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179 arrested in 'Operation DisrupTor' dark web drug takedown:
A massive international law enforcement operation has led to the arrests of 179 dark web drug traffickers who sold opioids and other illicit goods and services across Europe and the US. The investigators part of JCODE, an FBI-led multi—agency Department of Justice initiative, worked with Europol over a period of nine months under the project called Operation DisrupTor.
They started their investigation after authorities took down Wall Street Market in May 2019, leading to the downfall of one of the biggest marketplaces for drugs and counterfeits on the dark web. Wall Street Market served more than 1.15 million customers. According to the Justice Department, law enforcement agencies obtained the intelligence they needed to identify dark web drug traffickers from the Wall Street Market operation. That set off a series of "complementary, but separate" investigations.
Of the 179 arrests, 121 were made in the US, 42 in Germany, eight in the Netherlands, four in the UK, three in Austria and one in Sweden. The DOJ expects more to follow as investigators work on ongoing cases to identify more online drug traffickers. In addition, authorities were also able to seize over $6.5 million in cash and virtual currencies, 63 firearms and 500 kilograms of drugs worldwide. A total of 274 kilos of fentanyl, oxycodone, hydrocodone, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, MDMA and medicine containing addictive substances were seized in the US.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday September 24 2020, @10:58PM (2 children)
'Operation DisrupTor': we can track you through Tor.
We've been notified [soylentnews.org] that this can happen (and the editors may well link that story at the end of this one)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 25 2020, @09:58AM (1 child)
Corporations with router level taps into the internet backbone have been able to identify hidden services on Tor via their traffic flow for at least 5-10 years now. The Tor project has known about it and either blown it off or covered it up as their current 'we need more donations' desire elicits, not unlike Mozilla and it's combination of non-profit mismanagement and technical incompetence (or maliciousness?) has engendered.
If you're using Tor, traffic analysis is a large threat, the change to selecting 'least congested' circuits has increased the surveillance risk in order to improve 'consumer uptake' at the expense of security, and traffic flow analysis of both normal tor activity as well as obfsv4 activity is both identifiable and fingerprintable making its use a serious threat to all the foreign parties who might rely on it to keep them safe from their domestic surveillance.
Citation: https://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/archives/896-Tor-0day-Finding-IP-Addresses.html [hackerfactor.com]
For the record I2P is not any better. The same or worse corruption for donation scandal is going on, plus what is left of the IRC network is mostly run by actual alt-right types, with a few sjws left in the key leadership.
The whole privacy network concept has essentially failed now, as the cryptoanarchists who started them went legit, corporate, od'd, or got arrested for a variety of crimes. The few projects that are left are all run by individuals who have ranted about either violating the privacy of other networks (Tor, I2P, etc) or discussed how privacy doesn't matter when it's speech/content they don't like. Tread carefully if you choose to use a privacy network online in this day and age. None of them are trustworthy, and layering enough of them to provide any actual protection is difficult if not impossible without an existing network of trusted individuals to rely upon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 25 2020, @07:14PM
loki.network looks good to me.