Cybercrime

Mastermind of online criminal bazaar arrested

Ulbricht is said to be the mastermind behind the Silk Road, where drugs, hit men and more could be bought.

SAN FRANCISCO - After two years of painstaking sleuthing, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) cybercrime experts have arrested a 29-year-old said to be the shadowy mastermind behind the Silk Road, "the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet today".

   The Silk Road - a virtual bazaar where buyers could find everything from heroin and hacking software to contact information for hit men in more than 10 different countries - is thought to be helmed by a figure who calls himself "Dread Pirate Roberts".

   By the time the Silk Road was shut down this week, prosecutors say it had become the venue for as much as US$1 billion worth of illegal transactions.

   Investigations came to a close on Tuesday, when FBI agents arrested Ross William Ulbricht at the Glen Park library in San Francisco, where he had gone to log onto a computer, according to a person briefed on the matter. He faces charges of conspiracy to commit narcotics trafficking, money laundering and computer-hacking in a New York federal court.

   The drug conspiracy charge carries a potential life sentence and US$10 million fine, while the computer-hacking conspiracy and money laundering charges carry 10-year and 20-year sentences, respectively, and US$250,000 fines.

   The arrest came after agents intercepted a parcel addressed to Ulbricht's apartment that contained nine counterfeit IDs, each in a different name, but all bearing Ulbricht's photograph.

   The interception, in July this year, came ahead of an August interview in Forbes, allegedly with the secretive Dread Pirate Roberts, who said: "The highest levels of government are hunting me... I can't take any chances."

   The genius of Silk Road's design and the reason it eluded the FBI's grasp for so long, was its impenetrability. The site was accessible only on a so-called Tor network, designed to conceal the true Internet address of computers using it. Its exclusive reliance on digital currency Bitcoin added another layer of protection for its buyer and sellers.

   Hit by the scandal and an increasing uncertainty as to its own future, Bitcoin lost a third of its value after Ulbricht's arrest and has yet to fully recover.

   Ulbricht is also charged in Maryland with ordering the torture and murder of an employee by an undercover agent over fears the employee would expose him.

BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Two years of undercover investigation

JANUARY 2011: First mention of Silk Road appears on magic mushrooms website shroomery.org. Someone with the username Altoid asks if anyone has tried Silk Road. Altoid posts a similar message on the forum bitcointalk.org.

JUNE 2011: Two US senators write to the Attorney-General and Drug Enforcement Agency chief urging them to investigate Silk Road and shut down Bitcoin.

OCTOBER 2011: Altoid surfaces again on the Bitcoin forum, seeking an "IT pro" to help build a Bitcoin start-up company and directing potential job candidates to the Gmail account of someone named Ross Ulbricht.

NOVEMBER 2011: Special FBI agent Christopher Tarbell's undercover team makes more than 100 drug purchases from Silk Road vendors, including Ecstasy, cocaine and heroin.

APRIL 2012: An undercover federal agent in Maryland posing as a drug dealer, makes contact with Dread Pirate Roberts.

JANUARY 2013: The undercover agent completes the sale of cocaine to a Silk Road employee, who was later arrested.

JULY 10, 2013: Customs officials intercept a package from Canada addressed to an apartment on 15th Street in San Francisco. The package contains nine counterfeit IDs, each in a different name, but all featuring a photograph of the same person - Ulbricht.

TUESDAY - Ulbricht is arrested at Glen Park library in San Francisco.

BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

it was amazing that he was able to get away with it so long, it sounds like he got a little sloppy at the end and thats how he was caught.

>Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) cybercrime experts have arrested a 29-year-old said to be the shadowy mastermind behind the Silk Road, "the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet today".

>"the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet today".

>the most criminal marketplace on the Internet

NSA still >the most criminal on the Internet

At least these crim's are highly visible... anonymous, but visible..
Why would you shut down something that publicly shows what crimes are trending around the world? Boohoo people are buying drugs not made by big pharma... and they aren't paying our drug-taxes.. Illegal!

It's so public... i don't know if you can even call it a black-market... More of a grey-market.. Questionable, but at least able to be questioned =)

Nobody was selling land-mines at least? So silk-road is better than some people....

People were selling guns! But lots of people sell guns!
People were selling drugs! But lots of people sell drugs!
People were selling porn! But lots of people sell porn!
..did i miss anything?

But all the pedo's..! We must persecute them!

Like the church with homos? That sure showed all them homos, din-it...? Oh wait....

Now there's more homo's then ever....
...Problem solved?! well, perhaps for the homo's... at least they were never really particularly harmful..

...And this is your solution..?

Schizophrenia can also be dangerous, what makes it less so is that people with it can get help..?
Just telling schizophrenics that they are dangerous would only make them more so..

Obsessing over pedophiles is a bit of a disorder in itself...
Instead of imagining that everyone is out to get you, like an ordinary schizophrenic, it is a fear projected onto children...

By doing so, you may well be harming the children yourself..

'Lovespy' on FBI's most wanted list

WANTED: Pictures of Carlos Enrique Perez-Melara, the creator of spyware 'Loverspy' and 'Email PI', on the FBI's wanted list.

FBI on the hunt for former college student who helped jealous lovers plant spyware

Not only can governments intercept your communications. It could be a relative or jealous partner.

   Among five individuals added this week to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) list of most wanted cybercriminals is a former San Diego college student who developed an US$89 program dubbed "Loverspy" and "Email PI".

   The program, sold online, was advertised as a way to catch a cheating lover by sending the person an electronic greeting card, if opened, would install malicious software that captured e-mails and instant messages, or even spied through the webcam.

   The case of Carlos Enrique Perez-Melara, 33, is noteworthy because he appears to have made relatively little money from the scheme, unlike others on the FBI list who are accused of bilking millions of dollars, AP reported.

   Perez-Melara, a native of EI Salavador who was in the US on a student visa in 2003 when he sold the spyware.

   He was accused of helping turn average computer users into hackers. Loverspy was designed "with stealth in mind, claiming that it would be impossible to detect by 99.9 per cent of users".

   An FBI section chief, Mr John Brown, said that Loverspy was one of many illegal hacking-for-hire online services and many of the operators tend to be based abroad.

   Said Mr Brown: "These are sophisticated folks who know how to hide themselves on the Internet."

   He said that Perez-Melara was added to the FBI's most wanted list in part because he has been so difficult to find. He has eluded the authorities for the past eight years.

   There is a US$50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

   Perez-Melara allegedly sold the program to 1,000 customers, who then tried to inject about 2,000 others.

   People who bought the spyware were charged with illegally intercepting electronic communications. Most got probation and fines.

   There is an established commercial market for snooping software that domestic violence advocates warn can also be used to stalk victims.

   Software like ePhoneTracker and WebWatcher is advertised as a means of monitoring kids' online messages and tracking their locations.

   For US$349 a year, Flexispy promises to capture every Facebook message, e-mail, text and photo sent from a phone, as well as record phone calls.

   Others identified on the FBI list includes Alexsey Belan, a Russian who allegedly broke into the computer networks of three major US e-commerce companies. Belan is accused of stealing the companies' user databases and encrypted passwords, which he then sold.