As y'all should know by now, I'm a security consultant. One of the things I do is investigate the mis-use of company resources.
There are some very unpleasant parts of this job. Often mis-use means finding evidence of employeess surfing child pornography. I find it... far more frequently than the most twisted mind here will probably believe.
Some people just dont understand that things you do on a computer can be illegal. They figure that somehow the rules don't apply there. In the case of senior executives, they often believe the rules apply to their employees, but not to them.
Now I'm not talking about a 16 year old here; as far as I'm concerned that Tracy Lords shit should be legal; and I'm not going to ruin someones life over consensual sex with a teenager. Even if a 40 year old fucking a 16 year old is distatasteful I dont think it should be a felony; they're going to be terminated for cause anyway, they don't need to go to prison as well.
No, I'm talking about adults having sexual intercourse with children as young as 3 or 4 years old.
I've seen things that would turn your stomach. I've seen things that inspired me to violence.; and that's a VERY difficult thing to do. I've seen very young boys and girls; toddlers really; forced to have sex with groups of men, animals, foreign objects...
I keep records of everything I've found, and when and how I've found it. I then report it to the FBI and the National Center for missing and exploited children WHETHER THE CLIENT WANTS ME TO OR NOT.
When I sign on to do one of these jobs, I present my clients with my code of ethics. In it I make clear that I will do nothing illegal for them; nor will I cover up or help cover up any illegal acts I have found. I will report any illegal act to apropriate authorities; but I will NEVER disclose naything I find other than to those authorities, or who they designate.
Some companies don't seem to understand that I ACTUALLY MEAN IT. I have been offered money, I have been threatened with lawsuits; I DON'T CARE. If I find child pornography, or evidence of rape, child abuse, or murder; I am going to report it to the FBI, and/or to local police.
I keep copies of what I have found, along with the reports I made to the FBI and NCMES; just in case they need them for evidentiary purposes. If after 90 days I recieve no response (about 2/3 of the time) I throughly destroy (through a secure shredding utility) the copies I made, but not the detailed reports describing it.
I often recieve spam that contains child porn solicitations. When I do, I take a look, and if it's really child porn, I do the exact same thing.
I have provided evidence that has led to the prosecutions of literally hundreds of individuals.
Guess what? I expect that at some point I WILL have a problem because of this. The FBI has run stings on private investigators of child pornography before, and then charged them with recieving, posessing, or distributing it.
The FBI has a program called innocent images, which has done some great work in helping kids; but they also do a horrible disservice to our freedom and our rights. They will deliberately send people spam containing child porn, then raid the persons house; and seize the computer searching for "evidence".
They have destroyed hundreds, if not thousands of innocent mens lives this way. Theres something VERY wrong about that.
So what the hell do we do?
I said earlier that about 2/3 the time I never get a resposne back from the FBI and NCMES about the incidents I report. Theres something VERY wrong about that.
So what the hell do we do?
Most child pronography on the net today comes from Brazil, Japan, Russia, and South and Souteast Asia. The FBI has no jurisdiction, and limited capability to do anything at all.
So what the hell do we do?
Well, even with the problems I ask you; report any child pornography you come across (and you will eventually if you spend enough time on the net) you report it to the law enforcement and the NCMES at www.cybertipline.com
