Pornography is one of the biggest moneymaking businesses on the Internet. Studies show that 35% of all Internet downloads are pornographic in nature, with 266 new porn sites appearing on the Internet every day. Every second, at least 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography. Money is spent on Internet porn at the rate of $89 per second. Those are statistics from 2006.
For the most part, Internet pornography is perfectly legal, except in it’s most universally loathed and despised form: child pornography, AKA kiddie porn. I’ve even told some of my customers, “I don’t care what you have on your computer; it’s none of my business, but if I come across kiddie porn, I’m calling the cops.”
Laws have been passed and arrests have been made. However, in their zeal to crack down on child pornography, some law enforcement agencies have crossed an ethical line and are reaping unintended consequences.
It seems that, in an effort to catch pedophiles, the FBI has been planting fake links on numerous websites across the Internet. The links purport to lead to kiddie porn, but those who click on the links find that there’s nothing there. Rather than leading to kiddie porn, the links actually record the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the offender’s computer into an FBI database. The Feds then go to the offender’s Internet Service Provider, such as AT&T or Cox, and say, “Someone at this IP address, at this date and time, was trying to download child pornography. Tell us who it was.” Based on that information alone, homes and businesses are raided, computer equipment seized, arrests are made and people go to jail.
The flaw in this type of sting operation is that there is no proof the person charged with the crime is actually the person that clicked on the link. Many viruses and spyware programs are designed to automatically send infected computers to porn sites, “clicking” like crazy without the computer user even knowing what’s going on. I have customers who’ve experienced this same scenario, and that’s exactly what happened to Michael Fiola, an employee of the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents. Fiola was fired from his job after his state-issued laptop computer was found to have been downloading child porn.
Facing criminal charges, Fiola’s life became a living nightmare for over a year. The end result? The charges were dropped after state prosecutors finally admitted they could not prove that Fiola was the person who downloaded the porno. Further investigation had revealed that his laptop was loaded up with viruses, had not been receiving Windows updates and had dysfunctional antivirus software. The laptop had been downloading kiddie porn without Fiola having a clue as to what was happening.
Since all it takes is an IP address to be charged with a crime, individuals and businesses alike had better start to batten down the hatches. People running open, insecure wireless networks and businesses running open, wireless “hotspots” (IHOP and La Baguette, are you listening?), beware. That guy sitting in the car outside with his laptop could be downloading child pornography, but it’s your IP address that will be busted. Employees committing Internet crimes will bring down the wrath of law enforcement upon the entire company. You’d better be careful about what links you click on in all of those “joke” emails that you get.
Can you use my computer to check your email? No way.