Wired : The Rise and Fall of Silk Road

[FnG]magnolia · 15 May 2015 at 23:26

Morning chaps.

There are a couple of very brilliant things going on over at Wired.com right now and both of them are about Silk Road.

Part 1 of the story gives the preface and background for those who don't know the participants and build up.

Whilst Part II concludes, in a way that if you saw it at the movies you would raise an eyebrow, in just layers of disbelief. But it's true.

I read this yesterday and thought some of you may be interested. I have no involvement in the website, the reporters or the book I think they might later try to sell. Hopefully you enjoy it as much as I did.

doofer · 16 May 2015 at 00:11

FarTooLongDidNotReadButThisMadeMeChuckle said:
Ross returned to jail, where, his mother liked to explain, he had been teaching yoga to other prisoners

tbyeah · 16 May 2015 at 00:26

Inneffective, these markets will continue to exist. Silkroad was taken down, many more popped up.

Mynight · 16 May 2015 at 00:48

I won't lie Ive always been a fan of him.

tbyeah · 16 May 2015 at 01:06

Ross Ulbricht (sp)?

Mynight · 16 May 2015 at 01:15

Indeed. Although he turned nasty towards his later years he started with interesting intentions and didn't falter from them.

His arrogance and a rookie error caused his downfall.

I'm a fan to the extent that I find him interesting not that I particually like what he's done.

tbyeah · 16 May 2015 at 01:18

I agree to that extent, and I do find it all very interesting. The fact is, due to his work (and the spinoff markets that have been created in it's downfall), people can access many unsavoury substances, literature, media, and some things much worse anonymously from their own home. Make of that what you will.

Mynight · 16 May 2015 at 01:21

To be fair TOR allowed people to do that long before he appeared.

In some aspects silk road was a good thing as it suppressed these new spin offs that allow trading of much more unsavoury things. Silk Road was extremely restrictive in what you could and couldn't sell. Afaik these new sites do not have such caveats as such the closure of Silk Road has potentially made it a more disturbing market.

I wasn't a user before anyone gets the wrong idea

.

tbyeah · 16 May 2015 at 01:25

Silkroad really raised awareness in a way though, for whatever reason it become infamous.

I don't know how the restrictions on Silkroad worked, but tbf it's just the darknet in general. Some messed up stuff on there, read the report of someone who deliberately trawled through some of the worst of it (including snuff, necrophilia, cp, option D: All of the above). Not nice.

Search "My visits to the darkest sites on the deep web" to find it.

Mynight · 16 May 2015 at 01:31

Basically you could buy and sell drugs. All the reports of guns, illegal porn, assassinations and passports were merely click bait. I had a good look around Silk Road when it was active and I never came across anything like that(it was even in the rules to sign up). If it could cause harm to someone that wasn't willing to participate then it was banned. That sort of stuff is definitly available elsewhere on tor.

I'm not brave (or stupid) enough to wonder around there too long. There's only a couple of sites I've ever visited on the deep web. Always worried I'd stumble upon something that scars me for life

.

tbyeah · 16 May 2015 at 01:33

Mynight said:
Basically you could buy and sell drugs. All the reports of guns, illegal porn, assassinations and passports were merely click bait. I had a good look around Silk Road when it was active and I never came across anything like that. That sort of stuff is definitly available elsewhere on tor.

I'm not brave (or stupid) enough to wonder around there too long. There's only a couple of sites I've ever visited on the deep web. Always worried I'd stumble upon something that scars me for life .

Have a look on the link above; that stuff that may not be available/scam on Silkroad is certainly available on some of the tens of new markets.

And another disclaimer; no I am not some hardened identify thief/drug lord/hitman

Mynight · 16 May 2015 at 01:34

. I'm not 100% sure I want to read it

.

tbyeah · 16 May 2015 at 01:36

Mynight said:
. I'm not 100% sure I want to read it .

It's text only and legal. About as far as I can say in terms of niceties afraid, but I would recommend to read it.

I did find it funny when I had a look through some BBC/similar's articles about the deep web, TOR and markets, and to see how much they had dumbed down

That said, I remember watching quite an interesting video on it somewhere; was a channel like VICE (in that vein).

Mynight · 16 May 2015 at 01:48

Just to double check it was the reddit I was supposed to read via that search?

I just hate that there's a market for these things

. It disgusts me to know they exist let alone stumble upon one.

This is exactly why I laugh at the Internet blocking in the UK. The most disturbing stuff is in an area they both don't understand nor can they touch yet they still continue as though they're fighting the good fight

.

tbyeah · 16 May 2015 at 01:56

Mynight said:
Just to double check it was the reddit I was supposed to read via that search?

I just hate that there's a market for these things . It disgusts me to know they exist let alone stumble upon one.

This is exactly why I laugh at the Internet blocking in the UK. The most disturbing stuff is in an area they both don't understand nor can they touch yet they still continue as though they're fighting the good fight .

Yep, the comments as well have some people who have done similar explorations.

They don't only exist, people will pay vast sums for them (hundreds of pounds for one clip).

And yes, it does seem a bit futile when the worst of the people are using TOR to access... well, the very worst of it. Not to say that TOR doesn't have legitimate uses as well.

Mynight · 16 May 2015 at 02:00

Indeed.

Iirc TOR was started as a way to prevent tracking and censorship of the web which is brilliant but as all things others found a nefarious use for it.

I wonder if it would be possible to both police tor and keep it as it was intended. For example forcing the use of a tor domain name so sites can be taken offline. Obviously the hard part would be operating it outside of any government oversight.

tbyeah · 16 May 2015 at 02:07

Well from my understanding, TOR doesn't hide your activity (can easily be seen at an unencrypted exit node), just completely anonymises it by rebounding/encrypting through the TOR network. When sending info that has to be private, end to end PGP encryption is used as well. It's how many get caught, they send a name or an address in plaintext and it gets linked back to them.

So I suppose that the .onion domains could be taken down, but then again, as the network hasn't yet been cracked, and they also operate over it, they can't be found. On top of that, some of the worst sites (the invite only exclusive ones which host the worst stuff) constantly change domain as well as having a pretty careful ownership and screening process.

So I'd say there's really not much that can be done really, you can't have your cocaine and eat it

E; and yeah, I think was originally developed by US military for whistleblowers etc.

E; if I don't reply until tomorrow morning assume fell asleep, in bed

fez · 16 May 2015 at 11:59

Really fascinating story although the formatting made it twice as hard to read and 3 times as long. Like so many of these investigation stories they seem to follow a pattern.

Certain cop / department decides that that they are going to solve a crime /problem and make out like its super hard but they will manage it because they are good at what they do. Force was going to crack the uncrackable tor network. He doesn't. He catches Ross because of a super simple mistake that he made when he was learning how to program the site.

My gf loves watching murder programs and 90% of them seem to take an hour to explain how these "amazing" cops didn't catch the criminal, let him slip through their fingers for year (quite often because they are retarded) and then finally catch him because he has a tail light out and a body in the car when he is pulled over.

Its just amazing to think how many criminal are out there simply because the authorities are so inept when faced with a competent criminal.

KIA · 16 May 2015 at 12:16

Infosec ain't easy.

Amp34 · 16 May 2015 at 12:42

Mynight said:
Indeed.

Iirc TOR was started as a way to prevent tracking and censorship of the web which is brilliant but as all things others found a nefarious use for it.

I wonder if it would be possible to both police tor and keep it as it was intended. For example forcing the use of a tor domain name so sites can be taken offline. Obviously the hard part would be operating it outside of any government oversight.

Considering the point of Tor was anonymity and essentially breaking the law (whether we agree with that law or not) if we can police it then it's worthless for what it was designed for.

Now Tor has evolved into a much more general tool for anyone that wants a bit more privacy/anonymity in their every day life. Most of the stuff on Tor is not illegal and is just an extension of the normal web, while still serving as a window for whistleblowers and activists to use.

Unfortunately the current british and US governments want to monitor whistleblowers from western nations (to arrest them) while allow whistleblowers from other states to go to us their work... It's hypocracy at best and would just break the whole premise at worse.