Ross Ulbricht initially discovered by Googling "Silk Road" and filtering by date

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/business/dealbook/the-unsung-tax-agent-who-put-a-face-on-the-silk-road.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Apparently a federal agent was initially interested in Ross after using Google Advanced Search for "Silk Road" and filtering by date, uncovering a deleted post made on a forum asking members to email Ross at his personal email address.

Mr. Alford's preferred tool was Google. He used the advanced search option to look for material posted within specific date ranges. That brought him, during the last weekend of May 2013, to a chat room posting made just before Silk Road had gone online, in early 2011, by someone with the screen name "altoid."

"Has anyone seen Silk Road yet?" altoid asked. "It's kind of like an anonymousAmazon.com."

The early date of the posting suggested that altoid might have inside knowledge about Silk Road.

During the first weekend of June 2013, Mr. Alford went through everything altoid had written, the online equivalent of sifting through trash cans near the scene of a crime. Mr. Alford eventually turned up a message that altoid had apparently deleted -- but that had been preserved in the response of another user.

In that post, altoid asked for some programming help and gave his email address: rossulbricht@gmail.com. Doing a Google search for Ross Ulbricht, Mr. Alford found a young man from Texas who, just like Dread Pirate Roberts, admired the free-market economist Ludwig von Mises and the libertarian politician Ron Paul -- the first of many striking parallels Mr. Alford discovered that weekend.


Comments


[78 Points] MVPilgrim:

It easy to look back on what Ross Ulbricht did and think, "Man, what an idiot." But at the start of Silk Road 1 OPSEC as we know it today wasn't really a thing. When some vendors started using PGP, others put in their profiles that they would disregard all orders from customers who wished to use it.

Also, many people don't realize how searchable some information today can be. On grams, I once copied several vendors PGP keys and searched around on google. Most of them came back with nothing, as they should. But I found 3 that were used on GPG practice, and 1 of those that I easily traced back through their post history until he linked to his Facebook page. Googling the name on that facebook then took me to a page hosting a mugshot of that person of that same name after having been charged for drug offenses. If I can connect those dots, eventually an LEO will.


[67 Points] bingojones45:

Ross is a smart guy but he's a prime example that learning all the technology and crypto means jack shit if you don't have that paranoid mentality. You only have to fuck up once and unbeknownst to him he already fucked up before he started.

And this article shows that the government isn't much different than corporations when it comes to bureaucracy. This IRS agent knew what was up and was ignored because of the supposed low standing of his agency. This forum post by "altoid" was known but it wasn't until now (as far as I know) that it was revealed that it was an IRS fed who found it. He gets no credit, just some random NY Times post, how fucking long since DPR gets sentenced? LOL.

Just goes to show you these assholes have ego's like everyone else. Funny how the DEA and Secret Service had dirty agents who worked the case and they're supposedly more prestigious than the IRS. Don't get cocky boys, but this is just proof IMO that most these feds are dumbasses and have their dicks in their hands most the time.


[52 Points] None:

Ulbricht knew he had fucked up by posting his email. That is why he deleted the post. Unbeknownst to him someone had quoted him. After realizing that he posted his personal email he should have shut the entire thing down and started with a new brand.

Regardless, the man is a martyr. Darknetmarkets have flourished because of his work.


[43 Points] None:

Well damn. That'll do it.


[23 Points] druggieslut:

This is totally retarded. Really??? He posted an email address WITH HIS REAL NAME IN IT on a forum asking for help with something illegal as fuck????


[14 Points] drimilr:

This is now probably part of the FBI's standard operating procedure when investigating new markets.

"Hey bob, did you remember to Google them then sort by date?"


[8 Points] None:

If he had good OPSEC than the posting would have been irrelevant. Ulbricht didn't secure his computer. Anyone who could have stolen his computer could have access to nearly 200 million dollars of bitcoins, identities from all the moderators, his journal, chat logs, etc.. That is the real travesty. If he was working in a secure place behind a security door not easily kicked in he would have been arrested and released when they couldn't access his computer. Better yet, create your own cloud computing service where nothing incriminating is on your computer. Rent a server in Iran, China, etc.. and keep all the information there.

Ulbricht had terrible OPSEC. Terrible place to working on a drug operation.


[4 Points] OpiLuvr:

He apparently got banned from Drugs Forum, posting something similar, as altoid.


[6 Points] AxisTwo:

So is this post still available for all to see? Zero is the amount of trust I have in anything the government says in the prosecution of Ross Ulbricht. They are above the law and can (and do) make things up as they go along. Did some fake ID's really get intercepted to help break the case? Did Ross order hits? Who fucking knows? I take everything the government says with a grain of sand. We know that when the NSA (spying on American citizens) gives over information to the DEA that the agents are instructed to make up a story on where the information came from, so-called parallel construction. So who can really what is true or not?


[3 Points] julian6:

Good read!


[3 Points] 666fun:

Guess ill go-ahead And readthe story out of curiousoity,but the summary is old news to anyone who paid attention.


[3 Points] None:

Great ass read. God Damn looking back on it Ross was stupid af lol


[2 Points] handofsalvation:

he just sits in his prison cell day in and day out thinking

"god damn my gmail account"


[1 Points] None:

What's with these people who get busted and have LinkedIn accounts? Have we not learned what happens from social networking? Shit, being on here is bad enough as is lol


[1 Points] MDMA-Hole:

Oh captain my Captain....barf


[1 Points] XanaxSearcher:

A respectable Dox.


[1 Points] an_illegal_smile:

Holy shit, I thought this was a joke post.


[1 Points] The_fire_bird:

His principles were very noble, no denying that. Basically my observation of his downfall was that he was as tech literate as he thought he was. He had to learn Tor and PGP etc in order for his dream to be born.

Had it happened the other way around, ie he learned Tor and PGP, previously, and then used that knowledge to create his site, then things would probably have turned out better. Not saying perfect but he might have lasted longer.

He learned on the job. Mistakes are inevitable whilst learning -- it's a part of the learning process for anything and everything.


[1 Points] None:

[deleted]


[1 Points] Baxterftw:

No opsec. 0/10 would not order from


[1 Points] moxy13:

Wonder if Ross is still giving yoga lessons in prison. Wonder what happened to his friend. The guy who started SR2 and then went out and bought himself a totally bitchin' car with a ton of BTC. (And then got busted.)


[1 Points] activeAlmond:

some guy on hacker news thinks he found the forum posts referenced in the article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10792895


[1 Points] zoidberg4:

How terribly ironic. The first guy who was intelligent enough and had the will power to finally make the first online drug market, ends up getting caught through some mistake he made before the market even existed. So sad, but Ross really could have been more careful. Though he will probably be in jail for the rest of his life, he did more in the short amount of time of freedom that he had than most people ever will with their whole lives. All hail DPR!


[-1 Points] Vendor_BBMC:

That wouldn't have been cause to arrest Ross. It only became important in hindsight, to reverse-engineer the real way he was caught, in my opinion.

How many of you have typed the word "SilkRoad" on a forum? Did your door come crashing in?

Neither did Ross' door. He was caught in a public library, distracted from the lurking FBI agent by chatting online with a female SilkRoad forum moderator (/u/Uncle_Unicorn on reddit, correct me if I'm wrong).

Imagine if Ross really HAD been caught by googling! It would certainly call the NSA's multibillion dollar technology program into question. I think they just discover these "clues" afterwards, slap their foreheads shouting "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!", then a lightbulb lights up above their head.

"Hey! Why don't we PRETEND we caught Ross because we googled him?! Then we don't have to explain to the court how we turned that bitch who kept him talking long enough to grab his laptop"

"OK people. Our snitch says she can keep Nash aka SameSamebutDifferent chatting. Lets do this"

We always talk about technology being the biggest threat to our liberty, but I know that MY opsec flaw is women. One day, YOUR woman will finally press that second 1 on the phone when she has PMT because you love that damned laptop more than her.


[-1 Points] None:

Ross was a smart guy but made some absolutely retarded opsec errors