Cyber attack targets drug-selling website Silk Road

ISTANBUL

Silk Road is an online black market that is accessible on Tor.

Silk Road, a “dark website” that is only accessible using special Tor software and which sells drugs and other illegal items, was hacked on April 30 and May 1, according to a BBC report.

The site was targeted by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, which floods websites with more traffic than it can handle, knocking it offline.

Silk Road, which was launched in February 2011, is an online black market that is accessible on Tor.

Tor is known as the Deep Web or Dark Web, a service which allows users to browse anonymously online.

"Silk Road is open and accessible," the site's administrator announced today, writing under the username Dread Pirate Roberts.

Several politicians have called for the anonymous market to be closed.

The motive and the perpetrator of the attack remain unknown.