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Given that the Alphabay takedown (and law enforcement's control of the servers for at least six weeks) was more than a month ago, Huthchins' blithely travelling

Given that the Alphabay takedown (and law enforcement's control of the servers for at least six weeks) was more than a month ago, Huthchins' blithely travelling to the States for Blackhat seems a level of confidence completely at odds with known facts and the apparent allegations of the indictment.

Buge 9y ago
I don't see why Alphabay getting taken down would really put him at risk. He wouldn't have put his bank account or credit card on the site. This isn't even like drugs where physical mailing addresses are involved. The worst would be the money in his account getting seized.
- ajarmst 9y ago
  No, it could be much worse than that. Law enforcement didn't immediately shut Alphabay down---they let it run compromised for several weeks, gathering evidence. If Hutchins made transactions during that period, he was at signficant risk, especially if he was under surveilance at the time---simple traffic analysis would be enough to connect him to activity on the site. It's very hard to hide the content of a conversation from one of its participants.
  - Buge 9y ago
    I would think that when operating any type of illegal online enterprise, you should always operate under the assumption that everyone you're talking to is a government agent. So you should never reveal anything about yourself. The government is obviously making many undercover purchases. Traffic analysis is a risk, but questionable. If it was used in this case, I want to follow this case closely to see more details. Because I haven't heard of a case of the government using traffic analysis to identify users except extremely basic stuff such as "we saw him walk into his house, then saw some Tor traffic, then saw a post appear on the forums".
    - wepple 9y ago
      Unfortunately there will likely be a nice parallel construction to ensure we never find out exact how they snared him

Buge 9y ago

I don't see why Alphabay getting taken down would really put him at risk. He wouldn't have put his bank account or credit card on the site. This isn't even like drugs where physical mailing addresses are involved. The worst would be the money in his account getting seized.

ajarmst 9y ago
No, it could be much worse than that. Law enforcement didn't immediately shut Alphabay down---they let it run compromised for several weeks, gathering evidence. If Hutchins made transactions during that period, he was at signficant risk, especially if he was under surveilance at the time---simple traffic analysis would be enough to connect him to activity on the site. It's very hard to hide the content of a conversation from one of its participants.
- Buge 9y ago
  I would think that when operating any type of illegal online enterprise, you should always operate under the assumption that everyone you're talking to is a government agent. So you should never reveal anything about yourself. The government is obviously making many undercover purchases. Traffic analysis is a risk, but questionable. If it was used in this case, I want to follow this case closely to see more details. Because I haven't heard of a case of the government using traffic analysis to identify users except extremely basic stuff such as "we saw him walk into his house, then saw some Tor traffic, then saw a post appear on the forums".
  - wepple 9y ago
    Unfortunately there will likely be a nice parallel construction to ensure we never find out exact how they snared him