Freedom Hosting

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Freedom Hosting
Web hosting provider
Founder(s)Eric Eoin Marques
UsersHalf of all Tor sites.[1]
Written inPHP

Freedom Hosting was a Tor specialist web hosting service that was established in 2008. At its height in August 2013, it was the largest Tor web host.[2]

Anonymous denial-of-service attack

In 2011,

Operation Darknet, an anti-child pornography effort against activities on the dark web. One of the largest sites, Lolita City, hosted by Freedom Hosting,[3] was subject to a denial-of-service attack (DDoS), and later had its member list leaked following an SQL injection attack, as was The Hidden Wiki which linked to it.[4]

Federal investigation

News reports linked a

EgotisticalGiraffe.[10]

Founder and legal proceedings

The site was founded and administered by an American-Irish citizen, Eric Eoin Marques (born (1985-04-29)April 29, 1985), who was born in New York City to an Irish mother and a Brazilian-born Portuguese father who worked as a successful architect.[11][12] He had been referred to a psychiatrist as a young teenager with no specific diagnosis made.[13] He was described as timid and anti-social, and had failed to complete school.[12] In 2005, Marques started a business named Host Ultra with his father before dissolving it in 2011.[12][11] His father had justified the large amounts of money Marques made by claiming he worked at a bank.[12]

Marques was arrested in Ireland on 1 August 2013, on a provisional extradition warrant issued by a United States court on the 29th of July that year.

Asperger's syndrome and would not receive the appropriate care in a US prison if extradited.[18][19] In December 2016, the Irish Court of Appeal ruled the extradition should proceed.[20] This was not the end of his appeal process, however, and his lawyers announced they would make a new appeal to the Supreme Court. This appeal was dismissed by the Irish Supreme Court on 20 March 2019.[21] Marques faced life in prison if tried and convicted in the United States.[22] On 6 February 2020, Marques pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to advertise child abuse images, as part of a plea agreement that would entail a prison term of 15 to 21 years.[23][24] On 6 September 2021, Marques was sentenced to 27 years imprisonment and ordered to forfeit over $154,000.[25][26]

Notable hosted sites

Successor

After the closure of Freedom Hosting, a new service, Freedom Hosting II, was created. In 2017, it ran 20 percent of all websites on the Tor network.[30] It was taken permanently offline later in 2017 during a coordinated hacking attack.[31][32]

References

  1. ^ Almost Half of Tor sites compromised by FBI Archived 2021-06-18 at the Wayback Machine, E-hacking News, (August 04, 2013).
  2. ^ Howell O'Neill, Patrick (4 August 2013). "An in-depth guide to Freedom Hosting, the engine of the Dark Net". Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  3. ^ Finklea, Kristin (7 July 2015). "Dark Web" (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service: 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 October 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021 – via University of North Texas Libraries. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ Gallagher, Sean (4 August 2013). "Alleged Tor hidden service operator busted for child porn distribution". Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  5. ^ "'Peeling back the layers of Tor with EgotisticalGiraffe' – read the document". Guardian. 4 October 2013.
  6. ^ Samson, Ted (5 August 2013). "Tor Browser Bundle for Windows users susceptible to info-stealing attack". InfoWorld. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  7. ^ Poulsen, Kevin (8 May 2013). "Feds Are Suspects in New Malware That Attacks Tor Anonymity". Wired. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
  8. ^ Owen, Gareth. "FBI Malware Analysis". Archived from the original on 17 April 2014. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  9. ^ Poulsen, Kevin (13 September 2013). "FBI Admits It Controlled Tor Servers Behind Mass Malware Attack". Wired. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
  10. ^ Schneier, Bruce (4 October 2013). "Attacking Tor: how the NSA targets users' online anonymity". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
  11. ^ a b O’Doherty, Caroline (2021-09-16). "Eric Eoin Marquez: The Irishman labelled the 'kingpin' of child abuse material". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 2023-11-24.
  12. ^ a b c d "Eric Eoin Marques: 28-year-old architect's son from Dublin accused of being world's biggest dealer in child abuse images". Independent.ie. 2013-08-24. Retrieved 2023-11-24.
  13. ^ O’Doherty, Caroline (2019-03-23). "Man with socialisation difficulties or a cold-blooded criminal?". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 2023-11-24.
  14. ^ "US given 10 days to request extradition of child porn suspect". Irish Examiner. 8 August 2013.
  15. ^ O'Faolain, Aodhan; Managh, Ray (3 August 2013). "FBI says Irishman is baron of online child porn". Irish Examiner. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020.
  16. ^ Best, Jessica (21 January 2014). "Man branded 'largest facilitator of child porn on the planet' remanded in custody again". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
  17. ^ Dingledine, Roger (5 August 2013). "Tor security advisory: Old Tor Browser Bundles vulnerable". Tor Project. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  18. ^ Smith, Lewis (11 May 2015). "Irish man fighting extradition to US over child abuse image charges has Asperger's syndrome, court hears". Independent. Retrieved 27 February 2016.
  19. ^ O'Doherty, Caroline (2017-07-17). "The Irishman labelled the 'child porn kingpin'". Irish Examiner. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 2018-06-30.
  20. RTE News. 16 December 2016. Archived
    from the original on 13 December 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  21. RTE News. Archived
    from the original on 29 March 2019.
  22. ^ Aaron Rogan, Ruaidhrí Giblin, 'Dark web host' appeals against US extradition, The Times. December 20, 2016, Accessed March 21, 2017
  23. The Associated Press
    . February 6, 2020. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
  24. ^ "Dark Web Child Pornography Facilitator Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Advertise Child Pornography". 6 February 2020. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021.
  25. ^ Brodkin, Jon (16 September 2021). "Man once called world's "largest facilitator of child porn" sentenced to 27 years". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 17 September 2021.
  26. ^ "Dark Web Child Pornography Facilitator Sentenced to 27 Years in Prison for Conspiracy to Advertise Child Pornography". 16 September 2021. Archived from the original on 16 September 2021.
  27. ^ "Child abuse sites on Tor compromised by malware". 5 August 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  28. ^ Poulsen, Kevin (27 January 2014). "If You Used This Secure Webmail Site, the FBI Has Your Inbox". Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  29. ^ Howell O'Neill, Patrick (4 August 2013). "An in-depth guide to Freedom Hosting, the engine of the Dark Net". Retrieved 3 August 2015.
  30. ^ Cox, Joseph (February 4, 2017). "We Talked to the Hacker Who Took Down a Fifth of the Dark Web". Retrieved June 25, 2017.
  31. ^ ID.nl, Redactie (26 August 2022). "Hackers leggen deel 'dark web' plat". ID.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 17 April 2024.
  32. ^ Smith, Daniel (23 August 2017). "The Evolution of the Dark Web – Radware Blog". DDoS Services. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
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