James Delahunty
6 Nov 2013 17:46
The Silk Road appears to be back online and being run by some of those involved in running it before it was shut down by the FBI last month.
The administrator of the revived Silk Road is using the handle Dread Pirate Roberts, which is the handle the Feds allege was used by 29-year-old Ross Ulbricht who has been charged with running the service. Ulbricht is denying the charges.
There were some suggestions that the new Silk Road could be a scam, but Ken Westin, a researcher with security firm TripWire, said 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."
We checked to see if the site was online and were greeted with an edited law enforcement seizure notice that crossed out "been seized" and also added a stamp that reads "This site has risen again." A login prompt appears over the image when you place the pointer on it.