The Dark Web: old fashioned crime, new fashion technology
The mastermind behind the Internet black market drug operation known as Silk Road took his fake name “Dread Pirate Roberts” from the film Princess Bride.
When special agents with the FBI swooped down on a public library in the Glen Park section of San Francisco in October, they put the cuffs on a young man they claim ran the notorious Internet black market operation known as Silk Road.
Nick Bilton, a technology reporter for The New York Times, said the agents were sure they had their man – Ross William Ulbricht otherwise known Dread Pirate Roberts.
“Until Silk Road was shut down in October, it was the place to score, say, a brick of cocaine with a few anonymous strokes on a computer keyboard,” Bilton writes. “According to the authorities, it greased $1.2 billion in drug deals, and other crimes, including murder for hire.”
However, almost as soon as the old Silk Road was shut, a new one popped up. And guess what? Dread Pirate Roberts is back, taunting the police.
“It took the F.B.I. two and a half years to do what they did,” Dread Pirate Roberts wrote on the new Silk Road site. “But four weeks of temporary silence is all they got.”
Bilton asks the right question. “Can anyone really stamp out the Dread Pirates? Like the rest of the Internet, the Dark Web is being shaped and reshaped by technological innovation.”
“First, there was Tor, short for The Onion Router, a suite of software and network computers that enables online anonymity. Edward J. Snowden used Tor to leak government secrets, and the network has been important for dissidents in places like Iran and Egypt. Of course, drug dealers and gunrunners prefer anonymity, too.
“Then there is bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that has been skyrocketing in value lately. Bitcoin is basically virtual cash — anonymous, untraceable currency stuffed into a mobile wallet. The kind of thing that comes in handy when buying contraband.”
You can reach Nick Bilton at: bilton@nytimes.com
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