“ Dread Pirate Roberts , ” the conceiver behind the online drug market Silk Road , seemed like a smart dude . He amassed a multimillion dollar bill portion in drug money in just a few long time ! And he did it using the deep WWW and cryptocurrency unremarkably associated with sophisticated cybercrime . But if 30 - twelvemonth - sure-enough self - styled “ Robert Pattinson lookalike”Ross Ulbrichtis found guilty of being the Dread Pirate Roberts , he will have disclose his identity in a outstandingly bumpkinly means . A federal agent says he pinned the Silk Road on Ulbrichtwith a elementary Google search .
In tourist court on Thursday , special agent Gary Alforddescribed how he googled the Silk Road ’s original Tor browser app addressand looked at the earliest results , Motherboard cover today . You ca n’t access Tor internet site through Google , but you’re able to see when people hash out their uniform resource locator . This led him to a office in a Bitcoin forum by someone called “ altoid ” trying to attract people to the Silk Road back when it was starting out . Alford looked through the mail by “ altoid ” and saw that[email protect ] , Ulbricht ’s personal e-mail address , turned up in his post . Hetook screenshots of the damnatory hunt .
If the criminal prosecution ’s evidence is straight , Ulbricht sucked SO BAD at keeping his identicalness a secret . He got tied to the situation using literally the most basic Google search imaginable . And he left a veritable gem treasure trove of evidence , let in a friggin diary of his internal tumult regarding his burgeoning drug empire , on his calculator .
The Silk Road visitation has cover a broad swath of internet culture , with the Tor web browser , emoticon , Bitcoin , and now Google search play substantial roles in the proceedings .
And screenshots could have an crucial bequest in this typesetter’s case . Alford demonstrate the screenshots of his Google hunt as evidence , which is noteworthy because screenshots are on wonky undercoat as licit evidence — something Ulbricht ’s defense will surely pounce on . In United States v. Vayner last year , a courtruled that screenshots could n’t be used as grounds , since it ’s so easy to alter images or just instantly fudge them . Unless Alford and the prosecution have a means to assert that they ’re unaltered , the defense may stress to void this connection in the middle of the jury .
If the screenshots are taken as legitimate and Ulbricht gets convict partly because of the screenshot evidence , it ’ll a precedent for how screenshots are treated in courtrooms in the futurity . So this Google hunt is n’t just a potential smoke gun ; it could have lasting repercussions on the effectual scheme . [ Motherboard ]
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