Darknet Diaries

6 episodes scanned. 26% of ad slots promote the show's own products.

Recent Episodes

1. 182: Blackshades

   Nov 3, 2026

   This solo episode of Darknet Diaries, hosted and narrated by Jack Rhysider, traces the history of Black Shades, a $40 remote access trojan sold openly online from 2010 that infected more than 500,000 machines in over 100 countries. It covers how the software was used to spy on women through their webcams, its role in targeting Syrian activists, and the FBI's Operation Card Shop and the 2014 global takedown that led to 97 arrests. The episode closes with practical security advice on social engineering, webcam covering, and malware awareness.

2. 181: Ricky

   Oct 20, 2026

   Ricky Handschumacher recounts how he began as a teenage Halo 3 player who used DDoS attacks and then stole Xbox gamer tags and Instagram accounts through social engineering and password-reset abuse. He describes the money he made selling stolen accounts in crypto, his arrest and four-year federal sentence, and the toll on his family. He now speaks at security events and is working with former sim swapper Joseph Harris on a penetration testing company.

3. 180: Conti

   Oct 6, 2026

   Investigative journalist Geoff White and cyber threat researcher Alex Holden discuss the rise and spectacular fall of Conti, one of history's most successful ransomware gangs. The episode traces Conti's origins from the Dyre gang through its evolution into a dominant ransomware-as-a-service operation, highlighting major attacks on Irish hospitals and Costa Rican government, and culminating in the gang's internal exposure and eventual collapse following a massive leak of internal communications.

4. LOW - Now Available

   Sep 22, 2026

   Jack Rhysider, host of Darknet Diaries, announces the release of LOW, a new limited podcast series he has created after 8 years of development. The series tells the story of Zachariah, a man from Russia, and explores dark and deeply personal themes across five episodes. Rhysider discusses the emotional weight of the story, his months of interviews with Zachariah, Zachariah's sudden disappearance, and his seven-year struggle with whether to publish the material.

5. 179: The Courthouse - Revisited

   Sep 1, 2026

   A revisit to Episode 59 featuring Justin Wynn and Gabby DeMercurio, seasoned penetration testers with Coal Fire Systems (and now Kaiju Security), who recount their 2019 physical security assessment of Iowa courthouses that went wrong after they were wrongfully arrested. The episode replays the original story and then provides a comprehensive five-year update on their legal battle against Dallas County, their $300,000 settlement per person, and the precedent their case has set for penetration testers.

6. LOW - Trailer

   Aug 6, 2026

   Jack Rhysider announces the release of LOW, a limited audio series featuring an in-depth narrative from a person named Zachariah about an extraordinary and dark life story. After eight years of silence from Zachariah and years of production work, Rhysider has completed a five-episode series exploring themes of human experience, choices made in darkness, and personal reckoning. The series launches as exclusive early access for Darknet Diaries Plus subscribers before a free public release.

7. 178: Ubiquiti

   Aug 4, 2026

   Nickolas Sharp, a cloud engineer at Ubiquiti, orchestrated a sophisticated cyber attack on his own employer to extort $2 million in Bitcoin, framing it as an unsanctioned security demonstration. After downloading over 100 private repositories from Ubiquiti's GitHub and AWS systems, Sharp sent a ransom demand, later leaked the data publicly via Keybase, and contacted journalist Brian Krebs with allegations of corporate malfeasance. Arrested in December 2021 and convicted of wire fraud and intentional damage to protected computers, Sharp was sentenced to six years in prison.

8. 177: National Public Data

   Jul 21, 2026

   Episode 177 of Darknet Diaries explores three interconnected stories of identity theft and data exploitation. The episode begins with William Woods, whose identity was stolen by Matthew Kierans in 1988, leading to a devastating legal nightmare where Woods was wrongly imprisoned and institutionalized while the actual thief operated freely for 31 years. It then shifts to Luan Barbosa (USDOD), a Brazilian hacker who breached the U.S. Department of Defense, FBI InfraGard, NATO, and numerous other government entities, selling stolen military intelligence. Finally, the episode reveals how Salvatore Varini Jr., operator of the data broker National Public Data, profited from scraping and selling billions of personal records, which were subsequently breached and sold by Luan, affecting 2.9 billion people across the U.S., UK, and Canada.

9. The FBI told him to keep a secret. He risked everything to fight it. ✉ Darknet Diaries Ep. 176: NSL

   Jul 7, 2026

10. One Unencrypted File Broke This 10-Year Investigation Wide Open 🎙 Darknet Diaries Ep. 175: Bayrob

    Jun 2, 2026