158: MalwareTech

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. I'm squealing over here. After years and years of trying to get today's guest on the show, he finally said yes. I'm so excited for this one. I've been sliding into his DMs for years. Hey. Can I interview you? And I swear he always has the same answer every time. He's like, who are you? And I say something like, oh, I'm a podcaster, and I I really wanna hear your story. And he's like, no. Thank you. And fair answer, I wouldn't wanna talk to me either if I was in his position. And then I saw him at a party at Defcon, and when I when I first approached him in person, he was hiding behind a sign, trying not to be seen. So I I stand out in a crowd, so I've learned that, like, signs are my best friend. We can hide behind the lamppost. We can hide behind the tree. We can hide behind the sign. But if I stand in the middle of the room, like, it's gonna draw a lot more attention than, than I necessarily maybe want. Although, I've got to the point now where I I I think I can just handle it. But I I do remember our first interactions. I think part of the awkwardness was I'm very bad at recognizing faces, and you were wearing a mask the first time you saw me. It's true. I had a disguise on, and, yeah, I asked to interview him, and he had no idea who I was. He's just like, who are you? In my defense, there is no photos of you online, and I have checked. So It's true. There is there is no way I could have known. It's true. I tried real hard not to have any photos of me on the Internet. I'm a very private person. But I swear, every time I asked him for an interview, he just kept asking me the same thing. Who are you? No, thank you. So I remember we had, like, quite a long conversation, and then you went away, and you came back without the mask. And then you came back, and you sort of went to reengage the conversation, and I had no idea who you were. I was like, who is this random guy? Okay. Fair point. I wear a lot of disguises, so you're right. Some of this is on me. But I'm happy to announce that today, finally, I am interviewing MalwareTech. I'm MalwareTech, and I'm an anonymous security researcher. These are true stories from the dark side of the Internet. I'm Jack Rhysider. This is Darknet Diaries. This episode is sponsored by DeleteMe. DeleteMe makes it easy, quick, and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. DeleteMe does all the hard work of wiping you and your family's …