The age of
information is undoubtedly one of the most valuable things our generation has,
but it comes with a price. In a world where anonymity runs rampant and tracking
is nearly impossible without sophisticated technology, the negative impacts of
the Internet remain just as obvious as the good ones. In "The Confessions
of a Silk Road Kingpin" Patrick Howell O'Neill from the Daily Dot
explores the underground drug ring of the internet- the infamous Silk Road.
The story is
told as a narrative from the perspective of Steven Lloyd Sadler, a once
prescription pill dealer turned heroin kingpin. Initially an IT guy working for
system maintenance and administration, an opportunity which granted Sadler
access to hundreds of thousands of "social security numbers, drivers'
license numbers, mothers' maiden names, and other information that, when
combined, could be used to set up prepaid credit cards in the names of other
people". Nothing about what Sadler did was inherently evil, he didn't
steal, hurt or destroy anything, but his actions have a heavy price of life in
prison according to the criminal justice system.
O'Neill
alludes to Breaking Bad, a popular TV show glamorizing the life of a New Mexican
meth drug lord, Sadler was in a very similar situation. All Sadler's actions
were done from the comfort of his own home operating on his computer on a
secret online website called the Silk Road. The Silk Road could not be accessed
by normal means or standard URLs. The Silk Road was located in a protected part
of the Internet called the Deep Web. The name doesn't really do the place
justice since the only requirement to access the site was downloading a special
browser called “Tor.”
Whether or not the ethics behind Sadler's
actions were safe and sound, what he did is still a crime in the eyes of the
law and protection is never 100%.
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