FBI seizes black market website Silk Road, arrests its founder

newarkhiphop

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Light just reached one of the darker corners of the web: the FBI has seized Silk Road, a site infamous for hosting anonymized, Bitcoin-based drug and gun sales. The move follows a sting operation that also led to the arrest of site founder Ross Ulbricht (aka Dread Pirate Roberts) for alleged hacking, money laundering and narcotics trafficking. While the seizure isn't likely to stop online contraband purchases, it's potentially a big blow. At current Bitcoin values, Silk Road generated $1.2 billion in revenue from just two years of operation -- the kind of cash that we'd expect from a large, legitimate e-commerce venture. The FBI's move also demonstrates that anonymizing technologylike Tor won't always keep law enforcement at bay.
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http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/02/fbi-seizes-black-market-site-silk-road/

Smh I knew it was over after he did that rolling Stone interview last month
 
Bud Bundy

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once the general public knows about a black market site you might as well paint a target on your site.
 
yaga

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DexterMorgan said:
I stopped fukkin with Tor feds know how to track that shyt now
Click to expand...

That's not true.

They attacked some specific users of some hidden services.

Disable JavaScript (should be off by default), and if you're using the browser bundle just make sure it's the latest release.

You should also be relaying traffic while you're browsing.
 
irishfury

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http://www.scribd.com/doc/172768269/Ulbricht-Criminal-Complaint

Interesting things from the document so far:

  • Cryptography was really good, and the complaint states that the TOR network makes it "practically impossible" to trace users.

  • The tumbler worked. It "frustrates attempts to track transactions back to the blockchain and makes it practically impossible to trace users."

  • There were 9 MILLION bitcoins worth of transactions that passed through the system over time.

  • The server was in a foreign country. The report does not say where.

  • There were 957k registered silkroad accounts.

  • 146k unique buyer accounts.

  • It's unstated from when the investigation started, but they received a complete copy of the Silk Road web server on the 23rd of July 2013. This was all done under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, which implies that they had access to current site information up until the point they shut the site down.

  • This included user account and transaction information. It's unclear whether or not this covers addresses and other sensitive transaction information. **This also apparently covers at least 60 days worth of messages from the period where the site was copied. It seems from the information, PGP messages were probably ok given that the document said PGP makes it practically impossible to trace the users.

  • Silkroad maintained a small staff of admins, it wasn't just DPR.

  • It is not certain that PGP worked for DPR, they have messages between the staff and DPR from "forensic analysis of the server." Unless he was not using PGP.

  • DPR solicited murder for hire. Someone was able to obtain thousands of usernames, passwords, and personal info of silkroad users. It is assumed the feds have this, because they speak about the sample messages of names that the hacker sent. As a result, DPR attempted to have him killed. It is not known if the guy ever was indeed killed.

  • The silk road was basically made from the shroomery.com, it was the first place he visited. They traced him by finding his old posts on various forums where he advertised it, not as the owner, just saying "I found this site, what do you think about it?"

  • They caught Ross Ulbricht through simple web sleuthing and a few subpoenas.

  • He did his web administrating from an internet cafe on Laguna Street in San Fransisco.

  • Canada intercepted fake ID's going to his home. This was used to match with fake ID requests.

  • For all the money he made, he lived in a small apartment with room mates for under 1000 a month.

  • Here is the blockchain transaction for the "hit":http://blockchain.info/en/tx/4a0a5b6036c0da84c3eb9c2a884b6ad72416d1758470e19fb1d2fa2a145b5601

  • youtube URL: http://www.youtube.com/user/ohyeaross

  • Interview between him and a friend:

  • The site where he made his first mistake and gave out his email address in PMs with his name.https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?P...0ff1reoduo8j6&topic=47811.msg568744#msg568744
 
Liu Kang

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irishfury said:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/172768269/Ulbricht-Criminal-Complaint

Interesting things from the document so far:

  • Cryptography was really good, and the complaint states that the TOR network makes it "practically impossible" to trace users.

  • The tumbler worked. It "frustrates attempts to track transactions back to the blockchain and makes it practically impossible to trace users."

  • There were 9 MILLION bitcoins worth of transactions that passed through the system over time.

  • The server was in a foreign country. The report does not say where.

  • There were 957k registered silkroad accounts.

  • 146k unique buyer accounts.

  • It's unstated from when the investigation started, but they received a complete copy of the Silk Road web server on the 23rd of July 2013. This was all done under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, which implies that they had access to current site information up until the point they shut the site down.

  • This included user account and transaction information. It's unclear whether or not this covers addresses and other sensitive transaction information. **This also apparently covers at least 60 days worth of messages from the period where the site was copied. It seems from the information, PGP messages were probably ok given that the document said PGP makes it practically impossible to trace the users.

  • Silkroad maintained a small staff of admins, it wasn't just DPR.

  • It is not certain that PGP worked for DPR, they have messages between the staff and DPR from "forensic analysis of the server." Unless he was not using PGP.

  • DPR solicited murder for hire. Someone was able to obtain thousands of usernames, passwords, and personal info of silkroad users. It is assumed the feds have this, because they speak about the sample messages of names that the hacker sent. As a result, DPR attempted to have him killed. It is not known if the guy ever was indeed killed.

  • The silk road was basically made from the shroomery.com, it was the first place he visited. They traced him by finding his old posts on various forums where he advertised it, not as the owner, just saying "I found this site, what do you think about it?"

  • They caught Ross Ulbricht through simple web sleuthing and a few subpoenas.

  • He did his web administrating from an internet cafe on Laguna Street in San Fransisco.

  • Canada intercepted fake ID's going to his home. This was used to match with fake ID requests.

  • For all the money he made, he lived in a small apartment with room mates for under 1000 a month.

  • Here is the blockchain transaction for the "hit":http://blockchain.info/en/tx/4a0a5b6036c0da84c3eb9c2a884b6ad72416d1758470e19fb1d2fa2a145b5601

  • youtube URL: http://www.youtube.com/user/ohyeaross

  • Interview between him and a friend:

  • The site where he made his first mistake and gave out his email address in PMs with his name.https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?P...0ff1reoduo8j6&topic=47811.msg568744#msg568744
Click to expand...

Interesting.
Can we conclude that he only got caught because he used his real name once ? Or was it just a matter of time for him to be got ?
 
concise

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irishfury said:
  • The silk road was basically made from the shroomery.com, it was the first place he visited. They traced him by finding his old posts on various forums where he advertised it, not as the owner, just saying "I found this site, what do you think about it?"
Click to expand...

:heh: This is like when people ask about advice for their "friends/cousins".
 
Adam3000

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Bu...bu...bu...bitcoin is an awesome investment opportunity, even after the bubble pops it still has the Silk Road to hold its value :lupe:
 
p00rky

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LOL, I was on that site but I didn't buy any drugs though. Blackmarket Reloaded is the only marketplace worth going to now
 
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