They are not shut down because, since they can only be accessed using TOR, their IP addresses and therefore their physical locations cannot be determined.
That is not entirely true, in fact it is fairly easy (for the NSA and experts at least) finding IP addresses in TOR - mainly through exploitable vulnerabilities. Still, the biggest failure of those on the TOR network is not properly covering their tracks. If you follow the cookie crumbs far enough, you generally find the culprit. Their online handle was used by them before they went to the dark web, they once registered a domain using their dark web email account but using their real name, etc. etc. With so much information to be had, time and complacency is what will do most of these bad guys in. The problem with shutting it all down is, most of these sties are hosted overseas in safe havens for offenders - like many Eastern European countries or Russia. There's a reason ThePirateBay is still kicking, and this is it. Either way, shut one down and two take it's place. The government has gotten pretty smart, and they actually work among/with the criminals which is the best thing they can do to bring them down. They pinch someone, and then they flip them and make them give them backdoors to their sites and accounts.
Hmmmm. To my knowledge their has only been one instance of a government or anybody cracking TOR. And that is in the Silk Road instance (which is back up and running). The Silk Road people were actually very good, but the proprietor got sloppy in a single question on a coding site that I am well familiar with. Every other instance has come from site construction flaws or direct communication between site operators and users.
If you think the government isn't well aware of everything happening on TOR, you're silly. As I said, the NSA and FBI pinch hackers and criminals and flip them. It has happened time and time again. They get back door access and/or dumps of their user databases and the like. They then mine said data for identifiable and traceable clues. This is why people like Ross Ulbricht are idiots. Take your tens of millions, and get out. It is only a matter of time. This article goes into many ways the NSA has already begun cracking away at the shell. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/tor-attacks-nsa-users-online-anonymity And remember, who controls the backbone of the internet? The US government. They don't even need to exploit servers and systems to capture all the data they need. Long story short, they don't need to crack TOR. It's weakest link are the greedy people on it.
However, the recent busting of an Anonymous member by injecting script into his OS I have not fully understood. My shallow understanding is that he failed to properly set up a VPN.
That is how they all eventually get caught. They slip up somewhere, or a single piece of information they've used (or shared) somehow makes it back and is linked to their real-world identity. It all comes down to patterns, and the NSA has billions of dollars in computing power to crunch patterns. Also, when it comes to hackers and other criminals their biggest enemies may not be the NSA or the FBI, but their competition. Not only do they have to fend off the feds, they have to fend off everyone who wants what they have.
Silly? I am never silly. But your last statement is absolutely true. Human error is realistically the only way to get the information to shut down a darknet site. But the architecture of TOR makes it about as uncrackable as anything on the web. The Silk Road investigation took 18 months and 8 figures of money for effort by the best CS's in the business to crack. And the US government would not have had that success if Silk Road's owner did not pose a question on a geek coding site under his own IP address. The question was only up for 90 or so seconds, so I guess that supports your thesis.
The interesting thing is that Silk Road is back up and fully functional. It was down for what - 22 days? And it will take another human error and a $40M investigation to bring it down again. That is about as secure as it gets on the darknet.
Silk Road isn't back up. A replacement simply filled the hole they left. Then, it was "hacked" stealing millions in BitCoins in the process. Or, if you're a smart person... the owners took off with the millions, as it was an inside job. Or if you want to go deeper than that rabbit hole, the new Silk Road was setup by the NSA. http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/14/technology/security/silk-road-bitcoin/ Greed and complacency will get the best of them, every time. They are criminals after all.
Law enforcement - limited resources. Anarchist - unlimited supply. Look I completely support your position. I have been in this business a long time and live about the most mundane life imaginable. But this would be a government initiative that resembles the war on drugs. Except much much harder. Should the US government put some resources into this? Certainly. Where should their resources be focused? Child p*rn IMHO.
Except in this case law enforcement is playing with a stacked deck, which helps even the playing field. They control the internet, so these criminals are playing in their sandbox. Terrorists, murderers, radicals, rapists, child pornographers and countless other bad dudes are on the dark web. They have the resources to make a difference, and will - you just won't hear about it on the evening news, mainly because Snowden no longer has active network credentials. .
Quick fyi, Dark web is just a computer wiht no internet or wifi access. Or maybe an external hard drive. Not part of this thread.
