Darknet Diaries

A new type of mercenary spyware came on the radar called Predator. It’ll infect a mobile phone, and then suck up all the data from it. Contacts, text messages, location, and more. This malware is being sold to intelligence agencies around the world. In this episode we hear from Crofton Black at Lighthouse Reports who spent 6 months with a team of journalists researching this story which was published here: https://www.lighthousereports.com/investigation/flight-of-the-predator/. We also hear from Bill Marczak and John Scott-Railton from Citizen Lab. If you want to hear about other mercenary spyware, check out episodes 99 and 100, about NSO group and Pegasus. To hear another episode about Greece check out episode 64 called Athens Shadow Games. Sponsors Support for this show comes from Axonius. The Axonius solution correlates asset data from your existing IT and security solutions to provide an always up-to-date inventory of all devices, users, cloud instances, and SaaS apps, so you can easily identify coverage gaps and automate response actions. Axonius gives IT and security teams the confidence to control complexity by mitigating threats, navigating risk, decreasing incidents, and informing business-level strategy — all while eliminating manual, repetitive tasks. Visit axonius.com/darknet to learn more and try it free. Support for this show comes from Varonis. Do you wonder what your company’s ransomware blast radius is? Varonis does a free cyber resilience assessment that tells you how many important files a compromised user could steal, whether anything would beep if they did, and a whole lot more. They actually do all the work – show you where your data is too open, if anyone is using it, and what you can lock down before attackers get inside. They also can detect behavior that looks like ransomware and stop it automatically. To learn more visit www.varonis.com/darknet. Support for this show comes from Akamai Connected Cloud (formerly Linode). Akamai Connected Cloud supplies you with virtual servers. Visit linode.com/darknet and get a special offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Team Xecuter was a group involved with making and selling modchips for video game systems. They often made mods that allowed the video game system to rip games or play pirated games. It was a crowd favorite in the modding scene. Until it all fell apart. The story of what happened to Team Xecuter must be heard to believe. This episode features Gary Bowser. You can find more about Gary here: https://twitter.com/Bowser_GaryOPA https://garyopa.com/ https://www.gofundme.com/f/garyopa-restarting-his-life?utm_location=darknetdiaries Sponsors Support for this show comes from Axonius. The Axonius solution correlates asset data from your existing IT and security solutions to provide an always up-to-date inventory of all devices, users, cloud instances, and SaaS apps, so you can easily identify coverage gaps and automate response actions. Axonius gives IT and security teams the confidence to control complexity by mitigating threats, navigating risk, decreasing incidents, and informing business-level strategy — all while eliminating manual, repetitive tasks. Visit axonius.com/darknet to learn more and try it free. Support for this show comes from Thinkst Canary. Their canaries attract malicious actors in your network and then send you an alert if someone tries to access them. Great early warning system for knowing when someone is snooping around where they shouldn’t be. Check them out at https://canary.tools. Support for this show comes from ThreatLocker. ThreatLocker has built-in endpoint security solutions that strengthens you’re infrastructure from the ground up with a zero trust posture. ThreatLocker’s allow-listing give you a more secure approach to blocking exploits of known and unknown vulnerabilities. ThreatLocker provices zero trust control at the kernel level. Learn more at www.threatlocker.com. Sources https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/10/27/ringleader-pleads-guilty-in-phone-fraud/56e551bb-a727-43e8-a3ca-1c1f4cf6ef82/ https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/usao/legacy/2010/10/12/usab4304.pdf https://www.eurogamer.net/nintendo-to-appeal-not-guilty-judgement-of-flash-cart-sellers-7 https://www.gamesindustry.biz/nintendo-pounces-on-global-piracy-outfit https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-members-notorious-videogame-piracy-group-team-xecuter-custody https://medium.com/swlh/watch-paint-dry-how-i-got-a-game-on-the-steam-store-without-anyone-from-valve-ever-looking-at-it-2e476858c753#.z05q2nykc https://www.lemonde.fr/police-justice/article/2022/05/27/voler-des-societes-qui-font-des-milliards-qu-est-ce-que-j-en-ai-a-faire-max-louarn-c-ur-de-hackeur_6127821_1653578.html https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/20/21579392/nintendo-big-house-super-smash-bros-melee-tournament-slippi-cease-desist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7VwtOrwceo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sNIE5anpik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Omar Avilez worked in the CSIRT of the Dominican Republic when a major cyber security incident erupted. Omar walks us through what happened and the incident response procedures that he went through. Breakmaster Cylinder’s new album: https://breakmastercylinder.bandcamp.com/album/the-moon-all-that. Sponsors Support for this show comes from Varonis. Do you wonder what your company’s ransomware blast radius is? Varonis does a free cyber resilience assessment that tells you how many important files a compromised user could steal, whether anything would beep if they did, and a whole lot more. They actually do all the work – show you where your data is too open, if anyone is using it, and what you can lock down before attackers get inside. They also can detect behavior that looks like ransomware and stop it automatically. To learn more visit www.varonis.com/darknet. Support for this show comes from Axonius. The Axonius solution correlates asset data from your existing IT and security solutions to provide an always up-to-date inventory of all devices, users, cloud instances, and SaaS apps, so you can easily identify coverage gaps and automate response actions. Axonius gives IT and security teams the confidence to control complexity by mitigating threats, navigating risk, decreasing incidents, and informing business-level strategy — all while eliminating manual, repetitive tasks. Visit axonius.com/darknet to learn more and try it free. Support for this show comes from Flare. Flare automates monitoring across the dark & clear web to detect high-risk exposure, before threat actors have a chance to leverage it. Their unified solution makes it easy to rapidly identify risks across thousands of sources, including developers leaking secrets on public GitHub Repositories, threat actors selling infected devices on dark web markets, and targeted attacks being planned on illicit Telegram Channels. Visit https://flare.io to learn more. Sources https://www.wired.com/story/costa-rica-ransomware-conti/ https://malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de/details/win.bandook https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHYH0U66K5Q https://www.youtube.com/live/prCr7Z94078 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/02/uncle-sow-dark-caracal-latin-america https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/quantum-ransomware-attack-disrupts-govt-agency-in-dominican-republic/ https://www.welivesecurity.com/2021/07/07/bandidos-at-large-spying-campaign-latin-america/ Attribution Darknet Diaries is created by Jack Rhysider. Assembled by Tristan Ledger. Episode artwork by odibagas. Mixing by Proximity Sound. Theme music created by Breakmaster Cylinder. Theme song available for listen and download at bandcamp. Or listen to it on Spotify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Deviant Ollam is a physical penetration specialist. That means he’s paid to break into buildings to see if the building is secure or not. He has done this for a long time and has a lot of tricks up his sleeve to get into buidings. In this episode we hear 3 stories of him breaking into buildings for a living. You can find more about Deviant on the following sites: https://twitter.com/deviantollam https://www.instagram.com/deviantollam https://youtube.com/deviantollam https://defcon.social/@deviantollam https://deviating.net/ Sponsors Support for this show comes from ThreatLocker. ThreatLocker has built-in endpoint security solutions that strengthens you’re infrastructure from the ground up with a zero trust posture. ThreatLocker’s allow-listing give you a more secure approach to blocking exploits of known and unknown vulnerabilities. ThreatLocker provices zero trust control at the kernel level. Learn more at www.threatlocker.com. This show is sponsored by Packetlabs. They’ve created the Penetration Testing Buyer’s guide - a comprehensive resource that will help you plan, scope, and execute your Penetration Testing projects. Inside, you’ll find valuable information on frameworks, standards, methodologies, cost factors, reporting options, and what to look for in a provider. https://guide.packetlabs.net/. Support for this show comes from Drata. Drata streamlines your SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR & many other compliance frameworks, and provides 24-hour continuous control monitoring so you focus on scaling securely. Listeners of Darknet Diaries can get 10% off Drata and waived implementation fees at drata.com/darknetdiaries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One day Connor Tumbleson got an email saying his identity has been stolen. And this was one of the strangest days he’s ever had. Sponsors Support for this show comes from Quorum Cyber. Their mantra is: “We help good people win.” If you’re looking for a partner to help you reduce risk and defend against the threats that are targeting your business — and especially if you are interested in Microsoft Security — reach out to Qurotum Cyber at quorumcyber.com. Skiff is a collaboration platform built for privacy from the ground up. Every document, note, and idea you write is end-to-end encrypted and completely private. Only you and your trusted collaborators can see what you’ve created. Try it out at https://skiff.com. Support for this show comes from AttackIQ. AttackIQ’s security optimization platform emulates the adversary with realism to test your security program, generating real-time performance data to improve your security posture. They also offer free training. Head to attackiq.com to get a closer look at how AttackIQ can help you today. Sources https://connortumbleson.com/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/10/glut-of-fake-linkedin-profiles-pits-hr-against-the-bots/ Snippet from Darknet Diaries ep 119 about North Korean’s getting tech jobs to steal bitcoin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1ik6bAwELA Attribution Assembled by Tristan Ledger. Sound design by Garrett Tiedemann. Episode artwork by odibagas. Mixing by Proximity Sound. Theme music created by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sam Bent, a.k.a. DoingFedTime, brings us a story of what it was like being a darknet market vendor. Learn more about Sam at https://www.doingfedtime.com/. Sponsors Support for this show comes from Akamai Connected Cloud (formerly Linode). Akamai Connected Cloud supplies you with virtual servers. Visit linode.com/darknet and get a special offer. Support for this show comes from Thinkst Canary. Their canaries attract malicious actors in your network and then send you an alert if someone tries to access them. Great early warning system for knowing when someone is snooping around where they shouldn’t be. Check them out at https://canary.tools. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jack is currently on a break. Here is a an episode from the Spycast podcast called "Black Ops: The Life of a Legendary CIA Shadow Warrior". To learn more about Spycast visit: https://www.spymuseum.org/podcast/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andy Greenberg (https://twitter.com/a_greenberg) brings us a gut wrenching story of how criminal investigators used bitcoin tracing techniques to try to find out who was at the center of a child sexual abuse darkweb website. This story is part of Andy’s new book “Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency”. An affiliate link to the book on Amazon is here: https://amzn.to/3VkjSh7. Sponsors Support for this show comes from Varonis. Do you wonder what your company’s ransomware blast radius is? Varonis does a free cyber resilience assessment that tells you how many important files a compromised user could steal, whether anything would beep if they did, and a whole lot more. They actually do all the work – show you where your data is too open, if anyone is using it, and what you can lock down before attackers get inside. They also can detect behavior that looks like ransomware and stop it automatically. To learn more visit www.varonis.com/darknet. Support for this show comes from Axonius. The Axonius solution correlates asset data from your existing IT and security solutions to provide an always up-to-date inventory of all devices, users, cloud instances, and SaaS apps, so you can easily identify coverage gaps and automate response actions. Axonius gives IT and security teams the confidence to control complexity by mitigating threats, navigating risk, decreasing incidents, and informing business-level strategy — all while eliminating manual, repetitive tasks. Visit axonius.com/darknet to learn more and try it free. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join us as we sit down with Jason Haddix (https://twitter.com/Jhaddix), a renowned penetration tester who has made a name for himself by uncovering vulnerabilities in some of the world’s biggest companies. In this episode, Jason shares his funny and enlightening stories about breaking into buildings and computers, and talks about the time he discovered a major security flaw in a popular mobile banking app. Sponsors Support for this show comes from Linode. Linode supplies you with virtual servers. Visit linode.com/darknet and get a special offer. Support for this show comes from Arctic Wolf. Arctic Wolf is the industry leader in security operations solutions, delivering 24x7 monitoring, assessment, and response through our patented Concierge Security model. They work with your existing tools and become an extension of your existing IT team. Visit arcticwolf.com/darknet to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brett Johnson, AKA Gollumfun (twitter.com/GOllumfun) was involved with the websites Counterfeit Library and Shadow Crew. He tells his story of what happened there and some of the crimes he committed. In part 2, his past catches up to him. Listen to more of Brett on his own show. https://www.thebrettjohnsonshow.com/. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brett Johnson, AKA Gollumfun (twitter.com/GOllumfun) was involved with the websites Counterfeit Library and Shadow Crew. He tells his story of what happened there and some of the crimes he committed. Sponsors Support for this show comes from Axonius. The Axonius solution correlates asset data from your existing IT and security solutions to provide an always up-to-date inventory of all devices, users, cloud instances, and SaaS apps, so you can easily identify coverage gaps and automate response actions. Axonius gives IT and security teams the confidence to control complexity by mitigating threats, navigating risk, decreasing incidents, and informing business-level strategy — all while eliminating manual, repetitive tasks. Visit axonius.com/darknet to learn more and try it free. Support for this show comes from Linode. Linode supplies you with virtual servers. Visit linode.com/darknet and get a special offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Maddie Stone is a security researcher for Google’s Project Zero. In this episode we hear what it’s like battling zero day vulnerabilities. Sponsors Support for this show comes from Zscalar. Zscalar zero trust exchange will scrutinize the traffic and permit or deny traffic based on a set of rules. This is so much more secure than letting data flow freely internally. And it really does mitigate ransomware outbreaks. The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange gives YOU confidence in your security to feel empowered to focus on other parts of your business, like digital transformation, growth, and innovation. Check out the product at zscaler.com. Support for this show comes from Thinkst Canary. Their canaries attract malicious actors in your network and then send you an alert if someone tries to access them. Great early warning system for knowing when someone is snooping around where they shouldn’t be. Check them out at https://canary.tools. Sources https://www.sophos.com/en-us/medialibrary/pdfs/technical%20papers/yu-vb2013.pdf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0Tqi7fuOSU https://www.vice.com/en/article/4x3n9b/sometimes-a-typo-means-you-need-to-blow-up-your-spacecraft Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

REvil is the name of a ransomware service as well as a group of criminals inflicting ransomware onto the world. Hear how this ransomware shook the world. A special thanks to our guest Will, a CTI researcher with Equinix. Sponsors Support for this show comes from Zscalar. Zscalar zero trust exchange will scrutinize the traffic and permit or deny traffic based on a set of rules. This is so much more secure than letting data flow freely internally. And it really does mitigate ransomware outbreaks. The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange gives YOU confidence in your security to feel empowered to focus on other parts of your business, like digital transformation, growth, and innovation. Check out the product at zscaler.com. Support for this show comes from Arctic Wolf. Arctic Wolf is the industry leader in security operations solutions, delivering 24x7 monitoring, assessment, and response through our patented Concierge Security model. They work with your existing tools and become an extension of your existing IT team. Visit arcticwolf.com/darknet to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jeremiah Roe is a seasoned penetration tester. In this episode he tells us about a time when he had to break into a building to prove it wasn’t as secure as the company thought. You can catch more of Jeremiah on the We’re In podcast. Sponsors Support for this show comes from Axonius. The Axonius solution correlates asset data from your existing IT and security solutions to provide an always up-to-date inventory of all devices, users, cloud instances, and SaaS apps, so you can easily identify coverage gaps and automate response actions. Axonius gives IT and security teams the confidence to control complexity by mitigating threats, navigating risk, decreasing incidents, and informing business-level strategy — all while eliminating manual, repetitive tasks. Visit axonius.com/darknet to learn more and try it free. Support for this show comes from Snyk. Snyk is a developer security platform that helps you secure your applications from the start. It automatically scans your code, dependencies, containers, and cloud infrastructure configs — finding and fixing vulnerabilities in real time. Create your free account at snyk.co/darknet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What do you get when you combine social engineering, email, crime, finance, and the money stream flowing through big tech? Evaldas Rimašauskas comes to mind. He combined all these to make his big move. A whale of a move. Sponsors Support for this show comes from Linode. Linode supplies you with virtual servers. Visit linode.com/darknet and get a special offer. Support for this show comes from Axonius. The Axonius solution correlates asset data from your existing IT and security solutions to provide an always up-to-date inventory of all devices, users, cloud instances, and SaaS apps, so you can easily identify coverage gaps and automate response actions. Axonius gives IT and security teams the confidence to control complexity by mitigating threats, navigating risk, decreasing incidents, and informing business-level strategy — all while eliminating manual, repetitive tasks. Visit axonius.com/darknet to learn more and try it free. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Investing in the stock market can be very profitable. Especially if you can see into the future. This is a story of how a group of traders and hackers got together to figure out a way to see into the future and make a lot of money from that. Sponsors Support for this show comes from Thinkst Canary. Their canaries attract malicious actors in your network and then send you an alert if someone tries to access them. Great early warning system for knowing when someone is snooping around where they shouldn’t be. Check them out at https://canary.tools. Support for this show comes from Juniper Networks. Juniper Networks is dedicated to simplifying network operations and driving superior experiences for end users. Visit juniper.net/darknet to learn more about how Juniper’s Zero Trust Data Center provides uncompromising visibility across all your data center environments. Visit juniper.net/darknet to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode we hear some insider threat stories from Lisa Forte. Sponsors Support for this show comes from Axonius. Securing assets — whether managed, unmanaged, ephemeral, or in the cloud — is a tricky task. The Axonius Cybersecurity Asset Management Platform correlates asset data from existing solutions to provide an always up-to-date inventory, uncover gaps, and automate action. Axonius gives IT and security teams the confidence to control complexity by mitigating threats, navigating risk, decreasing incidents, and informing business-level strategy — all while eliminating manual, repetitive tasks. Visit axonius.com/darknet to learn more and try it free. Support for this show comes from Varonis. Do you wonder what your company’s ransomware blast radius is? Varonis does a free cyber resilience assessment that tells you how many important files a compromised user could steal, whether anything would beep if they did, and a whole lot more. They actually do all the work – show you where your data is too open, if anyone is using it, and what you can lock down before attackers get inside. They also can detect behavior that looks like ransomware and stop it automatically. To learn more visit www.varonis.com/darknet. Support for this show comes from Snyk. Snyk is a developer security platform that helps you secure your applications from the start. It automatically scans your code, dependencies, containers, and cloud infrastructure configs — finding and fixing vulnerabilities in real time. Create your free account at snyk.co/darknet. Attribution Darknet Diaries is created by Jack Rhysider. Editing by Damienne. Assembled by Tristan Ledger. Sound designed by Andrew Meriwether. Episode artwork by odibagas. Mixing by Proximity Sound. Theme music created by Breakmaster Cylinder. Theme song available for listen and download at bandcamp. Or listen to it on Spotify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode we hear some penetration test stories from Ed Skoudis (twitter.com/edskoudis). We also catch up with Beau Woods (twitter.com/beauwoods) from I am The Cavalry (iamthecavalry.org). Sponsors Support for this show comes from Axonius. Securing assets — whether managed, unmanaged, ephemeral, or in the cloud — is a tricky task. The Axonius Cybersecurity Asset Management Platform correlates asset data from existing solutions to provide an always up-to-date inventory, uncover gaps, and automate action. Axonius gives IT and security teams the confidence to control complexity by mitigating threats, navigating risk, decreasing incidents, and informing business-level strategy — all while eliminating manual, repetitive tasks. Visit axonius.com/darknet to learn more and try it free. Support for this show comes from Zscalar. Zscalar zero trust exchange will scrutinize the traffic and permit or deny traffic based on a set of rules. This is so much more secure than letting data flow freely internally. And it really does mitigate ransomware outbreaks. The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange gives YOU confidence in your security to feel empowered to focus on other parts of your business, like digital transformation, growth, and innovation. Check out the product at zscaler.com/darknet. Support for this podcast comes from Cybereason. Cybereason reverses the attacker’s advantage and puts the power back in the defender’s hands. End cyber attacks. From endpoints to everywhere. Learn more at Cybereason.com/darknet. View all active sponsors. Attribution Darknet Diaries is created by Jack Rhysider. Editing by Damienne. Assembled by Tristan Ledger. Sound designed by Andrew Meriwether. Episode artwork by odibagas. Audio cleanup by Proximity Sound. Theme music created by Breakmaster Cylinder.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're going to play two stories for you today. First is a story that comes from the podcast Click Here, hosted by Dina Temple Raston. It's about Lapsus$. Then after that Jack Rhysider tells a story about a sewage plant in Australia that had a big problem. You can find more episode of Click Here on your favorite podcast player or by visiting https://ClickHereShow.com. Sponsors Support for this show comes Snyk. Snyk is a developer security platform that helps you secure your applications from the start. It automatically scans your code, dependencies, containers, and cloud infrastructure configs — finding and fixing vulnerabilities in real time. Create your free account at https://snyk.co/darknet. Support for this show comes from Linode. Linode supplies you with virtual servers. Visit [linode.com/darknet](https://linode.com/darknet) and get a special offer. Support for this podcast comes from Cybereason. Cybereason reverses the attacker’s advantage and puts the power back in the defender's hands. End cyber attacks. From endpoints to everywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the story about when Mohammed Aldoub, AKA Voulnet, (twitter.com/Voulnet) found a vulnerability on Virus Total and Tweeted about it. Sponsors Support for this podcast comes from Cybereason. Cybereason reverses the attacker’s advantage and puts the power back in the defender’s hands. End cyber attacks. From endpoints to everywhere. Learn more at Cybereason.com/darknet. Support for this show comes from Varonis. Do you wonder what your company’s ransomware blast radius is? Varonis does a free cyber resilience assessment that tells you how many important files a compromised user could steal, whether anything would beep if they did, and a whole lot more. They actually do all the work – show you where your data is too open, if anyone is using it, and what you can lock down before attackers get inside. They also can detect behavior that looks like ransomware and stop it automatically. To learn more visit www.varonis.com/darknet. Sources https://www.cyberscoop.com/story/trial-error-kuwait-mohammed-aldoub-case/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices