Silk Road: Cyber Crime. Bitcoin and Blockchain Regulation
Cybercrime
Silk Road
Anominity
Financial transactions need to be traceable
Complexity means people don't understand the technology enough
Very suitable for dark web transactions
facilitated Silk Road + add another few examples
Internet Usage
Skyrocketed in the last decade due to the number of devices connected to the Internet - Iphones, Ipad, people are now connected to the internet or using the internet all of the time.
click to edit
Most of the internet usage is good, but it's inevitable that some people will try and exploit it for criminal purposes - P Hunton, ‘The growing phenomenon of crime and the internet: A cybercrime execution and analysis model’ Computer Law & Security Review, vol. 25, 2009, p 529
Animosity is not being invisible, but rather being indistinguishable from an anonymous set. Although the Blockchain is a public ledger of all transactions it can not be used to identify a person
Like most crimes they exist on the underbelly of society, in this case the deep web -
Ross Ulbricht facilitated cybercrimes - the sale of illicit drugs, contract killins
Silk Road
Online marketplace launched by dread pirate in 2011, sale of drugson the dark web - I shop online – recreationally! Internet anonymity and Silk Road enabling drug use in Australia - Digital Investigation
Volume 11, Issue 4, December 2014, Pages 261–272, Amy Phelps
Site admins say the site was not intended to be created to facilitate drug deals but rather just become a network between people for other purposes that provided anonymity. However, it would be foolish not to expect criminal activity to exploit the anonymity offered by the silk road
why cybercrime is growing, and why it needs attention: 1st part of my assignment
Is internet anonymity necessary
Liberalist way of thinking, want to be free from the shackles of taxation
Some benefits, philosphically
Privacy is important on the internet, but leaving the dark web unregulated and unseen means that illicit activities are inevitable
Deep Web
All of the content that isn't indexed
People wanted to use the deep web for privacy so they entered the darknet through a technology called Tor
Was a marketplace for all goods but it's largest content was drugs and other illegal contracts
Tor enables the user to reach the deep web and remain anomous, so the advertising and creating of a marketplace part of the transaction was completed here. However, they purchasing and selling part of this market could not have been facilitated with traditional payment methods which require 3rd party authorization
Bitcoin
Not perfectly anonymous but the person is not identifiable on the Blockchain
Due to its peer to peer nature no third party is needed to authorise payments - Payments are untouched by banks
Due to its nature it is not taxable - thus it is immune from governments
Digital currency has undeniably been pivotal in facilitating the cybercrime activities of the Silk Road maketplace
Even after Ulbrichts arrest, the site has continued to function. As recently at this year a Wicklow man accused of being a site administrator has been sought to be extradited to the USA - https://www.rte.ie/news/2017/0228/856076-silk-road/
On benefit of this if you look at it from a realist standpoint means that people don't actually come into contact with drug dealers
Lowers violence relating to drug crimes - the war on drugs
The government controls a huge portion of what we do in terms of surveilling or being about to surveil the exchange of information between people. The unregulated dark web provides this anonymity. There are pros and cons to this depending on your way of thinking
By providing the technology to enable privacy, you are actually both enabling and disabling.
Ross Ulbricht
Dread Pirate Roberts
Computer hacking, money laundering, drug trafficking, contracts for death of a potential informant and a blackmailer
Hitman - 150,000 dollars murder for hire contract
Silk road vendors?
A vendor, Nob, communicates with Dread Pirate Roberts, small fry nature of the transactions. DPR found buyer and put the deal together
Buyers name was chronicpain, gave address to uncover agent
chronicpain was an admin and had important info, sought for him to be executed and expressed this to the undercover agent. Death was faked and photos sent to DPR, hit was paid in bitcoin. Real name was Curtis Green
Authorities found an e-mail on the open internet detailing the launch of the Silk road, used an e-mail to connect to Ulbrichts account
Fake ID incident
Was able to us his technical skills to create a platform that used complex but readily available technology to facilitate privacy for the sale of drugs online
Could have been other people using the DPR, howeverRoss was definitely guilty to at times being the DPR
Ended up charging him with Drug trafficking, Computer hacking and money laundering
The FBI arguably hacked his servers
Internet blocking is a controversial tool used against cybercrime, however by it being on the darkweb the silk road is immune to this
After Ulbrichts arrest silk road was relaunched with another vendor taking on theidentiy of DPR. Administrators are interchangeable
Silk Road reduced violence in drug trade - https://www.wired.com/2014/06/silk-road-study/
FBI seized 28.5 million dollars worth of bitcoin from ross ulbrichts account - https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/10/25/fbi-says-its-seized-20-million-in-bitcoins-from-ross-ulbricht-alleged-owner-of-silk-road/#3473d3fa2765 - although difficult to prove this figure could be far higher