Author Archives: WIRED UK

Silk Road Reloaded Launches, But Not on Tor

A new version of Silk Road has appeared on the darkweb, but it doesn’t rely on Tor or Bitcoin. Silk Road Reloaded uses the little-known I2P anonymity network and accepts a range of cryptocurrencies including the meme-inspired Dogecoin.

The site, which has no relation to the two previous versions of Silk Road, is one of a series of copycat marketplaces trying to tap into the lucrative online trade in drugs and other illegal items. Silk Road Reloaded has been in development for a year and can only be accessed using the I2P anonymity software.

I2P, which has been around since 2003, works in a similar way to the more widely used Tor network and hides what people are looking at online. Unlike conventional websites, all I2P sites ends in .i2p. A “clearnet” version of Silk Road Reloaded can also be accessed from normal browsers.

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SMS Service Could Spot the Next Ebola Outbreak Zone

An Australian doctor is raising funds to launch an SMS service in West Africa that sends people to the right medical facilities based on key words used and crunches that data to look for the next outbreak spot.

“During my missions with Médecins Sans Frontières I have always noticed that no matter how distressed the populations we served, someone always had a mobile phone,” Mohamad-Ali Trad, who has a masters in public health and tropical medicine, tells WIRED.co.uk. “We did some research and actually found out that most areas traditionally considered under-resourced do have a mobile phone coverage.” As mobile penetration on the continent continues to rise, SMS money transfer services like M-Pesa are common in parts of East Africa, and Western Union is hoping to capitalize on penetration in Western countries to launch its payment service with MTN.

It is also certainly not the first time an SMS service has been used during a period of emergency or outbreak. Even in April, as Ebola began to creep from Guinea to its neighbors, SMS messages were used to raise awareness about symptoms and protective measures. A similar system has been used in the past during cholera outbreaks, most recently in Mozambique in 2013.

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