Posts Tagged ‘darknet’

What the hell’s going on at Silk Road?

Posted: November 16, 2012 in Drugs, Silk Road
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For two weeks, users of online drugs marketplace Silk Road have been unable to log in to the site more often than not, reporting timeouts, missing catchpas and other technical difficulties.  Millions of dollars in Bitcoin has been inaccessible to the site’s thousands of members and trading has halted.

Where’s my Bitcoins?

The reactions of the community have run the gamut from hopeful acceptance to threats of violence against the site’s owner, admins and other random anonymous people.  Amazon has stocked up on pitchforks and tinfoil hats as speculation on the forum has reached fever pitch.

Here are five of the theories for its temporary demise, in one easily-digestible blog:

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Is Aussie law enforcement using creative techniques on Silk Road?

Posted: October 27, 2012 in Silk Road
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Some time back a report, supposedly commissioned by Qld police, was leaked via the dark web.  Of course, being the dark web, it was impossible to confirm its legitimacy but it was pretty convincing.  The discussion paper ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’ was an extensive critique and response to Silk Road, the online drugs marketplace, well researched and referenced.

Has Australian Customs really become suddenly much more efficient?

The report contained a list of vulnerabilities of Silk Road that could be targeted and came up mostly empty-handed.  This should come as no surprise given the brazenness with which the site continues to operate. The authors concluded that the most strategic tactic law enforcement could use would be ‘undermining user trust’.  This would not involve identification and investigation of users of the site, but rather disruption of the marketplace by becoming ‘trusted’ participants of the site and later undermining confidence and trust in a particular area.

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The problem with Anonymous

Posted: September 4, 2012 in Hacking
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On Friday I wrote an Opinion piece for The Age based on an earlier blog about why I think Australia’s proposed data retention laws are not only an invasion of privacy, they are an expensive measure that simply won’t work.  Today The Age ran a longer journalistic piece about the laws.

This prompted a couple of tweets from the Twitter account that claims to represent the Australian arm of Anonymous:

Tweets by the group claiming to be the Australian arm of Anonymous

This is the same group who claimed responsibility for hacking ASIO earlier this year.  Here’s the pastebin dump of ‘targets’ for hacking that they refer to in the tweets above:

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Things you didn’t know you could buy online – shopping on the Dark Web

Posted: August 19, 2012 in Dark Web
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So, we all know you can buy drugs online, but Silk Road is not the only marketplace on the dark web.  Here’s a few other things you might not have realised you can have for a price.

 

Redecorating?  For $1500 you can buy yourself a genuine shrunken human head.  This, I am assured, is $3500 less than the regular price (bet you didn’t know there was a regular price), but you get the head you’re given, no special requests.   The heads are for decoration; the seller is an artist and “creating them is something of a hobby to me”. (more…)

Is Silk Road’s owner jumping ship?

Posted: August 9, 2012 in Darknet, Drugs, Silk Road, Uncategorized
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Is Silk Road’s owner – The Dread Pirate Roberts – sailing off into the sunset with wads of cash? Has he sold Silk Road as a going concern and included the goodwill of his name and reputation in the price?

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Conversation with a hitman (or not)

Posted: August 3, 2012 in Dark Web, Hitmen, Internet Scams, Silk Road
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This image is probably very copyright to Sony and I’m sorry, but it is really really hard to find an appropriate image. Please don’t fine me, Sony

Today the owner of Silk Road announced the closure of its sister site, the weapons-dealing Armory.  The reason was not heat from law enforcement or negative press, it was simply that the site was not profitable and members complained that many listings were scams.

There are dozens of black market sites selling all manner of things on the Dark Web, but only Silk Road seems to have any real commercial success.  The closure of the Armory raises the question of whether it is the business model or the products that cause a market to fail.  Complaints of scams riddle the dark web and the online black market might not be as successful and prolific as some fear.  Is there something about drugs that inherently make them the only truly viable anonymous online black market product?

As I delved into the Dark Web I noticed a plethora of advertisements for contract killers. I decided to try and engage one of the more prolific advertisers, an organisation that claims to have many successful hits, to kill a fictitious ex-husband.  Here’s what transpired:

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Why proposed internet security measures will do more harm than good

Posted: July 12, 2012 in Dark Web
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Last month I published a piece in The Age about the ‘dark web’ – sites that can only be accessed through anonymity software.

The picture someone decided was totally appropriate and non-hysterical

What became lost beneath graphics of demons emerging from computers was a line I wrote in response to proposed legislative changes that could lead to the web history of any device connected to the internet being logged and retained for up to two years for law enforcement purposes:

“But such measures will have no effect on those who conduct their criminal activities on the Dark Web because nothing is logged — there is no history to keep. And some argue such measures will cause more people to seek out anonymity services — the same services that provide access to the Dark Web.”

In researching that article, I spoke to many people – university professors, a representative of Tor and law enforcement – who agreed that the measures proposed by Roxon are a ‘feel-good bandaid’ rather than an effective tool to catch criminals.

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The Dark Web

Posted: June 1, 2012 in Dark Web
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So The Age surprised me this morning by pulling my latest feature forward because editorial staff were on strike and Management came in and just ran whatever they could find, adding any photos they could find.  Here she is:  The New Underbelly.

What makes me sad is that, judging by most of the comments beneath it, I haven’t done the greatest job of getting my point across, which is this:

- Tor and services like it exist for legitimate and important reasons – i.e. retaining privacy and circumventing censorship

- The third arm of Tor – the Hidden Services – contain sites that most would consider objectionable and very few legitimate sites.  I mentioned what some of them are.

- The government’s suggestions for filters and tracking traffic will have no effect on criminals who know how to use the web and are draconian measures that will only harm regular people.

This commentator got it:

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The Great 420 Scam

Posted: May 30, 2012 in Dark Web, Drugs
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A drug dealer ripping off customers?  The nerve!

Tony76 got to keep the money AND the drugs…

Silk Road, as I reported previously, is the online illicit drug marketplace that has defied law enforcement efforts to close it down.  Last month, Silk Road reported the greatest scam in its fifteen-month history, which cost the site’s users over a hundred thousand dollars in just two days.

Silk Road’s vendors live and die by their reputation and feedback, which buyers give much as they do on eBay.  Nobody on Silk Road had a better reputation or more enthusiastic feedback than Tony76, a vendor of heroin, stimulants and psychedelics from Canada.

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The Drug’s in the Mail

Posted: May 30, 2012 in Dark Web, Drugs
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Below is the full text of an article I wrote for The Age, which was the Focus Feature on 27 April 2012.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/the-drugs-in-the-mail-20120426-1xnth.html

A screenshot from online drugs marketplace Silk Road, taken April 2012

More Australians are buying illegal drugs from internet websites and having them delivered by regular post straight to their door. Eileen Ormsby reports on the new frontier of drug dealing.

IT’S JUST like eBay, complete with vendor feedback, sales, prize giveaways, gift certificates, and escrow and dispute resolution services. But Silk Road doesn’t sell CDs or used clothing – it’s a one-stop, internet shop for illegal drugs. Buyers quoted on the site’s forums say the drugs are cheaper and of higher quality. Customers are also keen on the fact that they no longer have to meet an unknown dealer in a dark alley somewhere.

And the delivery of drugs bought (illegally) on the Silk Road website is not carried out by a typical drug dealer – it’s done by the postman.

A growing number of people in Australia have abandoned traditional channels for buying illicit drugs in favour of purchasing them on Silk Road. Established a little over a year ago, Silk Road has grown from a relatively small operation into a thriving marketplace where consumers of illicit substances can browse listings of everything from prescription drugs to cannabis, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin.

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