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Running a Dark Web pedophile honeypot

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Re: Running a Dark Web pedophile honeypot

#31

Post by paulhauggis »

zxcvcxz wrote: post #12
kauffj wrote: post #8

> On two different occasions I contacted the FBI about the project and offered to provide full sets of data that I had collected. The FBI twice rejecting a set of information that could have reasonably led to the arrest of several pedophiles seems like a big mistake.

Personally I'm glad some random guy can't hand off a whole bunch of IPs to the FBI and tell them they're all pedophiles. I'm sure it would cost thousands of dollars to sift through the data too, and would be pretty useless seeing as the guy wasn't hosting child porn. Besides, taking down these pedophiles might be "fun" to some people, but if you really want to help children you need to go after the people producing/h…

"but if you really want to help children you need to go after the people producing/hosting child pornography."

Who says the people viewing it aren't abusing children?

Re: Running a Dark Web pedophile honeypot

#32

Post by vfdva »

geek_slop wrote: post #20
nightpool wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this is clearly by someone who doesn't really understand how Tor works. Revealing exit node IP addresses is completely useless—this is a fundamental tenant of Tor's security. In fact, I believe that at any given time you can easily query the network for a list of all Tor exit nodes. I think the "why I now think Tor is the devil" question is answered in the opening—because it has illegal/immoral stuff on it. I'm…

It was 4-7%. I pre-wrote the article estimating the final numbers and then shut down the site two days early. Traffic dropped suddenly leading me to believe something was up. The exit node IP is not totally useless. It's enough to prompt a knock on your door by the authorities. Granted, once they recognize you're running an exit node there's nothing they can do (otherwise Charter could also be held liable) but still,…

"A knock on your door", ha! That's one way to put it.

Re: Running a Dark Web pedophile honeypot

#33

Post by dvt »

It seems like the author is emotionally invested in this topic:

> Given my circumstances, I have seen first-hand, the psychological damage a pedophile’s actions cause. The damage done to these children is permanent and no matter how much counseling and assistance they seek – the experience is forever embedded into their self, shaping (and sometimes limiting) what they become as adults.

I can't pretend like I really get this because I've never dealt with pedophiles or pedophilia first-hand but I can agree, however, that people that hurt children are doing something morally wrong. With that said, this kinds of vigilante-esque behavior can be (and often times is) the absolute antithesis of justice.

> On two different occasions I contacted the FBI about the project and offered to provide full sets of data that I had collected.

Since OP tried to approach the FBI on two different occasions, it doesn't really seem to me like this was merely an innocuous "security" experiment (like this one: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/spoiled-onions-tor-network,news-...). It seems like OP really feels a deep hatred towards pedophiles and was, in a sense, out to get them.

Thankfully, we have the justice system that handles this for us. These are people that try to be impartial, fair, and just. When accused, we have the court system -- a system that values innocence until proven guilt. I hope I won't be taken out of context here. I'm not defending pedophilia (or drug trafficking or murder -- a few other Tor commodities). Do you really feel compelled to "get the bad guys?" Great. Go to a police academy or go to law school. Real life isn't like a superhero graphic novel. The law, for the most part, works. More importantly, it provides some boundaries for those that enforce it.

I had to read Mill's On Liberty in a Philosophy of Law class I took a few years ago and Chapter IV, Of the Limits to the Authority of Society over the Individual, really stuck with me. I would strongly suggest OP give it a good read: http://www.bartleby.com/130/4.html.

Re: Running a Dark Web pedophile honeypot

#34

Post by girvo »

geek_slop wrote: post #20
nightpool wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this is clearly by someone who doesn't really understand how Tor works. Revealing exit node IP addresses is completely useless—this is a fundamental tenant of Tor's security. In fact, I believe that at any given time you can easily query the network for a list of all Tor exit nodes. I think the "why I now think Tor is the devil" question is answered in the opening—because it has illegal/immoral stuff on it. I'm…

It was 4-7%. I pre-wrote the article estimating the final numbers and then shut down the site two days early. Traffic dropped suddenly leading me to believe something was up. The exit node IP is not totally useless. It's enough to prompt a knock on your door by the authorities. Granted, once they recognize you're running an exit node there's nothing they can do (otherwise Charter could also be held liable) but still,…

But most Tor users, especially the ones who are using it for disgusting purposes don't run an exit node, so I don't think I understand your point? In addition, Tor exit node IPs are basically public info already.

Re: Running a Dark Web pedophile honeypot

#35

Post by MBCook »

kauffj wrote: post #8

> On two different occasions I contacted the FBI about the project and offered to provide full sets of data that I had collected. The FBI twice rejecting a set of information that could have reasonably led to the arrest of several pedophiles seems like a big mistake.

He said he CONTACTED the FBI twice, but does it actually say if he was rejected or simply ignored?

Re: Running a Dark Web pedophile honeypot

#36

Post by aftbit »

geek_slop wrote: post #20
nightpool wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this is clearly by someone who doesn't really understand how Tor works. Revealing exit node IP addresses is completely useless—this is a fundamental tenant of Tor's security. In fact, I believe that at any given time you can easily query the network for a list of all Tor exit nodes. I think the "why I now think Tor is the devil" question is answered in the opening—because it has illegal/immoral stuff on it. I'm…

It was 4-7%. I pre-wrote the article estimating the final numbers and then shut down the site two days early. Traffic dropped suddenly leading me to believe something was up. The exit node IP is not totally useless. It's enough to prompt a knock on your door by the authorities. Granted, once they recognize you're running an exit node there's nothing they can do (otherwise Charter could also be held liable) but still,…

Here you go, all Tor exit nodes: https://check.torproject.org/exit-addresses

The Tor project does a lot of work to make operating an exit node safer and less likely to prompt the authorities to intervene. This is good, because even if the authorities did want to talk to exit node providers, those people _couldn't_ provide any useful logs.

Re: Running a Dark Web pedophile honeypot

#37

Post by _asummers »

zxcvcxz wrote: post #13

"pedophiles use encryption, so encryption is the devil." seems to be where this is going. That's a slippery slope and a bit unethical to use pedophiles to push an authoritarian political agenda. I bet it's fun to call all his critics pedophile sympathizers and sit upon a moral high-horse of self-righteousness while pushing his authoritarian ideology under the guise of social justice.. That's the thing about these peo…

To be clear, Tor does not provide encryption but anonymization. While your comment is valid (and something I personally agree with) nonetheless, I feel this distinction is important.

Re: Running a Dark Web pedophile honeypot

#38

Post by nl »

mahouse wrote: post #18
jrcii wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author appears to believe that "Tor is the devil" because "4,000-5,000 hidden services are running at any given time. Secondly, the content served by these sites is almost universally illegal or immoral (by my definition anyway). A conservative estimate would be maybe 1 out of 200 or so hidden service websites contain content I would deem worthy of the protection an anonymous network provides. Sites featuring fre…

Are knives the devil, because knives can be used to kill people?

If we are doing the whole argument by shoddy analogy thing, then I'll give you:

The blade itself incites to deeds of violence.

-- Homer, The Odyssey[1]

[1] http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/368547-the-blade-itself-inci...

Re: Running a Dark Web pedophile honeypot

#39

Post by userbinator »

nightpool wrote: post #3
imrehg wrote: post #2

Is it just me, or the rhetorical question in the title ("why I now think Tor is the devil") never got answered? Also not clear whether the Dark Web spider project was just to later seed the honeypot sites to appear legit, or was it a project on its own? The quote "The reports are published nightly on a hacker-related Dark Web site that I am involved with" hints at the latter, and then I'd double don't understand why…

Yeah this is clearly by someone who doesn't really understand how Tor works. Revealing exit node IP addresses is completely useless—this is a fundamental tenant of Tor's security. In fact, I believe that at any given time you can easily query the network for a list of all Tor exit nodes. I think the "why I now think Tor is the devil" question is answered in the opening—because it has illegal/immoral stuff on it. I'm…

I don't know what percentage of people using Tor for illegal activity would be incautious enough to run some random program on their computer, but I would be surprised if it was very high.

I think it would certainly depend on the type of "illegal activity"; it's quite plausible that those looking for drugs or counterfeiting are going to have much higher suspicion and opsec than porn-driven pedophiles, leading to the difference in number of registrations at each honeypot.

Re: Running a Dark Web pedophile honeypot

#40

Post by icehawk »

geek_slop wrote: post #20
nightpool wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah this is clearly by someone who doesn't really understand how Tor works. Revealing exit node IP addresses is completely useless—this is a fundamental tenant of Tor's security. In fact, I believe that at any given time you can easily query the network for a list of all Tor exit nodes. I think the "why I now think Tor is the devil" question is answered in the opening—because it has illegal/immoral stuff on it. I'm…

It was 4-7%. I pre-wrote the article estimating the final numbers and then shut down the site two days early. Traffic dropped suddenly leading me to believe something was up. The exit node IP is not totally useless. It's enough to prompt a knock on your door by the authorities. Granted, once they recognize you're running an exit node there's nothing they can do (otherwise Charter could also be held liable) but still,…

The exit node IP is run by an unrelated third party. Unless they're logging all of the traffic going through the exit node they have an extremely limited idea of what the exit node is doing.
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