Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Feds say Silk Road suspect’s computer shows he (thought he) plotted 6 murders

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 74 posts

Re: Feds say Silk Road suspect’s computer shows he (thought he) plotted 6 murders

#31

Post by nwh »

anaphor wrote: post #15
Pheno wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't get over how he wasn't using full disk encryption.

The way I see it there are a few possibilities: 1) He isn't the real DPR 2) He is the real DPR, but he's extremely inept and didn't get caught before due to dumb luck 3) He isn't the original DPR, but an inept person who took over to take the fall for the original DPR 4) He wanted to get caught?

There's nothing to suggest that anybody apart from him ever ran the site. The screw ups on StackOverflow and Bitcointalk point to him and nobody else. He's just someone who totally didn't prepare for his adversaries, who ultimately didn't need to go to any great lengths to unmask him. I'm surprised nobody in the general public managed to do it, quite honestly.

Just not as clever as he thought he was being, essentially.

Re: Feds say Silk Road suspect’s computer shows he (thought he) plotted 6 murders

#32

Post by sliverstorm »

anaphor wrote: post #15
Pheno wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't get over how he wasn't using full disk encryption.

The way I see it there are a few possibilities: 1) He isn't the real DPR 2) He is the real DPR, but he's extremely inept and didn't get caught before due to dumb luck 3) He isn't the original DPR, but an inept person who took over to take the fall for the original DPR 4) He wanted to get caught?

didn't get caught before due to dumb luck

There isn't really much "before". The site was only up for about 2.5 years before shutdown, and the FBI started building a case back in, what, May? June?

Re: Feds say Silk Road suspect’s computer shows he (thought he) plotted 6 murders

#33

Post by JshWright »

anaphor wrote: post #15
Pheno wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't get over how he wasn't using full disk encryption.

The way I see it there are a few possibilities: 1) He isn't the real DPR 2) He is the real DPR, but he's extremely inept and didn't get caught before due to dumb luck 3) He isn't the original DPR, but an inept person who took over to take the fall for the original DPR 4) He wanted to get caught?

> 3) He isn't the original DPR, but an inept person who took over to take the fall for the original DPR

The real Roberts has been retired fifteen years and living like a king in Patagonia.

Re: Feds say Silk Road suspect’s computer shows he (thought he) plotted 6 murders

#34

Post by sliverstorm »

benologist wrote: post #25
anaphor wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I see it there are a few possibilities: 1) He isn't the real DPR 2) He is the real DPR, but he's extremely inept and didn't get caught before due to dumb luck 3) He isn't the original DPR, but an inept person who took over to take the fall for the original DPR 4) He wanted to get caught?

5) none of us are as smart as we think we are.

Corollary: The FBI is sharper than we lead ourselves to believe.

(Not to say they are gods among men, but if you believe The Internet, the FBI couldn't sleuth their way out of a wet paper bag)

Re: Feds say Silk Road suspect’s computer shows he (thought he) plotted 6 murders

#35

Post by mpyne »

consonants wrote: post #22
mpyne wrote: post #3

I'm extremely interested in who this 'redandwhite' guy is. It's still unclear if the murders even occurred, but if no one got killed then this might be one of the most effective cons (against DPR) I've ever seen.

It's the feds. They faked the hit.

That was the first hit, against chronicpain/flush. I'm referring to the other 5 hits from the Hell's Angel. The Feds aren't sure who he is or whether the hits even happened, they only know that DPR released payment for them so presumably the proof was acceptable to DPR.

Re: Feds say Silk Road suspect’s computer shows he (thought he) plotted 6 murders

#36

Post by sliverstorm »

MrMan wrote: post #18
scenicBulimic wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll readily entertain the possibility of tangible artifacts over some bytestream any old day of the week. If he's busted with a bunch of fake IDs on his person, I'd consider that to be evidence proper. But anything transpiring in the netherworld of the internet needs to be taken with a grain of salt, especially when no real-world violence erupted. It may be possible that this is the guy. The evidence that rings true…

yeah man! murder is just a thought crime now.

Let's be clear, attempted murder is a thoughtcrime. ;)

Re: Feds say Silk Road suspect’s computer shows he (thought he) plotted 6 murders

#37

Post by mpyne »

loceng wrote: post #17
krapp wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An uproar from whom?

I don't know honestly, though you don't think it's possible the government would try to demonize someone in order to gain public support?

So you have no real strong reason why the government would demonize him in this case, which is sufficient evidence to prop this hypothesis all the way in your mind to "very plausible"? Wonderful.

Re: Feds say Silk Road suspect’s computer shows he (thought he) plotted 6 murders

#38

Post by sliverstorm »

loceng wrote: post #17
krapp wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An uproar from whom?

I don't know honestly, though you don't think it's possible the government would try to demonize someone in order to gain public support?

This is a real-life chewbacca defense if I ever heard one.

Re: Feds say Silk Road suspect’s computer shows he (thought he) plotted 6 murders

#39

Post by ericcumbee »

saalweachter wrote: post #29
ericcumbee wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) He was arrogant and thought that they would never get that close to him. or He thought that keeping notes offline in an analog format would be safer than keeping digital copies. Also consider that for all the Trade Craft Bin Laden practiced to stay hidden. He was sloppy when it came to the computer drives and notes he kept in his house.

There's a certain commonality there. It didn't matter whether any of Bin Laden's hard drives were encrypted; he was dead when we found him and he knew it. Likewise, from a practical stand point once the Feds came knocking at DPR's front door the jig was up. While the extra evidence will no doubt add a couple of nails to the coffin when this finally goes to trial, chances were that if he was tracked down at all, there…

very true

Re: Feds say Silk Road suspect’s computer shows he (thought he) plotted 6 murders

#40

Post by evilrevolution »

Pheno wrote: post #10
nwh wrote: post #2

He kept a written journal of this stuff? Truly must not have expected to be caught, I can't imagine what world he was in inside his head to have believed that. Given the status of the website, it was only going to be a matter of time. Fairly convincing looking fake Australian license though, wish there was a better photo of it.

I can't get over how he wasn't using full disk encryption.

If he was they'd either leave the computer on and retrieve the key out of the ram, or he'd hand it over within a week of custody.
Post reply on HN