Silk Road 2.0 Open for Business

It did not take long for the online illegal drug marketplace, the “Silk Road,” to get back on its feet. Just six months after the FBI shut it down they're back with Silk Road 2.0 and sales resumed, CNET reports. Reports indicate that the marketplace has come back with a vengeance and is more secure. As of April 2, 2014, there were 13,648 drug listings, before the arrests last year there were 13,000 listings, according to a report by the Digital Citizens Alliance.

"What we see on Silk Road today is more drugs, increasing vendors, and an even greater commitment by this community to keeping their 'movement' alive," Digital Citizens' Senior Fellow Garth Bruen said in a press release.

People who use the Silk Road shield their identity by using encryption software called "Tor" that hides the user's IP address. Since 2011, the Silk Road was responsible for $30 million in sales annually, all for illegal items like drugs and phony documents. The only currency exchanged is “Bitcoins,” a digital currency that can be purchased on online currency exchanges.

There is no indication of how long the Silk Road 2.0 will survive, but it is clear that whenever there is a high demand for anything, someone will find a way to make it available - no matter the legality.

Parents should be wary of any suspicious software on their teenagers' computers, especially if it is called “Tor.”

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