Darknet Diaries
Darknet Diaries is an investigative podcast created by Jack Rhysider (/riːˈsaɪdər/), chronicling true stories about crackers, malware, botnets, cryptography, cryptocurrency, cybercrime, and Internet privacy, all subjects falling under the umbrella of "tales from the dark side of the Internet".[1]
| Darknet Diaries | |
|---|---|
| Presentation | |
| Hosted by |
|
| Genre |
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| Updates | Alternating Tuesdays |
| Length | 30–110 minutes |
| Production | |
| Theme music composed by | Breakmaster Cylinder |
| Audio format | MP3 |
| No. of episodes | 130 |
| Publication | |
| Original release | September 1, 2017 – present |
| Website | darknetdiaries |
Launched in October 2017, episodes average around 30 minutes to an hour, each meticulously dissecting a singular topic through original interviews, audio footage, and Rhysider's narration. The show's journalistic style has received widespread acclaim for its ability to "speak to your inner detective" and "productively substitute the thriller novel you intend to carry".[2][3]
Production
Each episode begins with an introduction from Rhysider, followed by the theme music consisting of stringed instruments and a crunchy synthesizer, and then a structured narrative layered with interviews and suspenseful scoring.
For the first 40 episodes, Rhysider was responsible for all of the research, writing, narrating, editing, sound design, publishing, marketing, and logistics. Later on, due to a passionate cult following, Rhysider was able to enlist the help of additional writers, researchers, editors, and graphic designers.
By December 31, 2018, Darknet Diaries had amassed more than 1.2 million downloads. In 2019 only, there were more than 8.2 million downloads.[4]
Impact and real-life influences
Some notable episodes have been praised for their deep-diving insights, such as episode 17 "Finn", where Rhysider explores a curious child's evolution into becoming a hacker, illuminating Finn's loneliness and outsider-mentality, which, when coupled with his Asperger's, ADHD, and affinity for computers, inspired Finn to hack his high school's network.[5] "Finn" was also adapted and featured on the WNYC Studios podcast Snap Judgment.[6]
More details emerged regarding the case details for Roman Seleznev's 27-year prison sentence, thanks to a Seattle computer crimes prosecutor, court documents, and reporting by Rhysider on episode 32 "The Carder", which covered the Secret Service's tracking of Seleznev's online movements in the 2000s.[7]
Rhysider has been quoted as saying "a lot of hacks go unsolved"; however, at least in Seleznev's case, selling cards was his specialty while his hacking abilities were mediocre.[7]
Episode 27 "Chartbreakers" was highlighted for its investigation into the manipulation of the Apple Podcasts Top Charts through a vast industry termed as "dark podcast marketing", the catalysts for this industry originating from Bangladesh. Rhysider received and then subsequently released photos of the promoters themselves.[8][9]
Crossovers and appearances
Rhysider has made appearances on a variety of other programs, the most notable being Snap Judgment[6] and the Lit Hub/Podglomerate Storybound, where he is accompanied by an original score from singer-songwriter Shane Brown.[10][11]
Other podcast appearances include Smashing Security, The Many Hats Club, Brakeing Down Security, The Word From Mouth, InfoSec ICU, The Cyberwire, Podcast Business Journal Spotlight, Overnight America, Aidan Wheller Podcast and Audio Reviews, Getting into InfoSec, Grimerica, Cyber Speaks Live, and Chartable Radio.
Episodes
| No. | Title | Subject(s) | Duration[12] | Release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Phreaky World of PBX Hacking | 0:14:01 | September 1, 2017 | |
| 2 | The Peculiar Case of the VTech Hacker | VTech: 2015 data breach | 0:23:20 | September 15, 2017 |
| 3 | DigiNotar, You are the Weakest Link, Good Bye! |
| 0:25:44 | October 10, 2017 |
| 4 | Panic! at the TalkTalk Board Room | 0:38:23 | October 15, 2017 | |
| 5 | #ASUSGATE | 0:25:07 | November 1, 2017 | |
| 6 | The Beirut Bank Job | 0:29:19 | November 15, 2017 | |
| 7 | Manfred (Part 1) | 0:23:16 | December 1, 2017 | |
| 8 | Manfred (Part 2) | 0:28:08 | December 1, 2017 | |
| 9 | The Rise and Fall of Mt. Gox | 0:28:53 | December 15, 2017 | |
| 10 | Misadventures of a Nation State Actor | 0:33:25 | January 1, 2018 | |
| 11 | Strictly Confidential | 0:19:32 | January 15, 2018 | |
| 12 | Crypto Wars | 0:28:30 | February 1, 2018 | |
| 13 | Carna Botnet | Carna botnet | 0:33:18 | February 15, 2018 |
| 14 | #OpJustina | 0:25:21 | March 1, 2018 | |
| 15 | Ill Tills | 0:33:21 | April 1, 2018 | |
| 16 | Eijah | 0:35:40 | May 1, 2018 | |
| 17 | Finn | 0:45:19 | June 3, 2018 | |
| 18 | Jackpot | 0:21:05 | July 1, 2018 | |
| 19 | Aurora | 0:30:29 | August 1, 2018 | |
| 20 | mobman | 0:46:23 | August 15, 2018 | |
| 21 | Black Duck Eggs | 0:28:19 | September 1, 2018 | |
| 22 | Mini-Stories: Vol 1 | 0:39:41 | September 15, 2018 | |
| 23 | Vladimir Levin | 0:28:22 | October 1, 2018 | |
| 24 | Operation Bayonet | 0:39:12 | October 15, 2018 | |
| 25 | Alberto | 0:42:35 | November 1, 2018 | |
| 26 | IRS | Disclosure of information and theft of $50 million from the IRS | 0:35:21 | November 15, 2018 |
| 27 | Chartbreakers | 0:47:14 | December 1, 2018 | |
| 28 | Unit 8200 | 0:48:35 | December 15, 2018 | |
| 29 | Stuxnet | Stuxnet | 0:41:06 | January 8, 2019 |
| 30 | Shamoon | 0:35:21 | January 22, 2019 | |
| 31 | Hacker Giraffe | 0:56:02 | February 5, 2019 | |
| 32 | The Carder | Roman Seleznev | 0:39:29 | February 19, 2019 |
| 33 | RockYou | 0:40:33 | March 5, 2019 | |
| 34 | For Your Eyes Only | 0:51:54 | March 19, 2019 | |
| 35 | Carbanak | 0:40:14 | April 2, 2019 | |
| 36 | Jeremy from Marketing | 1:01:14 | April 16, 2019 | |
| 37 | LVS | 0:28:23 | April 30, 2019 | |
| 38 | Dark Caracal | 0:54:44 | May 14, 2019 | |
| 39 | 3 Alarm Lamp Scooter | 0:50:24 | May 28, 2019 | |
| 40 | No Parking | 1:00:28 | June 11, 2019 | |
| 41 | Just Visiting | 0:49:16 | June 25, 2019 | |
| 42 | Mini-Stories: Vol 2 | 0:54:15 | July 9, 2019 | |
| 43 | PPP | 1:00:51 | July 23, 2019 | |
| 44 | Zain | 0:34:46 | August 6, 2019 | |
| 45 | XBox Underground (Part 1) | Xbox Underground | 1:19:19 | August 20, 2019 |
| 46 | XBox Underground (Part 2) | Xbox Underground | 1:22:29 | September 3, 2019 |
| 47 | Project Raven | 1:01:49 | September 17, 2019 | |
| 48 | Operation Socialist | 0:48:40 | October 1, 2019 | |
| 49 | Elliot | 0:47:17 | October 15, 2019 | |
| 50 | Operation Glowing Symphony | 1:11:10 | October 29, 2019 | |
| 51 | The Indo-Pak Conflict | 0:46:49 | November 12, 2019 | |
| 52 | Magecart | 0:48:05 | November 26, 2019 | |
| 53 | Shadow Brokers | The Shadow Brokers | 0:50:04 | December 10, 2019 |
| 54 | NotPetya |
| 0:57:01 | December 24, 2019 |
| 55 | Noirnet | 0:17:37 | December 25, 2019 | |
| 56 | Jordan | 0:44:10 | January 7, 2020 | |
| 57 | MS08-067 | Conficker | 0:58:32 | January 21, 2020 |
| 58 | OxyMonster | 1:00:42 | February 4, 2020 | |
| 59 | The Courthouse | 1:20:52 | February 18, 2020 | |
| 60 | dawgyg | 0:43:08 | March 3, 2020 | |
| 61 | Samy | 1:01:11 | March 17, 2020 | |
| 62 | Cam | 1:01:56 | March 31, 2020 | |
| 63 | w0rmer | Higinio Ochoa | 0:56:55 | April 14, 2020 |
| 64 | The Athens Shadow Games | 1:14:44 | April 28, 2020 | |
| 65 | PSYOP | 1:13:55 | May 12, 2020 | |
| 66 | freakyclown | 0:53:47 | May 26, 2020 | |
| 67 | The Big House | 0:40:54 | June 9, 2020 | |
| 68 | Triton | Triton (malware) | 1:11:48 | June 23, 2020 |
| 69 | Human Hacker | 1:04:50 | July 6, 2020 | |
| 70 | Ghost Exodus | 0:56:45 | July 21, 2020 | |
| 71 | FDFF | 1:08:16 | August 2, 2020 | |
| 72 | Bangladesh Bank Heist | Bangladesh Bank robbery | 0:36:47 | August 16, 2020 |
| 73 | WannaCry | WannaCry ransomware attack | 0:44:51 | September 1, 2020 |
| 74 | Mikko | 1:09:28 | September 15, 2020 | |
| 75 | Compromised Comms | 0:35:07 | September 29, 2020 | |
| 76 | Knaves Out | 2014 JPMorgan Chase data breach | 1:25:10 | October 13, 2020 |
| 77 | Olympic Destroyer |
| 0:47:02 | October 27, 2020 |
| 78 | Nerdcore | 1:18:08 | November 10, 2020 | |
| 79 | Dark Basin | 0:56:18 | November 24, 2020 | |
| 80 | The Whistleblower | 0:50:10 | December 8, 2020 | |
| 81 | The Vendor | 1:17:59 | December 22, 2020 | |
| 82 | Master of Pwn | Pwn2Own | 1:05:09 | January 5, 2021 |
| 83 | NSA Cryptologists | 1:22:56 | January 19, 2021 | |
| 84 | Jet-setters | 1:12:20 | February 2, 2021 | |
| 85 | Cam the Carder | 1:16:34 | February 16, 2021 | |
| 86 | The LinkedIn Incident | 2012 LinkedIn Hack | 0:55:00 | March 2, 2021 |
| 87 | Guild of the Grumpy Old Hackers | 0:50:30 | March 16, 2021 | |
| 88 | Victor | 0:42:43 | March 30, 2021 | |
| 89 | Cybereason: Molerats in the Cloud | 0:57:35 | April, 6, 2021 | |
| 90 | Jenny | 1:11:29 | April 13,2021 | |
| 91 | webjedi | 0:58:57 | April 27, 2021 | |
| 92 | The Pirate Bay | 1:46:13 | May 11,2021 | |
| 93 | Kik | The fight against child porn on Kik | 1:34:18 | May 25, 2021 |
| 94 | Mariposa Botnet | 0:44:08 | June 8, 2021 | |
| 95 | Jon & Brian's Big Adventure | 1:16:25 | June 22, 2021 | |
| 96 | The Police Station Incident | 0:55:39 | July 6, 2021 | |
| 97 | The Pizza Problem | 0:47:49 | July 20, 2021 | |
| 98 | Zero Day Brokers | 0:50:13 | August 3, 2021 | |
| 99 | The Spy | 1:13:44 | August 17, 2021 | |
| 100 | NSO | Pegasus | 1:12:53 | August 31, 2021 |
| 101 | Lotería | 1:12:57 | September 28, 2021 | |
| 102 | Money Maker | 1:21:52 | October 12, 2021 | |
| 103 | Cloud Hopper | 0:52:25 | October 26, 2021 | |
| 104 | Arya | 1:19:41 | November 9, 2021 | |
| 105 | Secret Cells | 1:12:41 | November 23, 2021 | |
| 106 | @Tennessee | 0:47:39 | December 7, 2021 | |
| 107 | Alethe | 0:57:18 | December 21, 2021 | |
| 108 | Marq | 0:48:21 | January 11th, 2022 | |
| 109 | TEAMPOISON | TeaMp0isoN with guest MLT | 1:00:07 | January 25th, 2022 |
| 110 | Spam Botnets | 1:11:39 | February 8th, 2022 | |
| 111 | ZeuS | 0:48:35 | February 22nd, 2022 | |
| 112 | Dirty Coms | 1:31:00 | March 8th, 2022 | |
| 113 | Adam | 0:54:13 | March 22nd, 2022 | |
| 114 | HD | 1:18:03 | April 5th, 2022 | |
| 115 | Player Cheater Developer Spy | 0:40:42 | April 19th, 2022 | |
| 116 | Mad Dog | 1:15:54 | May 3rd, 2022 | |
| 117 | Daniel the Paladin | 1:11:41 | May 17th, 2022 | |
| 118 | Hot Swaps | 1:28:04 | May 31st, 2022 | |
| 119 | Hot Wallets | 0:57:24 | June 14th, 2022 | |
| 120 | Voulnet | 0:32:45 | June 28th, 2022 | |
| 121 | Ed | 0:41:51 | July 26th, 2022 | |
| 122 | Lisa | 0:49:19 | August 23rd, 2022 | |
| 123 | Newswires | 0:49:02 | September 6th, 2022 | |
| 124 | Synthetic Remittance | 0:19:50 | September 20th, 2022 | |
| 125 | Jeremiah | 0:49:14 | October 4th, 2022 | |
| 126 | REvil | 1:03:53 | October 18th, 2022 | |
| 127 | Maddie | 0:54:04 | November 1st, 2022 | |
| 128 | Gollumfun (Part 1 of 2) | 1:01:00 | November 15th, 2022 | |
| 129 | Gollumfun (Part 2 of 2) | 1:18:48 | November 29th, 2022 | |
| 130 | Jason's Pen Test | 0:45:36 | December 13th, 2022 | |
| 131 | Welcome to Video | Episode about the Welcome to Video case | 1:10:08 | December 27th, 2022 |
Reception
When describing the show's style and presentation, various media outlets have drawn comparisons between Reply All and This American Life, with The Irish Times writing, "Darknet Diaries is...where storytelling is mixed with investigative techniques to provide a strong narrative with real people at its core."[5] The New York Times wrote, "Though the episodes are often startlingly short, condensing stories into 30 minutes that could easily justify a full hour, Rhysider’s hypnotic narration and deep expertise creates results that are never less than gripping."[13]
The Boston Globe called Darknet Diaries "a true-crime podcast with no blood [and] no bodies...[leaving] you wondering why there aren't more hacks, breaches, and cyber-crime."[14]
Miranda Sawyer of The Observer, sister paper to The Guardian, highlighted the podcast's reported "small disasters" of online life, writing: "Neatly edited and charmingly presented by Jack Rhysider, the podcast does occasionally stray into nerdiness, but it’s chock-full of real-life examples of when our virtual lives fail."[15]
Vulture magazine listed Darknet Diaries among its list of "52 of the Best True-Crime Podcasts", following what they deemed as "the post-Serial boom", citing how "some of these [cybercrimes] may hit a little too close to home" while also advising listeners: "Cover your laptop camera, throw that iPhone in the river, and hang out in that weird no-reception corner of your home."[16]
Awards
See also
References
- ^ "Stats". Irish Times. August 28, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ "Top 10 Best Cyber Security Podcasts of 2019". Security Boulevard. July 9, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ "Cybersecurity Podcasts You Should Be Listening To". TrendinTech. January 8, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ "Stats". Darknet Diaries. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ a b "Darknet Diaries: Tales from the dark side of the web". Irish Times. August 28, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ a b "Respawn". WNYC Studios. July 11, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ a b "How a carding kingpin got caught and dealt a death blow to the Broadway Grill". Capitol Hill Seattle Times. May 8, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ a b "Quartz Casties: The best podcasts (and podcast episodes) of 2018". Quartzy. December 23, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ "EP 27: CHARTBREAKERS". Darknet Diaries. December 1, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ "The Return Of Radio Theater". Radio Ink. October 22, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ "Introducing the Storybound Podcast". Literary Hub. October 22, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ "Darknet Diaries". Darknet Diaries. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
- ^ "8 Podcasts for the Tech Curious". The New York Times. July 18, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ "10 podcasts that stood out in 2018". The Boston Globe. December 27, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ "The week in radio: Grenfell: Dust on Our Lips; Darknet Diaries; The Tip Off". The Guardian. December 17, 2017. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ "52 Great True-Crime Podcasts". Vulture. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ "The 2018 Discover Pods Award Winners". Discover Pods. December 10, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
- ^ "#Infosec19: Winners of European Security Blogger Awards Announced". Info Security. June 4, 2019. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
External links
- Official website
- Official Discord
- Subreddit