For two weeks, users of online drugs marketplace Silk Road have been unable to log in to the site more often than not, reporting timeouts, missing catchpas and other technical difficulties. Millions of dollars in Bitcoin has been inaccessible to the site’s thousands of members and trading has halted. The reactions of the community have run the gamut from hopeful
Some time back a report, supposedly commissioned by Qld police, was leaked via the dark web. Of course, being the dark web, it was impossible to confirm its legitimacy. The discussion paper ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’ was called an extensive critique and response to Silk Road, the online drugs marketplace, well researched and referenced. The report contained a list of
Yesterday, walking along Flinders Street at peak hour, I watched the crowd in front of me part like the Red Sea. Rather than Moses, there was a man who, if not homeless then certainly down on his luck, was stumbling along the footpath, bleeding from his head. A few feet before he reached me, he fell flat on his
On Friday I wrote an Opinion piece for The Age based on an earlier blog about why I think Australia’s proposed data retention laws are not only an invasion of privacy, they are an expensive measure that simply won’t work. Today The Age ran a longer journalistic piece about the laws. This prompted a couple of tweets from the Twitter
So, we all know you can buy drugs online, but Silk Road is not the only marketplace on the dark web. Here’s a few other things you might not have realised you can have for a price. Redecorating? For $1500 you can buy yourself a genuine shrunken human head. This, I am assured, is $3500 less than the regular
Is Silk Road’s owner – The Dread Pirate Roberts – sailing off into the sunset with wads of cash? Has he sold Silk Road as a going concern and included the goodwill of his name and reputation in the price?
Today the owner of Silk Road announced the closure of its sister site, the weapons-dealing Armory. The reason was not heat from law enforcement or negative press, it was simply that the site was not profitable and members complained that many listings were scams. There are dozens of black market sites selling all manner of things on the Dark Web,
Today my latest article appeared in The Age/SMH: From Nigeria With Love. I did a fair bit of research for this, but one of the most fun things I’ve done is mess with the scammers who contact me wanting to buy a parachute I have for sale. Not quite the legendary efforts carried out by 419eater (please, if you have
Last month I published a piece in The Age about the ‘dark web’ – sites that can only be accessed through anonymity software. What became lost beneath graphics of demons emerging from computers was a line I wrote in response to proposed legislative changes that could lead to the web history of any device connected to the internet being logged
Yesterday the Australian Institute of Criminology released a report that independently verified what they had already been told by users themselves: when ecstasy is not available, recreational drug users turn to crystal meth. The verification came from an analysis of sewerage water from a municipality in Queensland. “Estimates were made of the average daily dose and average daily street value
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