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Silk Road 2.0 and 400 other sites believed to be selling illegal items including drugs and weapons have been shut down. The sites operated on the Tor network - a part of the internet unreachable via traditional search engines. The joint operation between 16 European countries and the US saw 17 arrests.
Although details of how the sites were identified are not given, it does suggest that software now exists that removes the veil that behind which the DarkNet once hid. Any Soylentils have any ideas of how this might be achieved? This story might be the clue.
More information can be found here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29950946
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Huge Raid to Shut Down 400-plus DarkNet Sites
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Tax reform means "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind
the tree."
-- Russell Long
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 10 2014, @01:33PM
And the way to do this is relatively easy. They set up an address that wouldn't otherwise receive mail and they order their items to be sent to that address. They then alert USPS, UPS, etc... to tell them if they receive a package intended for this destination. If they do it pops up on the computer and the feds get alerted about which post office first received the package. Then they know that whoever dropped that package off did so within the jurisdiction of this post office. They then order another package and continue their investigation from there.
What the online drug cartels might be able to do is try to drop their packages at different locations. Then it becomes a game of cat and mouse
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday November 10 2014, @04:13PM
Yeah, they really don't have to do anything special there. I too get alerted whenever UPS picks up a package destined for my address. Doesn't cost me anything, just have to register with their app. When my dad sent me his laptop to fix a while back, it popped right up with the UPS store where he made the shipment. Then the cops just go to that store and ask for a record of who made the purchase. If they paid cash, you pull up the store surveillance video. How hard is that?
Of course, that all depends what's being ordered. If it's small enough to fit in a regular mail envelope that can be dropped in any box on the street...that might need something more complicated.
But that's just to track the sellers. My understanding was that Silk Road was more of a marketplace for others to sell stuff. Unless the admin was stupid enough to be selling things themselves (which is not at all unlikely) those tricks wouldn't work to shut down the site as a whole.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 10 2014, @04:49PM
True but how are the admins making money? Bitcoins? Even if so bitcoins can be traced to some extent. At some point those bitcoins need to eventually be turned into real money or property or something valuable and they can trace that.
and who's paying the admins their money? Advertisers? They can trace who advertisers are sending money to and investigate from there.
Do the users or sellers pay the admins a fee? How is that money being paid? They can trace that. Even if it's through bitcoins they can trace who's exchanging bitcoins for bank funds or cash (if you are exchanging bitcoins directly for cash then who's giving you the cash? A fed? Someone working or being subpenaed by the feds?). It's not like you can buy a house with bitcoins and no one will notice. The feds will notice if you suddenly have a nice house in your name with no job. How are you paying for this? Bitcoins? Where are you getting these bitcoins and what are you doing to get them?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 10 2014, @04:54PM
and if the sellers pay an admin fee the feds can set themselves up as a seller and try to trace where the funds are going. They can send themselves a package, pay for it, and continue their investigation from there.