Former U.S. most wanted cybercriminal, Brett Johnson, shares his journey from a life of crime to becoming an expert on cybersecurity. Topics discussed include the psychology of exploitation, the creation of the precursor to the dark web, and the speaker's personal experiences with criminal activities and family dynamics.

Brett Johnson was a US Most Wanted cybercriminal, called the Original Internet Godfather by US Secret Service for building the the first organized cybercrime community called ShadowCrew, which was the precursor to today’s darknet and darknet markets. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – Public Goods: https://publicgoods.com/lex and use code LEX to get $15 off – NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/lex to get free product tour – Blinkist: https://blinkist.com/lex and use code LEX to get 25% off premium – MasterClass: https://masterclass.com/lex to get 15% off – Onnit: https://lexfridman.com/onnit to get up to 10% off EPISODE LINKS: Brett’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/GOllumfun Brett’s Website: https://anglerphish.com PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: – Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast – Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman – Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman – Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) – Introduction (08:47) – Early years (43:05) – Phishing and social engineering (1:01:09) – SolarWinds cyberattack (1:06:56) – Future social engineering fears (1:09:37) – Early cybercrimes (1:22:10) – Cybercrime entrepreneurship (1:25:39) – ShadowCrew (1:56:42) – Dark web (2:05:29) – ShadowCrew arrested (2:17:28) – Cybercrime (2:22:34) – Love (2:54:39) – Prison (3:22:50) – Life after prison (3:44:39) – Advice for young people (3:46:03) – Hope for the future (3:49:32) – Meaning of life

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/.

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.SponsorsSupport 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.

Brett Johnson is referred to by the United States Secret Service as "The Original Internet Godfather", he was the Founder and Leader of Counterfeit Library and Shadow Crew and has been a central figure in the cybercrime world for almost 20 years.Brett has been a lifelong criminal, he was committing crimes from inside the Secret Service's own offices, then after being sent to prison he escaped from prison and went on the run to Disneyland, all while defrauding millions. This story is one of the wildest things I've ever heard.Expect to learn what it feels like to be on the FBI's Most Wanted list, what actually happened with the Solar Winds hack, how Brett was involved in the origins of the darknet, his thoughts on Ross Ulbricht and Silk Road, the closest calls Brett had to being killed, how he evaded capture for so long, whether he thinks Julian Assange is a criminal or a hero and much more...Sponsors:Get the Whoop 4.0 for free and get your first month for free at http://join.whoop.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied)Get 83% discount & 3 months free from Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/MODERNWISDOM (use code MODERNWISDOM)Extra Stuff:Check out Brett's website - https://www.anglerphish.com/ Follow Brett on Twitter - https://twitter.com/GOllumfun Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom-Get in touch.Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillxTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillxYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcastEmail: https://chriswillx.com/contact/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices