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A dark web tycoon pleads guilty, but how was he caught?

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Re: A dark web tycoon pleads guilty, but how was he caught?

#11

It's strange to me that people who make a habit of doing fantastically illegal things on the internet are always so sloppy about it. Even if they don't have the technical ability to break into their neighbor's wifi or set up a long range antenna to connect to an open access point they can still get a burner smartphone and drive to a Starbucks. Back when I used to torrent my TV shows I didn't even let my piracy laptop…

[deleted]

Re: A dark web tycoon pleads guilty, but how was he caught?

#12
post #3

OTOH if these techniques and vulnerabilities were made public it would benefit cybercriminals as they could defend themselves better.

Law enforcement watches criminals, the judicial system watches law enforcement, the public watches the judicial system. Break one link in the chain and criminals will run free everywhere.

Re: A dark web tycoon pleads guilty, but how was he caught?

#13

It's strange to me that people who make a habit of doing fantastically illegal things on the internet are always so sloppy about it. Even if they don't have the technical ability to break into their neighbor's wifi or set up a long range antenna to connect to an open access point they can still get a burner smartphone and drive to a Starbucks. Back when I used to torrent my TV shows I didn't even let my piracy laptop…

Or the only people who get caught doing illegal stuff on the internet are the ones who are sloppy and give themselves away.

Re: A dark web tycoon pleads guilty, but how was he caught?

#14

Hacker Factor has a series of articles about various attacks on Tor: https://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/archives/868-De... The tor daemon really needs to be re-written and audited. Apparently the codebase right now is a huge mess.

There is an ongoing "rust"-ification of the codebase. I agree it is easier to audit when the code is clearer, but the majority of deanon attacks seem to concern network or browser techniques.

Re: A dark web tycoon pleads guilty, but how was he caught?

#15

It's strange to me that people who make a habit of doing fantastically illegal things on the internet are always so sloppy about it. Even if they don't have the technical ability to break into their neighbor's wifi or set up a long range antenna to connect to an open access point they can still get a burner smartphone and drive to a Starbucks. Back when I used to torrent my TV shows I didn't even let my piracy laptop…

Confirmation bias.

Imagine all of the criminals out there who are running operations so well oiled that they leave little exposure for being caught.

Re: A dark web tycoon pleads guilty, but how was he caught?

#16
post #3

OTOH if these techniques and vulnerabilities were made public it would benefit cybercriminals as they could defend themselves better.

>if these techniques and vulnerabilities were made public[...]

Should the government prove that it followed the law when investigating a criminal? Did they obtain the proper warrants that people recognize preserve stable law and order?

It's unreasonable to assume that the vulnerability, that brought this case to justice, is the last one that could ever be used. More so, if you assume that most people are good and a healthy society needs privacy, we now know that there is a vulnerability that will affect more good people than bad and we are duty bound to protect good people's privacy.

Checks on the government's power aren't there to let 'bad people' go free, there there because we know if we let the government's power reign free, more good people will be hurt than the few 'bad people' we punish.

Re: A dark web tycoon pleads guilty, but how was he caught?

#17

It's strange to me that people who make a habit of doing fantastically illegal things on the internet are always so sloppy about it. Even if they don't have the technical ability to break into their neighbor's wifi or set up a long range antenna to connect to an open access point they can still get a burner smartphone and drive to a Starbucks. Back when I used to torrent my TV shows I didn't even let my piracy laptop…

Upvoted. Another perspective is that if you are smart enough to know, then you're smart enough to know it's an impossible mission against state actors given enough time and would never try it. Downloading a movie at a Starbucks is one thing, running a 24/7 hosting operation without every accidentally leaking a single piece of data is nigh impossible.

Re: A dark web tycoon pleads guilty, but how was he caught?

#18

Hacker Factor has a series of articles about various attacks on Tor: https://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/archives/868-De... The tor daemon really needs to be re-written and audited. Apparently the codebase right now is a huge mess.

Can you point to any attack that can be attributed to errors in the Tor code, anything where a rewrite or audit would have helped? Most "attacks" seem to be based on well-known drawbacks of the design which are usually discussed prior to specification or implementation (but unavoidable).

Re: A dark web tycoon pleads guilty, but how was he caught?

#19

It's strange to me that people who make a habit of doing fantastically illegal things on the internet are always so sloppy about it. Even if they don't have the technical ability to break into their neighbor's wifi or set up a long range antenna to connect to an open access point they can still get a burner smartphone and drive to a Starbucks. Back when I used to torrent my TV shows I didn't even let my piracy laptop…

I expect they thought they were doing the right thing by using Tor.

Re: A dark web tycoon pleads guilty, but how was he caught?

#20

It's strange to me that people who make a habit of doing fantastically illegal things on the internet are always so sloppy about it. Even if they don't have the technical ability to break into their neighbor's wifi or set up a long range antenna to connect to an open access point they can still get a burner smartphone and drive to a Starbucks. Back when I used to torrent my TV shows I didn't even let my piracy laptop…

> drive to a Starbucks

Didn't help Ross. It's a bad idea to do illegal stuff in public.

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