The software the suspect uses to create the Shadowerk website is called OnionPeel, which is fictional spoof of software called The Onion Router (TOR). TOR is a free and open-source software for anonymous communication over the internet, using a method known as onion routing. Onion routing was developed by computer scientists working for the United States Naval Research Lab in the mid 1990's to protect online communications sent by US intelligence agencies, the code for their software was released to the public by the Navy in 2005, although the method had been released years earlier. The software code that the Navy released became the basis for the TOR software used by the public, TOR was created by the same computer scientists that created the software for the Navy. In simple terms onion routing sends information in multiple layers of encryption, each layer is decrypted or "peeled" away, just like the layers of an onion, by a network node called an onion router. Each onion node is only able to decode a single layer of encryption, and it only knows where to send the data after the layer of encryption has been peeled away. So an individual node only knows the location of the preceding node and the next node it is sending the data too, it has no way of knowing if the previous node that sent the information is the origin of the message or just another node. The final destination of the message is not known until the final layer of encryption has been peeled away, there can be dozens of layers of encryption, and the physical locations of the nodes can be all over the world, making it extremely difficult to trace the location of the sender, although not impossible.
This episode concludes a storyline from two SVU crossover episodes: Bad Things (2023) and All Pain Is One Malady (2023).
The United States Attorney General (AG), and the Assistant US Attorneys (AUSA) that work under the AG, are prosecutors for the federal criminal justice system. Meaning they have authority over federal law enforcement agencies, the Attorney General is considered the highest ranking federal law enforcement officer in the country; however they do not have authority over local law enforcement agencies like state/county/city police. An AUSA normally does not have authority over a NYPD officer, unless they are assisting a federal case such as this one, that combined with the fact that they are out of their jurisdiction is what gives the AUSA authority over Benson and Stabler in this case.
Benson thanks Stabler for telling her that he'll be away on a case, likely referring to the time he went undercover in the Kosta Organization and didn't tell her starting with the OC episode The Man with No Identity (2021) and which she brought up as triggering in the SVU episode I Thought You Were on My Side (2021).
This episode ended with information for a suicide hotline available.