Andre Yoskowitz
7 Sep 2014 14:19
Alleged Silk Road creator and operator Ross Ulbricht is still facing trial for running the dark web site, and the FBI may have just rebuffed his biggest argument.
Ulbricht had been claiming that the FBI was able to find the Silk Road's location through illegal means, therefore making all the agency's evidence illegal to use in the case. The FBI says that is simply not true.
In their court filing, the FBI says the IP address of the server was "'leaking' from the site due to an apparent misconfiguration of the user login interface by the site administrator." The agency then exploited this bug to obtain the server's location.
The FBI found a way to use that login page to produce an IP address that was not hidden by TOR standards, and then used that IP on a regular browser. That IP then produced some code from the login page, confirming that it was in fact the true location of the Silk Road.
If the court agrees with the FBI's claim, the alleged Silk Road operator may have a tougher time defending his case.
Silk Road Prosecution 4th Amendment Rebuttall by Andy Greenberg