[link to twitter.com (secure)]
Zack Whittaker
@zackwhittaker
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Oct 16
Two years ago, a hacker group told me they broke into a massive dark web child porn site that had thousands of users. Turns out it was the same dark web site dismantled by the feds and revealed today.

I couldn't write about it then — so now I am.
Inside the shutdown of the ‘world’s largest’ child sex abuse website – TechCrunch
Hackers found the dark web site just weeks after the U.S. government did.
techcrunch.com [link to techcrunch.com (secure)]
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Zack Whittaker
@zackwhittaker
Legally and journalistically, I was in a bind. How could I write a story without confirming the details, but in confirming the details would require me to visit an illegal site?

Our lawyers said it wasn't possible. The story died — until now.

More: [link to tcrn.ch (secure)]
4:16 PM · Oct 16, 2019
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Inside the shutdown of the ‘world’s largest’ child sex abuse website

Hackers found the dark web site just weeks after the U.S. government did

Zack Whittaker @zackwhittaker / 2 days

This morning, the Justice Department announced that it had brought charges against the administrator and hundreds of users of the “world’s largest” child sexual exploitation marketplace on the dark web.

For me, it marked the end of a story I’ve wanted to write for two years.

In November 2017, I was working for CBS as the security editor at ZDNet. A hacker group reached out to me over an encrypted chat claiming to have broken into a dark web site running a massive child sexual exploitation operation. I was stunned. I had previous interactions with the hacker group, but nothing like this
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