The FBI reportedly operated almost two dozen child pornography websites hidden on the dark web to lure and catch predators.
Unsealed
documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union revealed
investigators had the authorization to run 23 such websites.
It had already been known that the agency ran the website, Playpen, to help identify users.
+2
The FBI reportedly operated almost two dozen child pornography websites hidden on the dark web to lure and catch predators
The
sites were, 'dedicated to the advertisement of child pornography, the
discussion of matters pertinent to child sexual abuse', according to Ars Technica.
The
agency's sites also monitored: 'methods and tactics offenders used to
abuse children, as well as methods and tactics offenders used to avoid
law enforcement detection while perpetuating online child sexual
exploitation crimes.'
The FBI hoped to distribute malware to users of the sites so that they could be identified.
The
new documents also revealed the trap sites were ran out of a government
facility, and they were able to learn the identities and IP addresses
of users.
+2
The FBI sites were reportedly,
'dedicated to the advertisement of child pornography, the discussion of
matters pertinent to child sexual abuse'
The new information was found in documents that were obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union
Cybercrime
expert Fred Jennings told Ars Technica there is: 'no other way to read
(the documents) than websites 1-23 were hosted at a government facility,
with the FBI's knowledge and to the FBI's informational benefit.
'It's clever phrasing on their part.'
An FBI spokesman said he was unaware of an operation with 23 websites, according to a statement given to the website.
DailyMail.com contacted the FBI for comment.
No comments:
Post a Comment