Tor Websites Down As Alleged Freedom Hosting Admin Arrested For Child Porn Distribution
Evidence suggests hackers employed by the FBI managed to track some Tor users
Scores of “darknet” websites and services remain inaccessible following the arrest of an Irish man believed to be the head of Freedom Hosting, the biggest service provider on the anonymous Tor network.
The FBI has accused Eric Eoin Marques of facilitating child pornography distribution. If he is extradited to the US, he could spend up to 30 years in prison.
Marques is expected to appear in Ireland’s High Court on Thursday, reports The Independent in Ireland. He was identified as a result of a cyber attack on Freedom Hosting, which had also configured the servers to spread the infection.
Freedom Hosting is one of the largest and most known Tor service providers. It has been linked to all manner of criminal activity, including websites dedicated to child abuse and the infamous Silk Road, an online illegal drug marketplace.
Marques, a 28 year-old Dublin resident with no previous convictions, has been described by the FBI as “the largest facilitator of child porn on the planet”. Besides Freedom Hosting, he is also alleged to be involved with encrypted email service Tormail and Bitcoin exchange Onionbank. The FBI has been hunting the man responsible for Freedom Hosting for the last 12 months.
Several sources suggest Marques was identified and tracked using a JavaScript exploit in the Tor Browser Bundle, which is based on Firefox 17 browser.
http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/tor-websites-go-down-as-the-alleged-freedom-hosting-admin-is-arrested-for-child-porn-distribution-123789
The FBI has accused Eric Eoin Marques of facilitating child pornography distribution. If he is extradited to the US, he could spend up to 30 years in prison.
Marques is expected to appear in Ireland’s High Court on Thursday, reports The Independent in Ireland. He was identified as a result of a cyber attack on Freedom Hosting, which had also configured the servers to spread the infection.
Hacking in the name of the law
Tor is a free encrypted network that conceals a user’s location or Internet use from anyone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis. It hosts a variety of content from news and secure communication services to things like The Hidden Wiki, a collection of illegal instructions and manuals.Freedom Hosting is one of the largest and most known Tor service providers. It has been linked to all manner of criminal activity, including websites dedicated to child abuse and the infamous Silk Road, an online illegal drug marketplace.
Marques, a 28 year-old Dublin resident with no previous convictions, has been described by the FBI as “the largest facilitator of child porn on the planet”. Besides Freedom Hosting, he is also alleged to be involved with encrypted email service Tormail and Bitcoin exchange Onionbank. The FBI has been hunting the man responsible for Freedom Hosting for the last 12 months.
Several sources suggest Marques was identified and tracked using a JavaScript exploit in the Tor Browser Bundle, which is based on Firefox 17 browser.
http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/tor-websites-go-down-as-the-alleged-freedom-hosting-admin-is-arrested-for-child-porn-distribution-123789
4 comments:
Saw two articles related articles recently. One on how TOR might not be as secure as advertised.
The other was how a couple of prominent conservatives almost got set up with emails to them that had child porn attachments. Neither opened the attachments.
If anyone is interested I can try to find the articles again. Let me know.
Terry
Fla.
Tor article here https://tails.boum.org/forum/Who_carries_half_of_all_Tor_traffic__63____38_operators/
Link from here (dated 7/29)
http://www.radiofreeredoubt.com/2013/07/29/will-tor-keep-you-anonymous-by-delta01/
See comments for discussion
Terry
Fla.
Entrapment article. I understand everyone is not a fan of Oathkeepers but here is the article
http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2013/08/03/warning-someone-is-trying-to-set-up-liberty-activists-using-child-porn/
Terry
Fla.
I may or may not know of a US-Government-sponsored place that may or may not have been taking advantage of TOR to protect employees from foreign threats.
If such places exist, they may or may not be happy that their own customer may or may not be endangering their own employees.
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