How Silk Road was reborn

[Anthea]

BBC News Technology

Reports suggest that the Silk Road, the anonymous marketplace that traded in drugs and other illegal goods, is back online, in a new version.



According to AllThingsVice, a website that monitors the so-called dark net, the new site is already selling a wide range of drugs.

The first version of Silk Road was shut down by the FBI in October and its alleged administrator arrested.

But those behind it always vowed to revive the site.

The new administrator of the revived site has adopted the same handle as the previous operator - Dread Pirate Roberts.

The FBI believe that arrested 29-year-old Ross Ulbricht was the mastermind behind the original site. Mr Ulbricht has denied all charges

Big business

The twitter feed for Dread Pirate Roberts reads: "#SilkRoad has lift-off".

According to AllThingsVice, the new homepage reads "This Hidden Site Has Risen Again", parodying the US Department of Justice notice, which read "the hidden site has been seized".

Twitter was buzzing with talk of whether the new site was a genuine replacement or a scam. Others asked how long it would take before it was closed down by the FBI.

According to Ken Westin, a researcher with security firm TripWire, the site looks genuine.

"It appears to be run by the same folks that were running it before," he said.

"They are not going to be able to kill it. It is going to be a game of cat and mouse with the FBI," he added.

Etay Maor, a fraud prevention manager with security firm Trusteer, and an expert on the dark net, said it was anyone's guess how long it would last.

"It could be 24 hours or it could be a year."

But with the Silk Road banking over $1.3bn (£810m) in two years from taking a percentage of sales, he is not surprised that it may be back online.

"It is big business and those behind it want to get it back up," he said.

Worst things

In the aftermath of the Silk Road shutdown, alternative dark net marketplaces saw huge increases in traffic.

One, dubbed Project Black Flag, closed down shortly after launch, with the founder Metta Dread Pirate taking the Bitcoin currency accumulated on it with him.

He wrote on the site's forum: "I am sorry for my actions, but with the funds I gathered from the site, I will be able to keep myself from being homeless for the next several months".

But there were plenty more, said Mr Maor.

"The Silk Road was the biggest and everyone knew it, but it is scary the amount of sites on the dark net.

"From selling weapons to money collection for jihadist groups. You name it - the worse things you can think of, it's all there," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24842410

[Anthea]

The Feds may have taken down Silk Road, the online black market that's been coined the "Amazon of illegal drugs," but a little over a month later, it's re-emerged.



Not long after the bust, select users on the site received an email from a former active Silk Road user asking the community to help rebuild. The authenticity of the new forums was endorsed by former Silk Road user "Libertas."

Some users who wanted to be a part of the rebuilding gained access to "the Vendor Roundtable," a forum that outlined the details behind the launch of the new Silk Road. The administrator also called on users to volunteer for a "communication specialist" position in charge of organizing operations. "You will be assigned work to perform based on what needs to be done," read an email reviewed by CNNMoney.

Silk Road 2.0 emerged Wednesday alongside a number of other sites offering similar services.

The new Silk Road, like the original, offers everything from prescription medication to heroin.

"Silk Road is back up," a Twitter user who appears to be the owner of the new site tweeted. "Deja vu anyone? #weriseagain." The new Silk Road owner also took on the pseudonym of former leader Ross Ulbricht, Dread Pirate Roberts.

According to a former Silk Road user, the site was rebuilt by most of the major players who were heavily involved in day-to-day operations of the former site.

"Silk Road was something that had popularity," the user told CNNMoney on the condition of anonymity. "That made it easy for people to continue down that path. As long as you can convince the bulk of the biggest buyers and sellers to move over to the new platform, it doesn't matter what it's called."

Before the original Silk Road was seized by the Feds, it had become one of the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplaces on the Internet, according to FBI Special Agent Christopher Tarbell.

But it certainly wasn't the only one. Other sites, including BlackMarket Reloaded and the Sheep Marketplace, have also been looking to attract sellers and buyers.

"Later on, newer versions that have improved in some way will pop up and regain the trust," another former Silk Road user told CNNMoney.

A priority for the reborn Silk Road is information security. The people rebuilding it are baking security measures into the site's code. To top of page

http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/06/technol ... le_sidebar