Inside Mirai, the Hack that Broke the Internet

Lauren Goode: Have you ever been hacked?

Michael Calore: I don’t think so. I haven’t been outright hacked, but I’m also not certain that all of my devices are uncompromised at this point.

Lauren Goode: You have a lot of smart home gadgets.

Michael Calore: I do, yeah. A lot of little things that are connected to the internet that I never really check in on. So, I don’t know, maybe I have been.

Lauren Goode: And we spend all day on the internet using like 200 apps.

Michael Calore: Yes. Oh, God, all the apps. OK. So yeah, maybe I have, I don’t know. Why?

Lauren Goode: Have you read Andy Greenberg’s latest story in WIRED?

Michael Calore: Yes, I have.

Lauren Goode: It’s epic.

Michael Calore: It really is.

Lauren Goode: It’s this incredible tale of these three teenage hackers—well, they were teenagers at the time—who basically took down the internet for one day in 2016. But the tale of how they got there, where they started and where they ended up, it blew my mind. And actually, it made me feel worried about all my stuffs on the internet.

Michael Calore: Yes, we should all be worried.

Lauren Goode: We should. And we have Andy on the show today to tell us more about this story.

Michael Calore: I can’t wait.

Lauren Goode: So, let’s talk about it.

[Gadget Lab intro theme music plays]

Lauren Goode: Hi, everyone. Welcome to Gadget Lab. I’m Lauren Goode. I’m a senior writer at WIRED.

Michael Calore: And I’m Michael Calore. I’m a senior editor at WIRED.

Lauren Goode: And we’re joined this week by WIRED senior writer Andy Greenberg. He, of all of the hack stories. Andy, welcome back on the show. It’s great to have you on.

Andy Greenberg: Thank you. Glad to be back.

Lauren Goode: So, Andy, we’ve brought you on because WIRED has just published your massive epic of a feature story titled “The Mirai Confessions: Three Young Hackers Who Built a Web-Killing Monster Finally Tell Their Story.” It’s the story of the hackers who created a malware tool called Mirai that took down some of the biggest websites back in 2016, including Netflix, Spotify, Twitter, PayPal, Slack, everything. It was a massive cyberattack that rocked the foundations of the internet. And now for the first time, the people who created that malware have told their story to you.