Silk Road forums
Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: eddiethegun on October 19, 2012, 09:13 pm
-
This was originally going to be a reply in the closing the armory thread, but I've decided to post it separate since I'd like to get some fresh discussion.
The Armory was closed this summer. There has been some discussion about whether that was a good idea or not but that's not really relevant. I'm concerned about why it really closed.
The "it brought too much heat" argument is specious. SR is on every major law enforcement organization's radar already. Remember Senator Schumer giving press conferences? Remember the DEA confirmed an investigation is underway?
There is absolutely no doubt that there are FBI/DEA SA's reading every one of these posts and archiving these forums. (hi there!)
So maybe the SR operators had a moral awakening when they decided to close the armory... well no they obviously had no issue opening the armory in the first place...
They say server costs. On a low traffic site they could easily run on a virtual server? If costs were really the issue, why are gun sales not allowed on SR?
All of which makes me suspicious why the Armory was closed.
Let's play a hypothetical game.
Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that SR hosting was located and the admin(s) pinched by whatever national police agency. Let's say the US Attorney's Office, EDNY, has an operation going on. How have the most successful FBI cybercrime investigations gone down? Shadowcrew? DarkMarket? LulzSec? In all these cases the FBI assumed some kind of control over the criminal organizations themselves (by turning albert gonzalez and then running shadowcrew over an FBI VPN, by having an undercover agent ascend through DarkMarket and start hosting the actual site, or by turning Sabu and getting lulzsec)
All I'm saying is, this is exactly how things would go down if the FBI/DEA/USPIS took down the SR admins.
After Fast and Furious, they won't play around with allowing gun transactions to continue for one second. But they have a long history of letting DRUG transactions continue while gathering evidence.
You think they would be happy with just arresting the admins and swatting this hornets nest of drug dealers so they set up shop on a darknet site they DONT control? No. They will gather evidence for a year or so. Monitor every transaction. Monitor every package they can locate in transit (why isn't shipping info pgp encrypted?). Then launch the big simultaneous arrests.
I fucking hate gawker and everything they stand for but that article they published this summer may not be so far from the truth (for once).
I could go on like this but I'll stop. Just food for thought.
eddie
(by the way, what will the Operation name will be? I know you fucks like to be cheeky. Operation End of the Road? Silk Stalking? Be clever.)
-
There is a decent possibility is in some form a honeypot. I doubt they would put much time into it though for several reasons.
1.)There isn't many BIG time drug sellers here. If you think about it you cant really find more than a kilo of any drug from more than a few people if any. The DEA and FBI are more concerned with big time dealers not small street level dealers.
2.)SR doesn't get that much media attention. If someone ever OD's and it gets out that it was from SR I would say that's about the end of it.
3.)Buyers are essentially protected. By this I'm saying unless you've signed for a package or in some way admitted to it there is no way they can prove within a reasonable doubt you bought the drugs. They are not ever going to order a nationwide bust on a bunch of casual drug users.
4.)So much of what these organizations is done by the media. Take "bath salts" for instance. There was a huge media firestorm over that zombie incident. Then weeks later a huge bill comes out banning a bunch of RC's. Why? They want public opinion behind what they do. Now the general public thinks "bath salts" are this horrible thing that should be for sure banned even though they really have no understanding of what it is. The funny thing is the toxicology report of of the miami "zombie" showed nothing but weed in his system. Sound like an agenda to you? Another example, the cocaine trade in America. Perhaps you've heard of the documentary cocaine cowboys? Anyways when cocaine first started coming to the Americas in extreme bulk literally nothing was done to stop it. Billions if not trillions of dollars was brought here with ease. The government only started really getting involved when violence broke out. What I'm getting at with this is there isn't much media attention so I doubt many people are really looking into it hard and if they are they'd be really going after the biggest vendors. So if that isn't you I wouldn't worry much.
Just be smart about what you do read the forums stay up to date on anything you can. If they want you then they essentially already have you at this point from coming on these forums so dont stop now. lol ;D
-
As hinted at before in this thread, in my opinion it's much easier to get a big bust by infiltrating a non-internet drug syndicate. Why even deal with PGP? Plus many of the dealers here are international and that means a lot more teamwork and effort is needed to bust many of the vendors.
Should we be complacent? No, but I don't expect a huge SR bust for a while. Not until people really start getting sloppy.
-
If you're using PGP and dealing with real (not LEO) vendors, then even if the SR servers are compromised, your info will be protected. Include your public PGP key with your order and request that any tracking info be encrypted, and you're two steps closer. If you and the vendor are using PGP, then your SR activity can only be tied to you IRL through traffic analysis (but you're using Liberte on a liveUSB in a public place, so this isn't a worry) and analysis of the Bitcoin network. At worst, analysis of BTC is going to go back to the security tape of the bank you (or, even better, a friend of yours) made the bitinstant deposit at.
I'd be a lot more concerned about LEO busting a sloppy vendor who isn't using PGP or deleting addresses properly. Having your address show up on the computer of a busted vendor is probably enough to get you watched, and since you don't know you're being watched because you don't know that your vendor has been busted, you keep ordering drugs like usual, and then next thing you know, the feds are in your house, and you're fucking arrested.
If you assume that everyone you're dealing with on SR is LEO, then you're off to a good start. And refuse to use vendors that don't use PGP. If only because it shows that they're not taking your security seriously. Even though it feels all safe and chummy around here, drug posession and distribution are no game, and if you think that you're not going to get busted because you 'only' ordered 5grams of MDMA, then you're gonna have a bad time. The sooner you're locked down with encrypted drives and a clean house, the better. 'Tomorrow' is always the busiest day of the week.
-
As hinted at before in this thread, in my opinion it's much easier to get a big bust by infiltrating a non-internet drug syndicate. Why even deal with PGP? Plus many of the dealers here are international and that means a lot more teamwork and effort is needed to bust many of the vendors.
Should we be complacent? No, but I don't expect a huge SR bust for a while. Not until people really start getting sloppy.
I hear what you're saying, that LE would get more bang for their buck going after real cartels. I agree. But realistically, the amount of work involved in an investigation is irrelevant. The federal investigations exist, it's already been confirmed. Don't underestimate the "thorn in their side" aspect of a publicly accessible e-commerce site for illegal drugs. It just makes them look bad.
PGP ought to be used for all vendor-buyer communications. The whole point of onion routing is that you don't HAVE to trust any particular node. If the system required PGP for vendor-customer communications then I wouldn't have to "trust" SR either. Because I don't. (Which isn't to say I don't love SR. I do. But as with women, I can love them and not trust them quite at the same time)
I do expect a SR bust. Probably the admins and the biggest vendors. I don't think the sporadic buyer has much to worry about.
-
I think I don't care if the feds run SR as long as they don't close registration for new vendors. If I were DPR I would want SR to be using Tor via Tor. I would also keep an almost entirely clean house and use a laptop without a hard drive, with my GPG keys and such stored on some remote servers so I can have remote persistence. Good luck getting him then.
-
If DPR gets busted I'm guessing it won't be through technological means. They'll find his identity that timeless way - some associate gets picked up for something totally unrelated and uses that trump card to bargain himself out of trouble...
"Please don't arrest me for stealing this car... my brother's friend runs an internet drug ring!"
That, or money laundering. Good luck cashing out $2 million/year in bitcoins without triggering the filing of a few SARs...
-
(by the way, what will the Operation name will be? I know you fucks like to be cheeky. Operation End of the Road? Silk Stalking? Be clever.)
"Operation Princess Bride"
-
If DPR gets busted I'm guessing it won't be through technological means. They'll find his identity that timeless way - some associate gets picked up for something totally unrelated and uses that trump card to bargain himself out of trouble...
"Please don't arrest me for stealing this car... my brother's friend runs an internet drug ring!"
That, or money laundering. Good luck cashing out $2 million/year in bitcoins without triggering the filing of a few SARs...
DPR is most likely a vast number of people, if the novel is true... ;)
-
I do not think Silk Road is a honeypot, because the way it's constructed makes it hard for its operators to gather information on its users.
If LE is going to attack the road, I suspect they will try to undermine the entire Tor network.
-
(by the way, what will the Operation name will be? I know you fucks like to be cheeky. Operation End of the Road? Silk Stalking? Be clever.)
"Operation Princess Bride"
Operation Road Block?
Operation Moth Ball?
-
(by the way, what will the Operation name will be? I know you fucks like to be cheeky. Operation End of the Road? Silk Stalking? Be clever.)
"Operation Princess Bride"
Operation Road Block?
Operation Moth Ball?
Or maby operation "titty fuck"? ;D
Operation "Road Kill", "Close shave".
-
(by the way, what will the Operation name will be? I know you fucks like to be cheeky. Operation End of the Road? Silk Stalking? Be clever.)
"Operation Princess Bride"
Operation Road Block?
Operation Moth Ball?
Or maby operation "titty fuck"? ;D
Operation "Road Kill", "Close shave".
Yeah, "Operation RoadKill" sounds exactly like something the smart-ass fuckers would love to see in print..
-
Ive been here only a short time .but already ive met some great ,and like minded people.Have had all great transactions using my own strategies..
In my own case ,ive noticed its somewhat easy to become comfortabl,e to a certain extent here on SR.The most important thing to remember is...... "This place is the Wild fucking West".....Don't ever for one moment let your gaurd down, or become complacent .As long as you keep this in mind,you can have a wonderful rewarding and safe experience.......... thank you SR ...i love thee...