Raphael Satter

In an innovative blow to illicit internet commerce, cyberpolice shut down the world’s leading “darknet” marketplace — then quietly seized a second bazaar to amass intelligence on illicit drug merchants and buyers. AlphaBay, formerly the internet’s largest darknet site, had already gone offline July 5 with the arrest in Thailand of its alleged creator and administrator. But on Thursday, European law enforcement revealed that Dutch cyberpolice had for a month been running Hansa Market. Like AlphaBay, Hansa operated in the darknet, an anonymity-friendly internet netherworld inaccessible to standard browsers. AlphaBay’s users had flocked to Hansa, which is largely based...

WikiLeaks to help shield tech firms from CIA’s hacking tools WikiLeaks will work with technology companies to help defend them against the CIA’s hacking tools, founder Julian Assange said Thursday. The move sets up a potential conflict between Silicon Valley firms eager to protect their products and an intelligence agency stung by the radical transparency group’s disclosures. In an online news conference, Assange acknowledged that some companies had asked for more details about the CIA cyberespionage toolkit that he purportedly revealed in a massive disclosure earlier this week. “We have decided to work with them, to give them some...

Peppering the 8,000 pages of purported Central Intelligence Agency hacking data released Tuesday by WikiLeaks are reviews of some of the world’s most popular anti-virus products. The hackers are quoted taking potshots at anti-virus firms, suggesting the American intelligence agencies are keenly aware of flaws in the products meant to be keeping us all safe online. The data published by WikiLeaks isn’t systematic enough to draw firm conclusions about the reliability of one product or another and the uncertain dating means the CIA’s critiques provide more of a snapshot than an overview. Still, the posts show America’s top cyberspies aren’t...

LONDON — If you’re making a movie about WikiLeaks, this is the kind of thing you probably see coming. Julian Assange says he has obtained a leaked copy of the script for “The Fifth Estate,” a DreamWorks film about the maverick computer expert and his famed secret-busting site. In a speech before the Oxford Union debating society last week, Assange said his unauthorized sneak peek has left him convinced the film is a hit piece. “It is a mass propaganda attack against WikiLeaks, the organization (and) the character of my staff,” he said, adding that the movie — the...