Silk Road forums
Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: rx4200 on August 02, 2012, 12:59 am
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Australian Law Enforcement: Use Silk Road At Your Peril
No one would mind a Silk Road for hugs.
By Steve Huff 7/27 2:08pm
http://betabeat.com/2012/07/australian-law-enforcement-use-silk-road-at-your-peril/
Australian authorities have put supposedly anonymized users surfing Silk Road for weed and other sundries on notice: the coppers are one step ahead of you. A joint press release published by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Customs and Border Protection Service on Wednesday may serve as notice to anyone who is happily booting TOR and using the miracle of the Internet to score weapons-grade kush:
Silk Road is an overseas based illicit e-commerce website which facilitates the sale of drugs, weapons and other items prohibited under Australian law.
Law enforcement is well aware of this method of drug procurement and other illicit e-commerce platforms and are committed to identifying and combating users importing narcotics via this website into Australia.
This warning comes after a Melbourne resident was snagged for allegedly using Silk Road to transport unspecified narcotics into the country.
The most interesting part of the release might be a quote from customs official Alana Sullivan, who said, “Persons who buy or sell through online market places, on so-called ‘anonymous’ networks should understand that they are not guaranteed anonymity.”
Ms. Sullivan’s words may be a splash of cold water in the faces of TOR users and Silk Road consumers around the world, or at least in the United States and Europe. If Aussie cops know where your Bitcoins go, who is to say American or European authorities are in the dark?
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http://www.cso.com.au/article/431755/aussie_cops_silk_road_tor_anonymity_guaranteed_/
Aussie cops: Silk Road TOR anonymity 'not guaranteed'
We monitor Aussie buyers and sellers on Silk Road, says maritime cargo watcher.
Liam Tung (CSO Online (Australia))— 26 July, 2012 09:42( 7 Comments ).There is no guarantee of anonymity for Australian buyers and sellers of illicit drugs on the TOR-encrypted e-commerce platform Silk Road, according to the Australian Federal Police and Australian Customers and Border Protection.
The pair released a joint statement Wednesday pointing to the arrest of one Melbourne man who allegedly imported narcotics via Silk Road.
“Criminals are attempting to exploit the international mail system through online networks, but the recent arrest demonstrates that we are one step ahead of them,” said AFP Manager Crime Operations Peter Sykora.
Sykora said it was aware Silk Road was operated from an offshore location, but warned Australian users were within the reach of the AFP’s powers.
The site can only be accessed via TOR, which masks IP address details that could otherwise be stored by an ISP and associated with a user account. Silk Road trade relies on the virtual currency BitCoin for transactions.
Alana Sullivan, acting national of Custom’s cargo and maritime targeting branch, said it monitors Silk Road along with other illicit-drug sites and was aware of the Australian presence on Silk Road as both sellers and buyers.
“Persons who buy or sell through online market places, on so-called ‘anonymous’ networks should understand that they are not guaranteed anonymity,” said Sullivan.
The statement follows a recent comment by Chris McDonald, an associate professor in computer science at the University of Western Australia and Dartmouth College in the US, that the federal government has “no chance of beating” TOR encryption, The Age reported in in April.
Law enforcement may not be able to beat TOR’s encryption. However, it did not prevent US authorities in April arresting eight men accused of operating The Farmer’s Market -- another service that used the TOR anonymiser to facilitate trade. Undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents had infiltrated the organisation after becoming trusted buyers over several years of investigation.
There were no Australian arrests, however the indictment pointed to funds funnelled through that operation that were sourced from Australia via Western Union.
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Ahhh Australia is pretending it's smarter than it is again I see.
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lol
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Ahhh Australia is pretending it's smarter than it is again I see.
Australian Authorities are pretending they're smarter than they are again. Don't tar as all with that brush...
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No the smart thing that AQIS and Customs do is not tell you when they have intercepted your international mail. They also don't tell you that every address that has goods that are seized is databased and subjected to immediate scanning when any other piece of mail is sent to it.
But what they don't want to tell you is that only 0.03% of all mail each year is searched and seized. So the chance of getting caught is slim in the first place. You want to increase your chances of not getting caught? Don't get it delivered to your house for a start. Perhaps get it delivered somewhere else.
<Insert ad for mailbox master key here or tell people to look at my sig.>
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I think it's very important to make a clarification that this person wasn't arrested for using Silk Road per se - as in viewing, checking out goods, reading reviews, browsing etc.; they were arrested for importing narcotics, and either a) not having the common sense to utilise full disk encryption / any other frequently discussed safety-net-in-case-of-future-arrest method, or b) if they did utilise encryption, giving up their password for that, and possibly for their SR account.
This is simply a case of stupidity / carelessness; nothing more, nothing less.
It is an injustice that this person was arrested for buying drugs, but they don't have my sympathy - we live in very dangerous times where our personal freedoms are concerned; unfortunately, until a time comes when we are able to shoot down the laws that restrict and choke those freedoms, we have to take the necessary precautions to ensure that we remain protected from injustice. We live in an unjust world. Protecting our freedom is paramount. This individual was unfortunately unwilling to take the time to learn to do so.
Let this be a wake-up call to those of you who are also lax about your security. We operate outside the law, and by doing so, though it is unjust, we substantially increase our personal risk relative to someone who operates within the confines of the law - you must protect yourselves; nobody else is going to do it for you. Learn PGP. Learn how to effectively utilise encryption. Learn how to be truly anonymous. Learn how to protect your freedom.
In today's world of technological efficiency we have more time than ever to dedicate to protecting ourselves - but because we're so used to things being instant, taking an hour or two to learn how to protect ourselves, to many, seems like "too long". Freedom IS a natural right, not a privilege. A natural right, in a natural, equal world, cannot be taken away from you. Unfortunately, the system we live under deems the opposite to be true. To the propagators of this system, our freedom is a privilege bestowed upon us by them, which they feel they have the right to rip away from us when they consider us to be behaving inappropriately. We no longer live in a natural, equal world.
We must ensure that that system cannot take away our freedom. Arm yourselves with knowledge. It is the best weapon you will ever possess.
- grahamgreene