Answer to the questions of why all these markets have gone down, how they found them, and why this all happened today.

Securing servers is a massive undertaking, even large companies with millions to throw at server security are getting hacked by script kiddies. Most DNMs are operated by just one person since no one else can be trusted. All of these markets have gone down because LEA found weaknesses in them to get their IP. Over time LE had quietly collected ips linked the servers the markets were hosted on and supeona'd them to get connection logs and backend data, then seized them all on the same day. Why today? Because this is the one year anniversary from SR2's launch where the new DPR taunted law enforcement and congress stating that they were impotent against the DNM movement, this was LE's backslap. They seized them all simultaneously to scare people away, because the reality is LE really cant do anything if a market admin knows what they are doing. This also answers the question of "Is Tor Compromised?", if it were then ALL the markets would have been seized.

The seizures of the other markets does not mean the admins have been caught unless like SR1 and SR2, they had logged in to the server using their real IP, provided their real identity to register the server, or had paid using a traceable form of payment. Chances are they would have been paraded alongside DPR2 if they had made this mistake.


Comments


[8 Points] None:

Do you have some sort of source for this assertion or is this your own speculation?

Even though I (somewhat) agree with your statement that they took multiple sites down simultaneously because of the shock value in doing so on such a grand scale, but there are far more pragmatic reasons for it being simultaneous. The most important one of those reasons is that it disallows for time for anyone else to see it coming and mitigate their damages. If they had simply taken SR2 or whichever one was the easiest for them to grab hold of, it would have given the other markets time to got offline and start destroying the evidence they will desperately need to build the prosecution's case. Don't forget, arrest is just the very first step in the very long, extraordinarily complex process of attaching criminal charges and making them stick. Seizing and deactivating these markets is one of many goals, but is by far the only or end one.

But as romantic of a notion that they somehow coordinated it all to align with the launch date of SR2 is just absurd. Timing matters more than anything, and they weren't going to sit on a pile of warrants waiting for the exact moment in order to deliver an extra bit of relish to things. That's just ridiculous, and is exactly the arrogant type of thinking that lands people in more trouble than they need to. People's fantasies get to running away with their common sense when they try to make heads or tails of massive events like this. But it is going to leave holes and flaws in theories when you try to make it sound like more than it really is. Tje same naivety that leads so many people to think that these markets were running completely underground and were somehow off LE's radar but at the same time fully accessible to teenagers with laptops is the same kind of thinking that would lead someone to believe that a global task force that required the amount of coordinated precision this all took would be risked just to toss a final middle finger in the direction of market users. It's not at all plausible and shifts focus away from paying attention to what actually did happen. There is absolutely no way they would have wasted even seconds by waiting just to add that tiny flourish.


[3 Points] A_box_in_a_cage:

Remember, remember the 5th of november! No one did:(


[1 Points] throwahooawayyfoe:

What if SR2 was really a gov't honeypot all along? Seems to make sense now that it was. Think about it... It was up EXACTLY one year to the day before getting taken down? Sounds like the feds were running a one-year operation (something they do quite often). It wouldn't surprise me at all to hear a story on the news in about a week from now (maybe a month) about the FBI coming out and telling us all about the year-long operation they called 'Operation Onymous' and everything it entailed (e.g. setting up the servers, capturing cleartext messages, controlled buys from the larger vendors, tracing non-LE staff members, etc...). IMO, we've only seen the tip of the iceberg at this point and it's gonna turn out to be a lot bigger than we all realize right now. Stay safe everybody!


[1 Points] 198729172:

2nd paragraph I think you are spot on


[1 Points] Theeconomist1:

I really don't believe LE cares at all about symbols like that. LE took down the sites when they did for strategic reasons plain and simple. They either had enough evidence and felt they didn't need anymore or to stop someone from escaping or losing data. LE is not in a propaganda war with us or anyone on the DNM side anymore than they are with street dealers. Part of law enforcement strategy is definitely to scare people away from committing crimes for sure but aligning to any sort of date isn't realistic imo. Plus does it even really matter?