Early in the morning on October 21, 2016, Scott Shapiro got out of bed, opened his Dell laptop to read the day’s news, and found that the internet was broken.

Not his internet, though at first it struck Shapiro that way as he checked and double-checked his computer’s Wi-Fi connection and his router. The internet.

This is a gripping tale of how a few nerdy kids were able to take down some giant pieces of the internet.

It’s also a story filled with redemption, coming to grips with what you’ve built, and how to atone for pain you’ve caused.

I can’t recommend this long read enough.

At around 7 am on a quiet Wednesday in August 2017, Marcus Hutchins walked out the front door of the Airbnb mansion in Las Vegas where he had been partying for the past week and a half. A gangly, 6'4", 23-year-old hacker with an explosion of blond-brown curls, Hutchins had emerged to retrieve his order of a Big Mac and fries from an Uber Eats deliveryman. But as he stood barefoot on the mansion's driveway wearing only a T-shirt and jeans, Hutchins noticed a black SUV parked on the street—one that looked very much like an FBI stakeout.

Journalism students should study this as a quintessential way to write a profile piece. I find computer security a fascinating topic, but it's hard to present it to non-nerds as a compelling story. Andy Greenberg did this story justice.