer-crime prosecutions.
Darknet Diaries recounts how Legion of Doom and other early hackers accessed telephone systems, shared technical documents and drew federal scrutiny. It also examines phone fraud, the E911 file controversy and suspicions surrounding AT&T’s 1990 outage.
In a ThreatLocker-sponsored episode, IT practitioners recount ransomware recovery and a hospital intrusion using purchased VPN credentials, illustrating application allowlisting, MFA and the risks of connected networks.
Maxi Reynolds recounts authorized physical and network penetration tests, including access to a data center through a sewer service tunnel and an accidental disruption of a city's water supply.
Application security expert Tanya Janca recounts a government data leak involving blind SQL injection, a mistaken malware alarm caused by network congestion, and lessons for incident response and developer training.
Nathan recounts how his Texas card-fraud ring collected payment data using gas-pump and restaurant skimmers, made counterfeit cards and recruited shoppers, before a police investigation led to arrests.
Privacy advocate Ola Bini recounts his arrest in Ecuador, the disputed computer-access evidence against him and his continuing legal battle after a conviction for attempted unauthorized access.
Hieu Minh Ngo recounts hacking data brokers and reselling access to US identities. The interview examines how criminals used the data for tax fraud, his prosecution, and privacy risks associated with data brokers.
O.MG cable creator MG explains how the USB-like device enables remote keystroke injection and describes red-team exercises that exposed weaknesses in physical security and network isolation.
Security researcher Greg recounts vulnerability research and authorized penetration tests, including extracting human DNA data on hard drives concealed in a printer and accessing internal networks through a guest Wi-Fi router.
Joe Tidy recounts the Vastaamo breach, in which an attacker exposed psychotherapy records and extorted patients, and the investigation that led to Julius Kivimaki’s conviction.
Marcus Hutchins explains how registering a domain triggered WannaCry's kill switch, and recounts his earlier role developing Kronos banking malware, his arrest and his sentence of time served.
