James Delahunty
7 Sep 2009 10:08
According to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), the vast majority of pedophile activity on the Internet now takes place on public and private P2P networks. Additionally, offenders have become more aware of how law enforcement can track them down, and are exploiting technology made to protect privacy in order to avoid being identified.
"Our focus must now be on tackling this as a priority," CEOP said in its annual report. "The scale and nature of P2P file sharing involving child abuse images is currently impossible to establish. It is a mode of abuse and image distribution that remains largely unseen to the general public and indeed to the victims themselves."
The agency receives very few reports from the public about child abuse images and videos on P2P networks, and instead get the majority of their reports from Internet industry sources and other non-public sources. To avoid detection, offenders are now increasingly using file encryption software to mask the content being shared on P2P networks; even if investigators download the files, they cannot decrypt them to see their contents.
"This is increasingly pertinent with certain developments in technology that offenders have adapted and adopted to suit their purposes. The key developments that are particularly suited to being exploited by offenders are wireless technology (which we have reported on previously but about which we are now receiving increasing reports) and the use of 'off the shelf' encryption."
In addition to off-the-shelf encryption, there also has been an increase in the use of pro-privacy services, such as TOR, in order to avoid being tracked down. CEOP indicated however that these technologies are used mostly, and increasingly by by innocent everyday Internet users for legitimate purposes.
"There is a general trend for people to become more aware of their privacy when interacting online and perhaps the likelihood that manufacturers will move towards everyday encryption as standard," the report said.