Silk Road forums
Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: ghostcat on August 10, 2012, 06:09 am
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Sorry if this has already been posted - http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/dark-net-drug-deals-boom-on-cyber-silk-road-20120809-23wdj.html
Underground online drug marketplace Silk Road is doing an estimated $22 million a year in sales but, in light of evidence of its growing popularity among Australians, police and customs officials are starting to crack down.
Silk Road - started by "Dread Pirate Roberts" in February last year - functions like a black market version of eBay, complete with vendor feedback, dispute resolution and sales promotions. Cocaine and ecstasy sell for a quarter of Australian street prices, while other drugs such as cannabis and prescription medication are also shipped worldwide.
The Australian Federal Police recently arrested a Melbourne man for allegedly importing drugs into Australia via Silk Road, which operates in the so-called "dark net" or "hidden web". He was charged with 10 offences relating to the importation, trafficking and possession of narcotics and prohibited weapons, and is due to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on October 24.
In May the AFP and Customs seized 120 kilograms of illicit substances imported into Australia via the postal system during a three-month targeted operation. They arrested 25 people around the country. Another 12 people were arrested in Mount Isa in Queensland in June, also for importing drugs through the postal system.
The AFP is so concerned about the number of Australians using the site that it recently made a joint announcement with Customs warning Silk Road users "their identity will not always remain anonymous and when caught, they will be prosecuted".
But Nigel Phair, a former cyber cop turned computer security consultant, who has just secured funding from the National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund to look into the online drugs trade, says police need to make huge changes if they are going to make a dent in the problem.
Carnegie Mellon computer security professor Nicolas Christin spent more than six months performing daily analysis of Silk Road for a research paper. He found that use of the site has been growing and the total revenue made by its over 500 active sellers was about $US1.9 million per month, while $US143,000 a month goes to the operators of the site as commission.
Christin estimates there are up to 150,000 customers of Silk Road who bought 24,422 items between February 3 and July 24 this year. Cannabis is the most popular item on the site, and despite the anonymity underpinning the service and lack of legal recourse if you get ripped off, Christin found that for 96.5 per cent of items buyers left a five out of five feedback rating.
There is evidence that the site is increasingly popular with Australians, according to National Drug Research Institute research fellow Monica Barratt, who told Fairfax Media recently that it highlighted the futility of trying to stamp out drugs through law enforcement.
"Drug use and the demand for drug use isn't changing, so if for some reason Silk Road is suppressed or removed, there will just be another supply channel pop up," she said.
Users can only access the service using software called Tor, which purports to offer online anonymity by masking the user's location and identifying details. Payment is made using the encrypted - but volatile - digital currency Bitcoin.
"There is a perception among many law enforcement and regulatory agencies that it is all too hard to conduct investigations involving Tor, so never start," said Phair.
"There needs to be much more training of general investigators in conducting technical lines of inquiry, including the purchase of forensic discovery equipment if we [as a jurisdiction] are going to make a dent in this problem."
But since drugs are delivered by the post, anyone who uses Silk Road runs the risk of their parcel being intercepted by Customs and Border Protection and the AFP.
It is not clear how many of the billions of parcels handled by Australia Post get scanned each year and Christin found that most sellers use techniques to make package inspection unlikely, such as vacuum sealing or "professional looking" envelopes with typed destination addresses. But police believe they are making a difference.
While it is not an offence to access the Silk Road website, the AFP said anyone who imported border controlled drugs faced a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and/or a $825,000 fine.
"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.
"The AFP will continue to identify, investigate and prosecute individuals or groups importing narcotics into Australia, including via illicit e-commerce platforms such as Silk Road."
Alana Sullivan, acting national manager in the Customs cargo and maritime targeting branch, said Customs monitored illicit e-commerce platforms including Silk Road and was aware of the Australian presence on the site as both sellers and buyers.
"Persons who buy or sell through online marketplaces on so-called 'anonymous' networks should understand that they are not guaranteed anonymity," Sullivan said.
But it is understood that authorities have difficulty identifying the source websites linked to seizures (such as Silk Road) due to the fact that intercepted parcels often do not have identifying features.
Police rely on finding documentary or forensic evidence to link a seizure to a particular site, or an admission by the offender on arrest, which is not always forthcoming.
US authorities have shut down another anonymous drug trade site, the Farmer's Market, and in April indicted its eight owners. Farmer's Market was much smaller than Silk Road is now, doing about $1 million in sales between January 2007 and October 2009. It also used less-than-anonymous PayPal and Western Union for payment as opposed to the encrypted Bitcoins.
But Phair, whose report on the online drug trade will be completed in 12 months, said he believed "the problem will continue to grow as it is perceived as a safe and secure method to buy and sell illicit drugs".
The AFP says it does not have jurisdiction to investigate websites based overseas, so it is unlikely to be able to shut down Silk Road.
It said it could refer matters for investigation to overseas counterparts but could not compel them to act.
Yep surprise surprise, they still know about us... clearly their ability to stop us is laughable and they're still resorting to these scare tactics...
Fuck them all.
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Because Ben Grubb and I spend all our time sucking each others cocks, we have little time to write anything but sensationalist articles.
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Must be a slow news day in Australia, no gold medals to write about so SR gets another article.
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Also worth noting in the article.
"Police rely on finding documentary or forensic evidence to link a seizure to a particular site, or an admission by the offender on arrest, which is not always forthcoming".
Don't open your mouth!
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Though it is a good advertisement for SR. No such thing as bad publicity.
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Also worth noting in the article.
"Police rely on finding documentary or forensic evidence to link a seizure to a particular site, or an admission by the offender on arrest, which is not always forthcoming".
Don't open your mouth!
EXACTLY. Keep your mouth shut and house clean, and we'll all be fine. As long as you are using TOR properly, there will be no linking documentary evidence for them.
FUCK YOU L.E
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"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.
The arrogance and stupidity of law enforcement never ceases to amuse me. They're not 'one step ahead' of us, they're three steps behind, with no trail to go on. Even a stupid cop finds drugs every once in a while.
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Auessie authorities must completely hate SR. it makes it so Australian people can get drugs for a fraction of the price.
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All they did was give the rest of the populas a massive bread crumb on where to easily obtain drugs.
Sounds like a success story
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Just like the article in the paper in qld , and the news report they did on tv not long ago..
They tell everyone exactly how to get here , and that its a losing battle for the cops.... and they wonder why there is a shitload of Australians on here!
I still dont know if its a good or bad thing that more and more people will be coming on here ... more people will mean more affordable Aussie vendors with a bigger range of products ... but will also bring more police attention
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More interesting and strange than I thought at first glance. Aussies in Wonderland.
The Australian Federal Police recently arrested a Melbourne man for allegedly importing drugs into Australia via Silk Road, which operates in the so-called "dark net" or "hidden web". He was charged with 10 offences relating to the importation, trafficking and possession of narcotics and prohibited weapons, and is due to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on October 24.
The term "darknet" is not a term we invented. It's an academic term. It's a poor descriptor whose ethnology has changed over time, but I'm not sure what's "so-called" about it. Looks like some of your "so-called" research for this article.
In May the AFP and Customs seized 120 kilograms of illicit substances imported into Australia via the postal system during a three-month targeted operation. They arrested 25 people around the country. Another 12 people were arrested in Mount Isa in Queensland in June, also for importing drugs through the postal system.
Nothing to do with SR for sure. The quantity and no. of arrests doesn't fit the model. SR vendors mostly employ swarm techniques due to economics and good sense.
By the way, Australians seem to think AFP are big shots for some reason. This is an organization who only recently established a fingerprint sharing program last year. The technology has been around for a century and you guys are only getting your shit together, and barely at that, in 20 fucking 12. Proper detective work I can respect, but this is just sloppy organizational ability.
But Nigel Phair, a former cyber cop turned computer security consultant, who has just secured funding from the National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund to look into the online drugs trade, says police need to make huge changes if they are going to make a dent in the problem.
Cyber cop! Cyber cop! Like RoboCop or Judge Dread! Wait. Really? Unless his job experience lists the PRC as an employer I think this is basically a whiteknight civilian who discovered 4chan or something.
"There is a perception among many law enforcement and regulatory agencies that it is all too hard to conduct investigations involving Tor, so never start," said Phair.
"There needs to be much more training of general investigators in conducting technical lines of inquiry, including the purchase of forensic discovery equipment if we [as a jurisdiction] are going to make a dent in this problem."
'forensic discovery' equipment, I have an glimmer of an intuition, he is not referring to something like cold boot attacks or HD forensics, all of which is run of the mill stuff for any comms forensics lab in existence , I am thinking this may be of a targeted adversarial nature like the hilariously and obviously illegal German implementation. They could think to get the drop on us so they may try to get funky. They're not used to people shoving back. This could be entertaining, because if they play dirty they'll get far more than they bargained for. You are not up against a largely soft power oriented collective like Anonymous with relatively short powers of concentration, you are up against the crypto-anarchists with a wealth of resources you can't even pronounce and a serious grudge with the assumptions of the State. Just because many believe in NAP doesn't make us a soft target. The state coordinates itself by means of being one giant central hierarchical entity. We don't. We'd only need to ever get past a threshold just once, and it'll be a digital massacre.
But since drugs are delivered by the post, anyone who uses Silk Road runs the risk of their parcel being intercepted by Customs and Border Protection and the AFP.
It is not clear how many of the billions of parcels handled by Australia Post get scanned each year and Christin found that most sellers use techniques to make package inspection unlikely, such as vacuum sealing or "professional looking" envelopes with typed destination addresses. But police believe they are making a difference.
That's what's important. Yep.
While it is not an offence to access the Silk Road website, the AFP said anyone who imported border controlled drugs faced a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and/or a $825,000 fine.
Ha, guess LE Aussies aren't familiar with the concept of blowback. These kinds of laws are absurd even to the most conservative conservatives because at that rate the death penalty is more humane. You might as well say "Y'all gonna get jailed for a million gazillion bajllion quintillion years with nuttin' but a television that shows only reruns of 'I Love Lucy'" for all the sense that makes. Throw in eternal torment and a gulag while you're at it. Unless of course your 20-somethings have almost a million AU dollars in their back pockets.
"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.
I think my jaw just dropped open of its own accord.
"The AFP will continue to identify, investigate and prosecute individuals or groups importing narcotics into Australia, including via illicit e-commerce platforms such as Silk Road."
Not too well read either. Narcotics are drugs like codeine, heroin, opium, morphine etc i.e. the opiates. Not cocaine, weed, MDMA etc
The vast majority of drugs SR sells are not narcotics. Guess we're mostly off the hook then.
Alana Sullivan, acting national manager in the Customs cargo and maritime targeting branch, said Customs monitored illicit e-commerce platforms including Silk Road and was aware of the Australian presence on the site as both sellers and buyers.
"Persons who buy or sell through online marketplaces on so-called 'anonymous' networks should understand that they are not guaranteed anonymity," Sullivan said.
They're like your parents. They just know man. They just do. So you better 'fess up now or you'll be in even more trouble later.
What kind of fucking pop psychology is this? You are 'aware' of us? You are 'cognizant' of our presence?
Yeah.
Could be. I mean, it is kind of your fucking job.
But it is understood that authorities have difficulty identifying the source websites linked to seizures (such as Silk Road) due to the fact that intercepted parcels often do not have identifying features.
whatisthisIdonteven.jpg
Police rely on finding documentary or forensic evidence to link a seizure to a particular site, or an admission by the offender on arrest, which is not always forthcoming.
No fucking shit Mr Tell_me_everything_so_I'll_lock_ya_away_for_the_rest_of_your_natural_life_and_give_you_a_fine_too, sir.
If you weren't incommunicado your lawyer/public defender's next step is to obtain a certification of insanity or mental retardation for yours truly.
Even Topix knows you STFU. Topix. Pine has actually said a good word about it. I think they evolved that tactic purely from the forces of natural selection, but even so the instinct is correct. [wiki citation: 6th paragraph quote up]
US authorities have shut down another anonymous drug trade site, the Farmer's Market, and in April indicted its eight owners. Farmer's Market was much smaller than Silk Road is now, doing about $1 million in sales between January 2007 and October 2009. It also used less-than-anonymous PayPal and Western Union for payment as opposed to the encrypted Bitcoins.
But Phair, whose report on the online drug trade will be completed in 12 months, said he believed "the problem will continue to grow as it is perceived as a safe and secure method to buy and sell illicit drugs".
97.51%
The AFP says it does not have jurisdiction to investigate websites based overseas, so it is unlikely to be able to shut down Silk Road.
It said it could refer matters for investigation to overseas counterparts but could not compel them to act.
Wait wat.
There's this international network of computers interlinked by radiowaves and intercontinental copper/fibre cables, I just forget its name, what could it be? God I always forget this stuff, it just slips to the back of my mind like the location of my lost keys or...
Oh yeah! The fucking INTERNET. Phew, I thought my memory was going there for a momento.
How does the AFP know SR is a hidden service based overseas? On the basis The Princess Bride wasn't filmed in Australia? Do our Tor data packets neglect to have "AU" stamped on them? What? This is a legitimate question.
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Also worth noting in the article.
"Police rely on finding documentary or forensic evidence to link a seizure to a particular site, or an admission by the offender on arrest, which is not always forthcoming".
Don't open your mouth!
Karma for sensible advice :) Seriously people, say nothing and lawyer up if you ever find yourself in a less than ideal situation like being arrested.
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for pine
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Thanks for sharing bro!
Good to know that accessing the site isnt illegal, I wasnt aware of that.
Buying bitcoins is also not illegal so I guess it comes down to sloppy vendors leaving address lying around and getting busted (wouldn't think these would be worth following up for them though) .
I also believe there is a 0% chance your package would go missing if local vendors are used. I think I'm yet to hear about one single express package go missing? Hasn't happened to me yet!
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Law enforcement one step ahead of a tor hidden service? Dream on...
Whoever got arrested was obviously a big time criminal (importing large quantities of drugs and weapons, and weapons are taken much more seriously in Australia than drugs). And like everyone here has said, if you use tor correctly and don't give yourself away, no-one is going to catch you.. They might see that you are buying Bitcoins (if you buy them through EFT), and they might see that drugs were mailed to you, but that doesn't constitute proof.
The elephant in the room is that the police can't be bothered catching the average Joe who bought some weed from silk road because they have bigger fish to fry. Don't be a moron and you won't end up with a criminal record methinks.
The biggest drug dealer I know personally lives down the street fro a police station.
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agreed lemonjam. anyone arrested must've been trying to import a fuckload of stuff. the sense i get here in Australia is that unless it's a major haul, customs will just seize it. they're never going to waste their time chasing someone like me for their ounce of pot.
on the article - i love that Fairfax keeps doing this. i signed up to SR after the last article probably 4 months ago now. in reading yesterday's article, i followed the "related article" links and discovered that in the last 15 months or so, Fairfax newspapers have run 4 articles on Silk Road.
which makes me wonder... is Dread Pirate Roberts paying them a commission? they certainly tried to make him famous in the article :P
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More fear mongering.
http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/index.php/silkroad/item/fce61ff753
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Must be a slow news day in Australia, no gold medals to write about so SR gets another article.
HAHAHAH plus one
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Just a thought, but would it be a good idea to have a backup account. This way if for whatever reason "they" got you to log on to SR. You could have an account that showed nothing? This is obviously if you were silly enough to speak up about SR. Seriously though, I've thought this out a hundred ways and I think the only way you could get sentenced is if you opened your mouth. They can try to prove and threaten all they want but at the end of the day (providing there's not a box of drugs in your possesion) or SR open. Your friend that knows about SR might have sent it to your house so he wouldn't get caught.....go talk to him. Dont talk ever!
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Fuck tha police. +1 me if you agree.
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Lets imagine we are the AFP, we know about SR and watch it , what could we do? Well...how about set up a dummy vendor selling to AUS only? then hey presto they get peoples adresses...wow what a concept, now go look at the two VERY RECENT vendors selling xtc to aus only, last 5 days, with big quantities offered...SYDNEYS FINEST and one other, both brand new no sales no record, so whos going to be brave and send them their address? and if you dont have feds crawling over the joint in the next 3 months pls post back its ok.
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I also believe there is a 0% chance your package would go missing if local vendors are used. I think I'm yet to hear about one single express package go missing? Hasn't happened to me yet!
You are wrong.
Its happened several times already. Its on local vendor feedback, and has also been discussed on the forums.
thonginthekeyoflife is bang on. People need to be careful. This is not the SR it was in August last year!
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Sydneys finest was, a long time ago, a derogatory term for detectives, just thought I'de mention that. :P
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Sydneys finest was, a long time ago, a derogatory term for detectives, just thought I'de mention that. :P
i likez da cut of ya jib sonny boy ;)
Don't take the risk of trying to import your own drugs through Australian Customs,
We all know how good and efficient they are in detecting drugs and profiling sellers
shipping methods. So don't take the risk and order domestically and have it at your
door in a few days.
lololololll yeah they're awesome ze ol' customs :P
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Sydneys finest was, a long time ago, a derogatory term for detectives, just thought I'de mention that. :P
i was going to say the exact same thing.