Westfield Native, Former Secret Service Agent Drops New Podcast

WESTFIELD, NJ — After nine years of working as an agent in the Secret Service, Stephen Ward was not quite ready to share the story of his involvement in one of the largest cyber federal investigations in the history of the United States.

But 15 years later, Ward has finally decided to share his story — now in the form of a podcast.

Just last week, the Westfield native released his Audible Original podcast "Operation Firewall," a true crime story that follows Ward, as a Secret Service agent, and a hacker-turned-informant who join forces to take down a cybercriminal ring. This story takes place during a time when there were barely any laws in place to prohibit what cyber criminals were doing.

The podcast is narrated by journalist Michal Lev-Ram who covers technology and entertainment for Fortune.com.

Ward said he met Lev-Ram late one night after she flew to New Jersey from California. She arrived at his home in Westfield at around 11 p.m., and the two stayed up until 3 a.m., as Ward recapped his entire story.

The nine-episode podcast chronologically tells Ward's story, beginning with Ward growing up in New Jersey, attending Seton Hall University and getting recruited by a priest to go into the Secret Service.

Then, the story delves into Ward's job as an agent, entering the cyber division and arresting an individual who ended up being the best cyber hacker in the United States at the time. This hacker-turned-informant, named Albert Gonzalez, helped Ward take down Shadowcrew — a global, cybercriminal network that was responsible for stealing millions of credit card numbers, and millions of dollars, from American consumers.

"The main crux of the story is the personal relationship between me and [Gonzalez]," Ward said. "It's about trust, it's about betrayal."

While Ward was using Gonzalez as an informant for three to four years, Gonzalez was also committing one of the largest hacks in the United States.

Ward then ended up leaving the agency to work at JP Morgan, where Ward was still working as a civilian to help the government catch Gonzalez. But Gonzalez then implicated Ward, saying that Ward helped him in committing these crimes.

"I went from being like, what I would say is like the 'golden boy' leaving the agency, being the best cyber guy, to a suspect in the largest cyber federal investigation," Ward said.

Gonzalez eventually admitted that Ward was not involved in the cyber hacks, but at this point, Ward's reputation with the Secret Service had already been ruined.

Ward said Gonzalez ended up getting 20 years in prison, which was the largest sentence for any hacker in the U.S. at the time. Gonzalez currently remains in prison.

"Doing the podcast actually was like going to therapy for me," Ward joked.

He said no one really knew the whole story, other than his wife Mona. In fact, he said his brothers and mom heard the story for the first time when he sent them the podcast just recently.

Ward said the podcast gives more context about what Secret Service agents actually do, all while putting a humanistic and comedic spin on it.

"Most people think of [agents] like you're in a dark suit, sunglasses, earpiece and whatnot," Ward said. "We work on very serious things and I don't think people realize that the way we deal with it is to be comedic and make fun of things."

In the feedback he has received so far, Ward said a lot of people were surprised to hear about the emotional connection that agents form with informants and that it is not merely a transactional relationship.

Ward said people do not have to have any prior knowledge about cybersecurity to understand the podcast and that it is a very "human story."

He even teased that he may be working with Netflix and HBO to turn it into a series.

Ward is now a Managing Director at Insight — a technology company — where he focuses on investments in cybersecurity. He is also a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard and graduate of Seton Hall University.

"Operation Firewall" can be listened to on Audible. To learn more about the making of the podcast, read narrator Lev-Ram's blog post here.

Have a news tip? Email remy.samuels@patch.com.

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.