Hackers take down a 10,000 websites on the Dark Web

The Dark Web has always been the mysterious alleyways lurking in the underbelly of the Internet. To those that know how to navigate them, it’s a haven for contraband peddlers, hackers and the occasional hitman for hire. Unfortunately for them, someone has just caved in the walls of those alleys.

A hacker linked to the iconic code-breaking group Anonymous claims he has managed to take down a large swathe of the Dark Web in one fell swoop. In an interview with Motherboard, the unnamed hacker explains how he took down about a fifth of Tor network’s secret websites, over 10,000 of them, as a lone vigilante. Tor is an online anonymity network that operates over the Dark Web. It protects a user’s identity online through a combination of encryption as well as multiple traffic redirects around the world.

The hacker says he decided to attack Freedom Hosting II, a web hosting service for the Dark Web, after he discovered it was managing child pornography sites with full knowledge of the situation. He says the websites in question were each chewing through gigabytes of data when the hosting service officially only allows 256MB. So when he breached Freedom Hosting II’s servers, each website in the grid had its pages replaced with a message denouncing the host, as well as a data dump with user info omitted and a detailed explainer of the hacker’s method.

Supposedly, the breach itself wasn’t that hard to carry out. All the hacker had to do was gain control over a website under their network, modify the configuration file, trigger a password reset, and gain root access.

So far, the hacker seems to be content with letting authorities carry the matter forward. He’s handed over the data to a security researcher, who will in turn pass it along to law enforcement, which will likely use it arrest the child porn sellers. Unfortunately, while the main perpetrators themselves could be pinned down, anyone who purchased the contraband will likely get off scot-free. The nature of Tor prevents investigators from pinpointing the locations of these clients, who will likely have scattered in the aftermath of the hack. Yet, though the hacker’s gambit may have paid off in putting in a few of the ringleaders behind bars, the beast that is the Dark Web has only been wounded, though not put down.