Authorities arrest 17, take down 410 illegal sites in Web raid infiltrating Tor anonymity software
Cybercriminals using Tor encryption software to make their Internet activities anonymous may have thought they were beyond the reach of law enforcement.
If so, they were wrong. Europol says 17 individuals have been arrested and 410 “hidden services,” including an unspecified number of websites, have been taken down in a raid involving law enforcement from more than a dozen countries, including the United States. Authorities reportedly focused their efforts on “darknet” sites that market illegal drugs, illegal goods and weapons and are now expected to continue the investigation with a focus on customers and additional websites.
Spokesman Ulf Bergstrom of European Union legal coordinating agency Eurojust called the raid “a game changer,” the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports.
“You’re not anonymous anymore when you’re using Tor,” he said.
The Associated Press, the BBC News, Bloomberg and Forbes also have stories about the raid, which reportedly involved arrests in the U.S., Ireland and Germany, according to Dutch prosecutors. A Europol press release provides additional details.
However, the anonymous Tor browser is not the only option for those seeking to market illegal wares on the Web, Jamie Bartlett points out in a Telegraph story. Hence, what really matters, he says, is whether law enforcement has found a way to readily identify the physical locations of the servers used in these Internet enterprises, which isn’t yet clear.
If not, “expect more arrests, a period of confusion. And then more sites re-appearing again as the darknet aficionados start working out new ways of evading detection,” Bartlett writes. “In October 2013, the FBI managed to take down the original Silk Road site and proclaimed a major breakthrough against the illegal markets operating on the darknet. And six months later, there were more of these sites than ever.”
The FBI on Thursday announced the arrest of Blake Benthall, also known as “Defcon.” He is being federally prosecuted in Manhattan on charges that he created and operated a Silk Road 2.0 site that authorities say facilitated the monthly sale of millions of dollars worth of drugs and other illegal goods and services.
Articles published by Forbes and on the Threat Level page of Wired provide more details.
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Feds arrest 8 more in Silk Road case, say others in claimed $1.2B scheme should be ‘very nervous’”
ABAJournal.com: “Federal judge in $1.2B Silk Road drug case is threatened online”
ABAJournal.com: :”FBI turned off hotel Web service then sent ‘repairmen’ to get evidence, defense lawyers say”
Threat Level (Wired, Sept. 2013): “FBI Admits It Controlled Tor Servers Behind Mass Malware Attack”
