As the trial of alleged Silk Road drug market creator Ross Ulbricht approaches, the defense has highlighted the mystery of how law enforcement first located the main Silk Road server in an Icelandic data center, despite that computer's being hidden by the formidable anonymity software Tor. Was the FBI tipped off to the server's location by the NSA, who used a secret and possibly illegal Tor-cracking technique?
The answer, according to a new filing by the case's prosecution, is far more mundane: The FBI claims to have found the server's location without the NSA's help, simply by fiddling with the Silk Road's login page until a software misconfiguration leaked its true location.
As the trial of alleged Silk Road drug market creator Ross Ulbricht approaches, the defense has highlighted the mystery of how law enforcement first located the main Silk Road server in an I…