drug enforcement officials removed a long-standing thorn in their side Wednesday, as the FBI seized the notorious Silk Road trading site and filed charges against Ross William Ulbricht.The government claims Ulbricht has steered the site as the eloquent “Dread Pirate Roberts” since January 2011.The Silk Road functioned as a sort of Ebay for drugs and other oft-illegal merchandise, serving as an anonymous marketplace connecting buyers with sellers, complete with an escrow system to reduce transactional risk.Authorities have been trying to shut down the Silk Road for years, but, until now, it proved a frustratingly difficult gnat to swat.The site cloaked itself deep in the Darknet, the hidden, anonymous underbelly of the Web, and was only reachable when using the anonymizing Tor software and network.The site also relied on Bitcoins to allow buyers and sellers to swap cash without revealing their identity.The Silk Road currently prompts you to log in with your user ID before tossing up the seizure notification.

Security researcher Brian Krebs has posted a PDF of the charges against Ulbricht, which include narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy.Under the narcotics conspiracy charges, the FBI also claims that in May 2013, Ulbricht attempted to pay a Silk Road user to murder another member who was “threatening to release the identities of thousands of users of the site.” The Guardian reports that Ulbricht has been arrested in San Francisco.He allegedly had more than 26,000 Bitcoins in his virtual wallet—a stash worth more than $3.6 million.And that's just the tip of the iceberg: The FBI claims that since its inception, the Silk Road had more than 9.5 million Bitcoins worth of sales revenue, totalling roughly $1.2 billion.Yes, that's "billion" with a "b," and all those sales allegedly generated 600,00 Bitcoins (totalling roughly $80 million) for Silk Road itself.The market price of Bitcoins took a massive nosedive after the government announced the Silk Road takedown.

In mere moments, the trading price of a Bitcoin dropped from an average selling price of around $140 earlier today all the way down to a low of roughly $110 after news broke, according to Clark Moody.Average selling prices have since been hovering around the $120 range.Would-be drug buyers are finding their online options rapidly evaporating.bitcoin calculator nzdLate last month, Silk Road rival Atlantis abruptly shut its doors, allegedly spiriting with its users’ Bitcoins.bitcoin bviBeyond drugs, the sanctity of Tor’s “Onionland” Darknet itself has been under siege recently.bitcoin gold pendantIn August, FBI agents seized the servers of Freedom Hosting, which housed many of the more popular “Hidden Services” websites that comprise Onionland.litecoin china news

At the same time, many Tor websites were compromised by a Javascript vulnerability that sent the distinct MAC address of users’ computers to a remote server allegedly belonging to federal authorities.Update: Silk Road allegedly did 9.5 million Bitcoins worth of business.The original version erroneously said "9.5 billion."bitcoin dice gamblingAlso added information about the Bitcoin price drop.bitcoin scryptTo comment on this article and other PCWorld content, visit our Facebook page or our Twitter feed.South Korea to dispose $500K worth of seized bitcoin in public auction BY ON June 22, 2017 Following in the footsteps of the United States, the South Korean government has announced that it will auction 216 bitcoins that it confiscated in 2016.The cache of digital currency, currently worth close to $600,000, was seized by members of the South Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency, who arrested a 33-year-old individual on charges of operating an “obscenity” website, Seoul Economic Daily reported.

This will be the first auction of its kind in South Korea.Confiscated financial assets, including digital currencies like bitcoin, can be auctioned off by the government, according to the Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO), which oversees all state-owned properties and development.“With the exception of currencies, assets and securities are auctionable by the South Korean government.Although it is the first auction involving a digital currency overseen by the South Korean government, investors and the public can consider bitcoin as an asset that changes in value over time,” KAMCO said in a statement.Even though digital currencies are currently in high demand, the seized bitcoins are forecast to be sold at a rate lower than the exchange market price, which is currently at $2,650.45.The auction will happen later this year, and the money raised will be forwarded to the South Korean Treasury as it is considered as an additional asset for the government.Still, the South Korean government is expected to make a killing from the auction.

Last year, the U.S.Marshals Services pocketed close to $2 million in profit after auctioning off 2,700 bitcoin it confiscated in the cases involving Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.The government of Australia also sold 24,518 confiscated bitcoins worth about $11.49 million in last year’s auction, which attracted interest from “bitcoin exchanges, digital asset investment funds and high net worth individuals.” The auctioned digital coins, which were “confiscated as proceeds of crime,” were believed to be from an Australian man who was convicted of commercial drug trafficking charges in 2014.Posted 13 April 2015 - 08:26 AM Today Kaspersky announced the availability of a free decryption application for those affected by the CoinVault ransomware.In a joint operation between Kaspersky, the National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) of the Netherlands' police, and the Netherlands' National Prosecutors Office a database of some of the private decryption keys were seized from CoinVault's Command & Control server.

Using this database Kaspersky has created a dedicated site and decryption application that can be used to decrypt files encrypted by CoinVault.Unfortunately, in our tests the database is incomplete and does not contain every bitcoin address associated with CoinVault victims./ and enter the bitcoin address that is displayed in the CoinVault program.Once you enter the Bitcoin address, the site will search through the decryption key database and check to see if they have your key.If the site is unable to find your bitcoin address it will state Currently we do not have any records for this Bitcoin wallet.. Otherwise it will show the IV code and key that is associated with your bitcoin address.You will need this information to decrypt your files using their decryption application.If you are able to retrieve your information, you should download Kaspersky's CoinVault Decryptor and enter in the IV code and Key that the site displayed.You can then either decrypt an individual file or all of your encrypted files.

If you wish to decrypt all of your encrypted files, you need to browse to the filelist.txt file that contains a list of all your encrypted files.This file is usually located at %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\filelist.txt.Once you are ready to decrypt your files, click on the Start button.After performing the mass decryption process utilizing the filelist.txt list, if there are any data files still encrypted you can use the tool to decrypt those leftover files individually.If there are many files leftover, you can enter their paths into a text file and use that file as your encrypted file list.Kaspersky provides instructions on how to use the program, but unfortunately it does not address some issues.For example, if the CoinVault program is unable to access the Command & Control server, it will not make itself visible.Therefore, you may be unable to access your bitcoin addresses.Furthermore, if you are not able to access the GUI for the ransomware, you cannot use the instructions for exporting the file list.

If you know your CoinVault bitcoin address, you can access the file list using the path described above.Lawrence AbramsFollow us on Twitter!Follow us on FacebookCircle BleepingComputer on Google+!How to Remove Adware from a PC <- It's getting ugly out there!How to detect vulnerable programs using Secunia Personal Software Inspector <- Everyone should do this!Simple and easy ways to keep your computer safe and secure on the Internet <- Everyone must read this!How to Protect and Harden a Computer against Ransomware <- Everyone must read this!BC AdBot (Login to Remove) Posted 13 April 2015 - 08:40 AM Your URL link is broken Grinler  Any hints that let guess if they plan on seizing more servers?Edited by Aura., 13 April 2015 - 08:41 AM.Technical Support, Tier 2 | | Malware Hunter | | @AuraTheWhiteHatMy timezone UTC-05:00 (East.If I didn't reply to you within 48 hours, please send me a PM.Posted 13 April 2015 - 08:54 AM Any hints that let guess if they plan on seizing more servers?From the decryption website itself...Please note that this is an ongoing investigation and new keys will be added in the future.I sure hope they do Member of the Bleeping Computer early response team!

Posted 13 April 2015 - 08:56 AM Gotta love Kaspersky I wonder if they plan on seizing servers for other Cryptowares as well.It honestly looks nice for an Antivirus company to work with the Law Enforcement and take down Cybercriminals Technical Support, Tier 2 | | Malware Hunter | | @AuraTheWhiteHatMy timezone UTC-05:00 (East.Posted 13 April 2015 - 09:02 AM Member of the Bleeping Computer early response team!Posted 13 April 2015 - 09:06 AM Technical Support, Tier 2 | | Malware Hunter | | @AuraTheWhiteHatMy timezone UTC-05:00 (East.Posted 13 April 2015 - 09:15 AM Lawrence AbramsFollow us on Twitter!Follow us on FacebookCircle BleepingComputer on Google+!How to Remove Adware from a PC <- It's getting ugly out there!How to detect vulnerable programs using Secunia Personal Software Inspector <- Everyone should do this!Simple and easy ways to keep your computer safe and secure on the Internet <- Everyone must read this!How to Protect and Harden a Computer against Ransomware <- Everyone must read this!

Posted 13 April 2015 - 10:28 AM Member of the Bleeping Computer early response team!Posted 14 April 2015 - 09:20 AM Hi Grinler.Topic name is CoinVault ransomware decrypter now available through Kasperksy.Should be: CoinVault ransomware decryptor now available through Kaspersky (Based on Kaspersky's website.), feel free to send me a PM.“You’re lying… just like you were lying to me before.You have to hate me.I’ve been the worst daughter in the world… you should hate me.” “But I don’t, Nyx.Because, Nyx, I’m your mother, and a mother will always love her daughter, no matter what.” -Past sins by Pen stroke.Posted 23 April 2015 - 05:45 AM Hi, If my bit coin address is not in Kaspersky database.How I do next step?bitcoin address 19QJNRuaNCJgsrCvtSvLC7vNUgx989wc4q Posted 23 April 2015 - 07:04 AM Hi suppasak Sadly it means that they don't have your private key or they didn't seize the keys associated with the Bitcoin ransom address you have.