#503 - Brett Johnson - The United States' Most Wanted Hacker

About this episode

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/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices