Third of Sites Seized in Operation Onymous Were 'Clones'
A third of the 414 dark net addresses seized in Operation Onymous may have simply been 'cloned' sites with no actual illicit commercial activity taking place on them, according to new research by independent security analyst Nik Cubrilovic. In a blog post presenting his findings, Cubrilovic says 11 dark markets with commercial activity taking place on them remained operational, while their clones had been seized. "Some of these sites were mentioned in the FBI press release ... as having been taken down when in fact the clones were seized," he adds. According to Cubrilovic, the markets....
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The coordinated international action, dubbed Operation Onymous, against the Deep Net marketplaces infamous for being run on the rails of Bitcoin and other digital currencies is still being unveiled. So far, three men have been arrested in the last few days in conjunction with the cases. Currently, Cloud 9, Hydra, and Silk Road 2.0 display the increasingly-visible "This Hidden Site Has Been Seized" notice that online law enforcement has become famous for making. Beyond the three confirmed downed sites, several other Deep Net marketplaces are offline at the moment. Dark net marketplace....
At least 400 dark net web domains have been reported seized and 17 individuals arrested in connection with Operation Onymous, an ongoing global cybercrime crackdown. A number of high-profile dark net markets, most notably Silk Road 2.0, have been shut down by law enforcement agencies in the US and Europe over the past 24 hours. The European Union's Judicial Cooperation Unit, or Eurojust, reported on 7th November that 414 dark web domains have been seized so far as part of Operation Onymous. All of the sites in question were accessible through the Tor network, which according to those....
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation announced today that they have successfully seized the assets of the Silk Road 2.0 in a joint operation with Europol and the New York Office of Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit and Money Laundering and Asset Forfeiture Unit. The investigation is called Operation Onymous. Apparently, the agent who filed the complaint was Vincent D. D’Augostino, a well-known Agent in Charge who previously led the team that brought down 115 members of the New York Mafia families in 2013. Whether D’Augostino was the team leader for Onymous has not yet been revealed.....
Less than a mile from my home, as the Web Summit wrapped up in Dublin's RDS, Gardai (the Irish police) raided an office in the leafy suburbs. Two men were arrested as part of an international operation targeting drug sellers using Tor, and several hundred thousand euro in cash, as well as quantities of of drugs were seized, along with computer equipment. This was part of a broader international operation called "Onymous" between the US and sixteen European countries and Europol, which has shut down Silk Road 2.0 and over 400 other darknet websites. A number of arrestshave also taken place,....
Operation Onymous brought down Silk Road 2 and a number of other high profile dark net sites. The statements from law enforcement are extremely over broad and meant to intimidate the would-be founder of Silk Road 3 from even trying. Then we learned that a third of the four hundred sites were all in a single hosting facility, presumably one that was slack on checking identities of those renting servers. Then we learned that another third of the sites were simply older host keys for the same operations, leftovers from the last time the Tor Project told everyone to upgrade their software and....