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Home , Silk Road (marketplace)

Inside : the takedown of Silk Road

COMMENT Marie-Helen Maras reports on the unexplored underworld of cyberspace AND

SUES The afforded by the documents (e.g. passports, driver’s contraband (ibid). The currency used

IS Internet provides perpetrators licenses, social security cards, and for this, and other similar sites (e.g. with an environment within which utility bills, to name a few) and BlackMarket Reloaded), are .

AL they can operate with a low risk of counterfeit money, as well as to , such as , detection. Nowhere is this more provide a medium for contract killers Namecoin, Litecoin, Peercoin, and pronounced than in Darknet, which to solicit clients. It has also been Ripple, are peer-to-peer is considered the ‘underworld’ used to buy and sell credit card commodities. With cryptocurrencies, TOPIC of cyberspace. Darknet consists information (complete with a user’s no third-party involvement exists in of a collection of non-indexed name, address, phone number, card money exchange; the money is domains; accordingly, these sites verification value, and expiration simply moved between players’ cannot be found using search date), , pirated accounts. Bitcoins are virtually engines like Google or Bing. To software and other copyrighted mined using computers to solve enter Darknet, (the Onion materials, malicious software (or complex algorithms. There are a Router), a privacy-enhancing malware), and computer hacking finite number of Bitcoins. application originally created by services and tools (to gain the USA Naval Research Laboratory, unauthorised access to accounts and Complex algorithm is used. Tor is ‘an anonymous systems). For example, a vendor on a Accordingly, to prevent the timing Internet communication system site in Darknet offered ‘to hack into out of the supply of Bitcoins, after that provides individuals (and Facebook, Twitter, and other social a complex algorithm is solved organisations) with the ability networking accounts of the and a batch of new Bitcoins is to share information and customer’s choosing, so that…[a user ‘virtually unearthed,’ the algorithm communicate over public networks can read, write, delete, upload, and to be solved for the next batch of without compromising their view all of the personal information Bitcoins becomes more complex. privacy’(Maras, 2014). When Tor of a user or users]; another listing This digital currency (and others is used, the ‘user’s Internet traffic offered tutorials on “22 different like it) further enables anonymous is routed through a worldwide methods” for hacking ATM illicit transactions because it is network of volunteer computers machines’ (United States v Ross an unregulated form of currency to conceal the user’s location and William Ulbricht, Criminal and can be cashed out outside of Internet usage’ (United States v Complaint, 2013, 10). regulated banking systems. Ross William Ulbricht, Superseding To conduct transactions on Silk Indictment, 2013, 1). Silk Road: a Darknet site Road, buyers and sellers had to have A high profile case that brought at least one Bitcoin address There are legitimate uses for, and worldwide attention to Darknet was associated with an account on the users of, Tor. Specifically, it has been the taking down of Silk Road by site. Bitcoins are purchased from a and is being used ‘by journalists, the Federal Bureau of Investigation Bitcoin exchanger and sent to the activists and campaigners in the USA (FBI). Silk Road, a Bitcoin address associated with the and Europe as well as in China, Iran site in Darknet, offered a variety of Silk Road account. If a buyer makes and Syria, to maintain the privacy controlled substances for sale and a purchase on Silk Road, the Bitcoins of their communications and avoid purchase, including (but not limited are transferred to an escrow account reprisals from [their respective] to): heroin, , amphetamines, on Silk Road. When the transaction government[s]’ (Ball et al., 2013). ecstasy, and cannabis. Silk Road is completed, the Bitcoins are This article examines the illicit enabled individuals to buy drugs transferred from the Silk Road escrow use of Tor and Darknet: looking in anonymously anywhere in the world, account to the Bitcoin address particular at Silk Road. Following as long as these individuals were associated with the Silk Road this, it explores the investigation of using anonymising software and account of the seller. To protect the Silk Road and the implications of the knew the exact address of the site. anonymity of these transactions, Silk arrest of the site’s administrator. This site also enabled users anywhere Road uses a ‘tumbler’ which sends Darknet has been used to buy in the world to buy and sell false ‘all payments through a complex, and sell drugs, weapons, counterfeit identifications and other forms of semi-random series of dummy

22 ©2013 Centre for Crime and Justice Studies 10.1080/09627251.2014.984541 transactions…making it nearly respect to the latter charge, Ulbricht services continued. The impossible to link…[a] payment with engaged in a continuing criminal administrators of Silk Road 2.0 were any coins leaving the site’ (United enterprise ‘in concert with at least also subsequently arrested. Despite States v Ross William Ulbricht, five other persons with respect to the recent arrests, the privacy Criminal Complaint, 2013, 14). whom Ulbricht occupied a position enhancing technologies used and the

of organiser, a supervisory position, anonymity afforded to users of COMMENT The end of Silk Road and a position of management, and Darknet has made the targeting of The administrator of Silk Road, Ross from which such continuing series of lawbreakers in this forum particularly

William Ulbricht (aka Pirate violations Ulbricht obtained challenging for authorities. The same AND Roberts), was arrested in October substantial income and resources’ holds true for terrorists seeking to use 2013. As the administrator, Ulbricht (United States v Ross William this forum. Darknet sites have been was responsible for the: management Ulbricht, Indictment, 2014, 5-6). used by terrorists to communicate SUES of administration staff; control of Silk Ulbricht was charged under the undetected, distribute propaganda, Road server infrastructure; control Continuing Criminal Enterprise obtain supplies for operations, and IS of Silk Road policies; and control Statute of 1970 (otherwise known as raise funds for malicious activity. over the proceeds of Silk Road the Kingpin Statute), a law Apart from anecdotal evidence, AL sales (United States v Ross William commonly used to target the heads (Hutson and Miller, 2010), the nature Ulbricht, Criminal Complaint, 2013, of large-scale drug trafficking and extent of these occurrences

16-21). Essentially, he controlled all operations. To protect his criminal remains largely unknown. In fact, TOPIC aspects of Silk Road and provided enterprise, Ulbricht even solicited little is known about Darknet and its a platform to users for the buying murder-for-hire for those he believed potential uses; research in this area is and selling of illicit substances, posed a threat to him (ibid). also largely absent. What’s more, the goods, and services, for which he number of Darknet sites and received commissions in the tens of The aftermath: conclusions individuals using these sites is millions of dollars (United States v and recommendations unknown. Research concerning Ross William Ulbricht, Superseding This Silk Road investigation provided Darknet is required to fill this gap in Indictment, 2013; United States v a wealth of data on the inner- available research and provide much Ross William Ulbricht, Indictment, workings of the site and transactions needed information on black market 2013, 2 and 6). occurring through the site. operations in the predominately In , Maryland, Ulbricht Additionally, it provided information unexplored underworld of was charged with ‘knowingly and on how buyers and sellers were cyberspace. n unlawfully combined, conspired, concealing illicit activity. For confederated and agreed with instance, the Wikipedia entry for Silk Dr Marie-Helen Maras is Associate Professor, others…to distribute and possess Road contained both a Buyer’s Guide John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York with intent to distribute controlled and a Seller’s Guide containing substances’ and attempted murder of information on how to avoid References a former employee (United States v detection by authorities (United Ross William Ulbricht, Superseding States v Ross William Ulbricht, Ball, J., Schneier, B. and Greenwald, G. Indictment, 3 and 10). Ulbricht was Criminal Complaint, 2013, 11). The (2013), ‘NSA and GCHQ target Tor network that protects anonymity of web also charged in New York with Buyer’s Guide instructed potential users’, , 14 October. conspiracy ‘to violate the narcotics buyers of items on Silk Road to have laws of the United States,’ by, for the items sent to a different address Hutson, B. and Miller, M. (2010), Beware the Darknet, Durham: Procysive example, distributing and possessing from their own and to subsequently Corporation, http://bit.ly/1nvwGd5 ‘with the intent to distribute ‘transport [the item] discreetly to its Maras, M-H. (2014), Computer Forensics: controlled substances’ and the final destination’ (ibid). The Seller’s Cybercriminals, Laws and Evidence, 2nd delivering, distributing, and Guide instructed sellers on Silk edition, Burlington, MA: Jones and dispensing of ‘controlled substances Road on how to avoid detection by Bartlett, p.297. by means of the Internet’ (United electronic sniffers or dogs by vacuum United States v Ross William Ulbricht, States v Ross William Ulbricht, sealing packages containing drugs Criminal Complaint, Sworn Statement of Indictment, 2014, 2). (ibid). FBI agent Christopher Tarbell, (NY, Ulbricht was also charged in New When the administrator of Silk Southern District Court of NY, 2013). York with: Road was arrested, many sites like United States v Ross William Ulbricht, conspiracy; computer hacking Silk Road existed in Darknet, each Indictment, No 14 CR 068 (NY, Southern conspiracy; conspiracy to murder a offering similar illicit substances, District Court of NY, 2014). witness; and continuing criminal goods and services. Furthermore, United States v Ross William Ulbricht, enterprise (United States v Ross after Silk Road was shut down, it was Superseding Indictment, No CCB-13- William Ulbricht, Criminal soon replaced by Silk Road 2.0, 0222, slip op (MD, District Court in Complaint, 2013; United States v where the illicit purchasing of Baltimore County, MD, 2013). Ross William Ulbricht, 2014). With controlled substances, goods, and

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