Password Managers or the Fatal Mistake of Ross Ulbricht
This chapter will be built from advice that is worth adhering to in the interests of security when using password managers. Most password managers, at least those I recommend in the course, are based on KeePass and the main settings have not changed for many years.
Automatic Disconnection of Unused Password Files
You have probably heard about Silk Road and its creator, American Ross Ulbricht. It was the largest shadow market for drug sales, becoming a symbol of Darknet, and seemed anonymous and impregnable to visitors. The main tool for transactions between users was the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, with goods worth 14-15 million dollars sold on Silk Road in a year.
Ross Ulbricht did not just create this market and organize drug trafficking on a global scale; he also hacked computers, forged documents, and even ordered several murders. All of this inevitably attracted the interest of U.S. FBI agents.
In early October 2013, the administrator of the largest drug sales platform went to a public library - a place he probably considered safe. But it was not his day; he had no idea that he was being followed by several agents who were waiting for him to decrypt his disks and password files.
Ross Ulbricht cared about his security and stored all valuable data in a cryptocontainer. Despite numerous ways to hack a cryptocontainer, the chances of gaining access to the encrypted cryptocontainer, even for the FBI, are slim.
Ross settled in the library and decrypted access to information, including passwords to manage Silk Road. According to media reports, everything happened like in a movie; a man and a woman nearby started a fight. This caused Ross Ulbricht to turn to them and distract himself from his laptop. At that moment, the Asian woman sitting next to him grabbed his laptop with the decrypted data and ran away. Ross Ulbricht was arrested, and thanks to the data from the laptop, the prosecutor proved his guilt in court. The creator of Silk Road was sentenced to life in prison.