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Anonymous Takes Down 10,613 Dark Web Portals (bleepingcomputer.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Anonymous hackers have breached Freedom Hosting II, a popular Dark Web hosting provider, and have taken down 10,613 .onion sites. In a message left on all Freedom Hosting II sites, the hackers claim to have found massive troves of child pornography imagery hosted on the company's servers. The hackers dumped 74GB of server files (half of which they say contained child pornography) and a database dump of 2.3GB. Security researcher Chris Monteiro has analyzed some of the dumped data. He says he discovered .onion URLs hosting botnets, fraud sites, sites peddling hacked data, weird fetish portals, more weird stuff, and child abuse websites targeting both English- and Russian-speaking buyers. Freedom Hosting II hosts about a fifth of all .onion URLs. The first Freedom Hosting service was targeted by Anonymous in 2011 and eventually shut down in 2013 after the FBI also found child pornography hosted on its sites.

53 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Good job by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Normally I would not approve, but that much child stuff...good for them. Shut it down.

    1. Re:Good job by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, in all of this, I did learn a new word: Vorarephilia.

      At some point, you have to wonder: How on earth do people come up with these different philias? Some things you can kind of understand at some level, like necrophilia and zoophilia because the requisite body parts are at least present in some form...but how the hell do you get sexual satisfaction out of swallowing somebody whole?

    2. Re:Good job by Fragnet · · Score: 1

      Vorarephilia

      Eh?

    3. Re:Good job by SciFurz · · Score: 3

      how the hell do you get sexual satisfaction out of swallowing somebody whole?

      Welcome to human nature.
      I guess this fetish is sort of like the one for asphyxiation. The thrill of getting close to death or dying.

      Anything that can cause a physical reaction can also be a trigger for a sexual reaction when the link has established in the brain. It might be best for your sanity to not search for these things on internet.

      --
      Write and/or read. https://scifurz.wordpress.com/
    4. Re: Good job by Noah+Haders · · Score: 2

      now if only anon would finally release the trump tax returns!

    5. Re:Good job by lucien86 · · Score: 1

      Things people get exposed to in childhood.. Vorarephilia is simply an extreme form of eating-digestion fantasy. If you want to know more about weird sexual fantasies just type 'fetishes' into Wikipedia... :)

      --
      Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
    6. Re:Good job by lucien86 · · Score: 1

      You should join ISIS. I hope you suffer a long and painful dead as a jihadi.. That kind of thinking is why we call you people 'Christian Taliban'.

      --
      Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
    7. Re:Good job by CommanderRyalis · · Score: 1

      I forgot who said it (maybe Adam Corolla) "If you can think it, some one some where in Los Angeles is doing it"

  2. Tough break for Trump Administration... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The FBI will have to find a new way to entrap people into child poornography, as they operate all the child pornography websites on the Internet.

    1. Re:Tough break for Trump Administration... by HiThere · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but if they *could* validate it, he'd be the person they'd prosecute, so what're the options.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    2. Re:Tough break for Trump Administration... by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      I hear certain 2016 presidential candidate losers don't mind child rapists as long as they pay their legal bills.

      Funny, the other one already is in court for just that

    3. Re:Tough break for Trump Administration... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3

      When you say ALL, did you really mean it?

      I read it on /., so it must be true.

      https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/11/11/2138201/fbi-operated-23-tor-hidden-child-porn-sites-deployed-malware-from-them

    4. Re:Tough break for Trump Administration... by zedaroca · · Score: 2

      They admitted in court about running over half of the child pornography websites. It's not a crazy bet that the other half is theirs too (or at least part of it), but it is not a known fact.

    5. Re:Tough break for Trump Administration... by Noah+Haders · · Score: 2

      > It's not like they're out there creating the CP.

      #PIZZAGATE

    6. Re:Tough break for Trump Administration... by Trogre · · Score: 1

      But clearly Anonymous want Donald Trump in power.

      After all, last year they bragged about how they could ruin his campaign any time, and then did nothing.

      So either they're full of crap, or they didn't really want to do it in the first place. Which is it, guys?

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    7. Re: Tough break for Trump Administration... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I love that turn of phrase... "Not a known fact". So a fact, just not known. At least it isn't alternative!

    8. Re:Tough break for Trump Administration... by Xenographic · · Score: 1

      Pizzagate?

      Why do you believe the FBI has anything to do with Podesta talking about a handkercheif with a 'pizza-related map' in leaked emails or with weird pictures found on Alefantis' now-defunct Instagram account?

    9. Re:Tough break for Trump Administration... by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      a lot of people say that TPTB in government are part of a wid-ranging conspiracy to exploit children in a sexual way. I think the FBI would have to be implicated in some way, because there's no way that TPTB would let FBI get the drop on them.

  3. Am I missing something here? by Fragnet · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They did a data dump, a torrent, with all these sites on? Isn't that, you know, a bad idea?

  4. Re:Misidentification of "sexual" stimuli by hackwrench · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The problem is one of taxonomy. When certain impulses are usually triggered by sex, they are labeled sexual, no matter whether the fact remains that they can be triggered by other neurological pathways. A lot of the social arguments are ones of taxonomy. Whether or not someone is male or female, or the less appealing classification of neuter, or whether the bonding of two or more individuals should be classified under the term, "marriage". ]

  5. Re:Link please by Notabadguy · · Score: 1

    He's asking for you know...scientific and research purposes.

  6. Re:For Science! by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    And of course you want to know this for Science!

  7. Re:You too? by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    The timing of our two posts is incredible, especially considering the time between when I first saw his comment and when the urge to make this sort of comment on it became irresistible.

  8. Irony by lucasnate1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Anonymous are attacking a hosting service that allows people to host things anonymously? Weren't these guys touted as the anti-establishment pro-freedom guys? Why does "FOR THE CHILDREN!!!" suddently the basic freedoms of all the non child abusers in the service?

    1. Re:Irony by Notabadguy · · Score: 5, Funny

      You had me for the first two thirds of your post, but then the words both stopped being words, and stopped being assembled in a fashion resembling a sentence, so your overall thought was lost.

    2. Re:Irony by lucasnate1 · · Score: 1

      I was asking why does the moral panic caused by "for the children" take priority over everything else?

    3. Re:Irony by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 1

      Some things are hardwired into humanity, and one of those things is the protection of children.

      Moral relativity withers away when children are involved.

      Yes, I know it's not very postmodern, and childless 'libertard'* nerds living in mom's basement won't understand.

      (*A libertard is very different from a libertarian.

    4. Re:Irony by Oligonicella · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Cmdln Daco gave you the biological reason, here's a moral one: What is happening to these children is equivalent to someone, say you, being taken and tortured and forced to perform sexual acts. My guess is you would very much want someone to intervene and then punish. So do the children. I would also add that it's not a panic at all but a cold decision that the law looks at those people especially dark because the children are incapable of defending themselves and many times of even speaking out.

      I believe you're laboring under the assumption that someone who supports the idea that you shouldn't be tracked needlessly across your web travels must also support people directly harming children or providing cover in digital form for those that do. This is not the case.

    5. Re:Irony by lucasnate1 · · Score: 1

      Oh well, I guess I just need to learn from the conservatives and wait until they are 18, then we can have the state conscript them and forcefully send them to die.

    6. Re:Irony by lucasnate1 · · Score: 1

      Let's say that I do get tortured and abused, and someone gets pictures of it and puts them online, say in liveleak, or even in some "well respected" news site. Who is responsible for torturing me? The one who did it? Or the jerks who hosted the pics?

    7. Re:Irony by rtb61 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      'Anonymous' is anyone who wants to take a political action through the name of 'Anonymous'. So 'Anonymous' quite legitimately can be a team of FBI Agents and NSA agents who felt there were a group of foreign web sites that could not touch but that could be brought down by exposure, not quite legal but certainly within the spirit of 'Anonymous'. Where public justice fails private 'Anonymous' action can still succeed.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    8. Re:Irony by Xenographic · · Score: 1

      Even a hardcore libertarian can find reasons why possession of CP should be illegal.

    9. Re: Irony by Kkloe · · Score: 1

      Saying something anti cp seems always to be like spot the vegan, instead here you get the pedophile

    10. Re:Irony by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Indeed. Societies have used infanticide as a method of birth control (and some still do). Children have been used as slave labor (and some still do).
      It's not hardwired at all - it is cultural.

      If I were driving and suddenly was faced with a choice of hitting an adult or hitting a child, I'd run over the child. Children is a renewable resource.

    11. Re:Irony by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      You can hang yourself by your own petard all you want then. Even us "free speech" folks have lines that get drawn at the abuse of children.

      Maybe you can tell everyone why you're pro-child rape?

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    12. Re:Irony by joboss · · Score: 1

      Anonymous attacking anonymity.

    13. Re:Irony by strikethree · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Where public justice fails private 'Anonymous' action can still succeed.

      Vigilante Justice: Always torturing the correct person. GG WP.

      Meh. As long as someone suffers terribly for a crime not being properly addressed through official channels. The situation is even better when the person being tortured didn't actually do it but is socially unpopular anyways. The reason being is that TWO problems have been taken care of, not just one. Of course, the original criminal is still out there ready to do evil again, but that is just random. There is no way to take care of that. Fuck yeah! Vigilante Justice for the win.

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
    14. Re:Irony by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      Then you are not pro free speech then because if you allow truly anonymous speech to help those in oppressive regimes you have to allow the CP scumbags because otherwise it ain't fucking anonymous and those people actually trying to get information out of those shitholes might just disappear in the middle of the night, got it?

      Can't have your cake and eat it too, either you have zero anonymous communications, which means all those trapped in repressive regimes have no way to get news of atrocities and war crimes out, or you have anonymous communications in which case there will always be some CP scumbags that come along with that because in many places you will get more time for a CP video that for blowing a kid's brains out.

      So which is it, do you support using the Internet to find out about the evil regimes and hopefully build enough momentum that they can be overthrown and can be gotten for war crimes, or do you support keeping those millions gagged "for teh childrenz!"

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    15. Re:Irony by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Except that they believe that other people's personal liberties should be allowed to trump your own. Whereas most people use government for protecting personal liberties by limiting the effects of others on you. It's really a question of which people are deemed important.

    16. Re:Irony by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Which is another way of saying that the so-called "abuse" is conducted through activity the children find enjoyable and do voluntary with people they love and trust.

      Which is another way of saying Stockholm Syndrome.

    17. Re:Irony by Xenographic · · Score: 1

      Memory problems, actually. I was thinking about Ken's reply in the comments (which Randazza used to agree with) and I conflated the two.

      The part I was thinking of isn't the article, but this comment:

      https://www.popehat.com/2017/01/17/randazza-legalize-child-porn/#comment-1352363

    18. Re:Irony by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      And you've managed to contradict yourself three times in the first sentence. Did you figure out where? Or do you need me to draw a diagram for you.

      I'll give you a hint: (1)

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    19. Re:Irony by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      And you just ignore the entire post so you can have a pedantic circle jerk...we have seen your kind before..

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  9. Re:Still a thing? by Fragnet · · Score: 1

    I thought Anonymous was just this one guy with goggle-eyes staring vacantly into the camera with his mouth open.

  10. Re:Still a thing? by _merlin · · Score: 1

    Anyone can be "anonymous" - that's the thing. It's a label different people use at different times.

  11. The Commons by labnet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Let's say that I do get tortured and abused, and someone gets pictures of it and puts them online, say in liveleak, or even in some "well respected" news site. Who is responsible for torturing me? The one who did it? Or the jerks who hosted the pics?

    They are both responsible, provided no party is a common carrier.

    I read a very interesting article recently on the law of the commons. It essentially said that knowing someones real identity in a public commons, makes for polite (read socially acceptable) behaviour. This is why facebook is generally very polite; but anonymous blog comments can be abusive.

    The issue is, we have a great tussle between our valid fear of governments, and even private businesses, abusing their knowledge of you; and our need as a society to protect those that cannot protect themselves by revealing the identity of those that abuse. This is not only children, but the elderly, and those with physical and mental impairments.

    There is currently no answer to this problem as the two requirements will always oppose each other.

    --
    46137
    1. Re:The Commons by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 1

      It essentially said that knowing someones real identity in a public commons, makes for polite (read socially acceptable) behaviour. This is why facebook is generally very polite; but anonymous blog comments can be abusive.

      The challenge of not being anonymous is that today the level of social conformity being forced is at a sixty year high. Stated another way, probably not since McCarthyism in the 1950's has the danger of not having the "correct" opinion been so high. Probably the best example of this is people being harassed for political donations in 2008. Think about that for a moment, how you campaigned or voted now impacts your job options. Anyone who subscribes to tactics like these is clearly not mature enough for democracy. If you feel the need to punish people who don't vote the "right way", which is of course your way, then you're just not a good fit for a democracy nor an open and civil society.

      Citation: http://www.heritage.org/marria...

  12. Wiener wasn't entrapped, he tweeted publicly by Xenographic · · Score: 2

    How exactly do you think this constitutes entrapment? What, precisely, did the FBI allegedly do here that forced people not already predisposed to visit CP sites to visit their sites? It seems to me that you're simply promulgating an old myth about entrapment, in that merely giving someone the means to commit a crime they were already predisposed to commit is 'entrapment', when this is not so. If that's what you think, please read this guide written by an actual lawyer.

    There's a reasonable discussion of harm minimization here as to whether the interest in catching predators using the sites outweighed allowing them to continue to exist, but the idea that giving would-be criminals an opportunity to commit crime somehow constitutes "entrapment" is one of the most common myths.

    Now, it is true that the standard reasoning given for why possession (as opposed to production) of child pornography is illegal is very much at odds with the idea of keeping the site live, in that they're ostensibly re-victimizing those portrayed in the CP sites they permit to live. However, that is by no means the only rationale as to why mere possession should be illegal. But if you want to argue that, you'd do well to discuss it in more detail rather than simply dashing off some ill-premised missive regarding an FBI operation that happened months ago.

    1. Re:Wiener wasn't entrapped, he tweeted publicly by Kjella · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Now, it is true that the standard reasoning given for why possession (as opposed to production) of child pornography is illegal is very much at odds with the idea of keeping the site live, in that they're ostensibly re-victimizing those portrayed in the CP sites they permit to live.

      From what I understand operating a site means they didn't just enable people to download what was already posted, but also to continue creating new posts and distribute more material. I think the best analogy would probably be knowing about a drug smuggling tunnel and take over operation with undercover agents rather than shut it down, even though they can't control what is smuggled or where it'd end up.

      Nobody is entrapped, because it takes bad intent to use a smuggling tunnel in the first place. The drug lord and the junkie would still exist and they'd find other routes, but how responsible are you if the junkie OD'd on drugs you intentionally let through? Morally, it stinks pretty bad. Legally, no tunnel operator could pin all the blame on the mules. The cops are in on the conspiracy, they have their share of the guilt for the results.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    2. Re:Wiener wasn't entrapped, he tweeted publicly by Xenographic · · Score: 1

      > The cops are in on the conspiracy, they have their share of the guilt for the results.

      As far as moral guilt goes, I feel you. I don't like the idea of the cops operating CP sites, I'd rather these all died. I can see the case for harm minimization though--the pedos would just move to other sites if they killed it. They're not involved in the creation of new CP, which is, at least in my mind, even more wrong than possession. So it doesn't sit well with me at all, but on the other hand, there is a reasonable case here that they've minimized the harm to the public by catching people creating new CP even as they permit a different evil to exist for a while longer.

      That said, as far as legal guilt goes? No. Within limits, the cops can commit crime during a sting. The cops didn't do anything to the site as far as I know, they just let it continue to exist while they rounded up users.

    3. Re:Wiener wasn't entrapped, he tweeted publicly by Xenographic · · Score: 1

      As a correction to the above, I should have linked more specifically to this comment by Ken:

      https://www.popehat.com/2017/01/17/randazza-legalize-child-porn/#comment-1352363

      Here's the essence of the rationale I wanted to refer to -

      Actual child pornography is an artifact of the illegal abuse of children. That distinguishes it from other pornography, the production of which is legal. Child pornography is more like the fabled snuff film in which someone is murdered on camera. It's an artifact of not mere harm, but criminal harm. To me, possessing it is the equivalent of buying and possessing a child's severed head on a plaque for your wall.

  13. When the hell does Freedom Hosting III start up? by Joviex · · Score: 1

    Because we obviously dont learn the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, ....

  14. The Nose Knows? by Xenographic · · Score: 1

    The people in charge change regularly enough that I wouldn't label the FBI as some monolithic block when there must be thousands of people in there with different motivations, knowledge, and leadership.

    Besides, more than a few high ranking pedos have been taken down, for example former Republican Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert. I'm surprised Podesta would still want to hang out with that guy, but then again, they do have a long history together.