Anonymous Reveals IP Addresses Of Alleged Child Porn Viewers In Latest Sting

The hacker group Anonymous on Wednesday said it posted the IP addresses of 190 visitors of child pornography sites, marking its latest effort to remove digital pedophilia from the Internet.

In recent weeks, Anonymous, which has become infamous for disrupting the online operations of large corporations like Sony, has targeted child porn sites and their visitors in a mission dubbed "Operation Darknet."

The newest targets have been Freedom Hosting, a server that Anonymous accuses of hosting more than 40 child pornography websites, and visitors of those sites who shield their identities using Tor, a software that allows users to communicate anonymously on the Internet.

In a statement last month, the hackers behind "Operation Darknet" delivered a warning to Freedom Hosting: "Our demands are simple. Remove all child pornography content from your servers. Refuse to provide hosting services to any website dealing with child pornography. This statement is not just aimed at Freedom Hosting, but everyone on the internet. It does not matter who you are, if we find you to be hosting, promoting, or supporting child pornography, you will become a target."

When Freedom Hosting did not remove the sites, Anonymous said it brought them down temporarily last month by overwhelming its server with Internet traffic, a technique known as "denial of service." The hacker group said it also published information of nearly 1,600 visitors of those sites, including those who visit "Lolita City," which the hackers said is one of the largest child pornography websites.

According to the hacker group, "99 percent" of Tor users are journalists in Iran and China, government intelligence agencies fighting a secret war with al-Qaida, and members of Anonymous. But the group said it found some users of Tor accessing sites like Lolita City and "The Hurt Site," a website that Anonymous said is dedicated to child rape.

"The only purpose of Operation Darknet was to reveal that a service like the 'Tor Project' has been ruined by the 1 percent using it for child pornography," the group said in a post Wednesday on the file-sharing site Pastebin.

In its latest sting, which was carried out on Oct. 27 and dubbed "Paw Printing," Anonymous set a trap embedded in the latest version of Tor. The trap duped visitors into clicking on a link containing malware that tracked their online movements for 24 hours, the hacker group said. It also allowed the hackers to verify the IP addresses of visitors to the sites, which they released publicly on Wednesday.

"This is so law enforcement can have the probable cause to arrest these individuals, who are clearly are accessing TOR sites containing child pornography," the group said.

While Anonymous said it has received global praise for its cyberwar against child porn, some have said the group should leave this work to authorities. In a blog post last week, Graham Cluley, a security expert at Sophos Labs, wrote that Anonymous might be doing more harm than good by potentially compromising existing investigations.

"Take-downs of illegal websites and sharing networks should be done by the authorities, not internet vigilantes," Cluley wrote. "The anonymous hackers may feel they have done the right thing, but they may actually have inadvertently put more children at risk through their actions."

However, most of Cluley's readers felt differently. After asking them, "Do you think Anonymous did the right thing by shutting down child porn websites?" 1,440 readers, or 82 percent, voted "yes."

Anonymous posted what it claims is a location map of the home IP addresses of visitors to child porn sites.

LOOK:

Comments

[Pema]

12:22 PM on 11/11/2011

what part of "expect us" didnt they understand?

[scythus]

10:17 PM on 11/09/2011

These are exactly the people to take down these sites! They are much better at it than the government and they have no obligation to follow "proper procedures" I hope they start posting pictures of these people as well. Flush em out from from underneath their little internet rocks into the light where they can be stepped on like the cockroaches they are.

[Laura Wiles]

07:38 PM on 11/07/2011

I have been looking all over internet but cannot find the map....I would really like to know if any of them live around me...If anyone could help me find the IP addresses so I can check out my area would be a great help thanks

[Pema]

12:18 PM on 11/11/2011

most cities or counties have a site so you can see where sex offenders live. they dont give the exact address but you can tell pretty much nail it down to a couple of houses i looked so i could avoid those places because i walk alone and have some leg troubles. i was shocked to see how many were around me. there is also a site to see if animal abusers live near you, name and what the charge is. i think many of these animals that we all thought got run over met a worse fate.

[19random35]

05:09 AM on 11/06/2011

I'm generally not a believer in vigilante justice, and I would hope that anyone trying to fight crime does so themselves within the bounds of the law, but I also believe that there is way too much inertia at work, for many different reasons, that prevent solvable problems from getting solved. If we can live with neighborhood crime watches surely there can be room for responsible white-hat hackers in this day and age.

If the circumstances of my life were different I would love to work with a human rights organization taking down human traffickers and the like. I think a lot of these kids that get into hacking do so out of boredom, and we should encourage them to channel their skills into positive directions.

[Pema]

12:26 PM on 11/11/2011

anon is not a group of kids, these are pretty savvy folks. and there are many things you can do working with human rights. you most probably have a family, my mom did too. and she had us put stickers on envelopes worked the polls and worked for fair treatment of people across the globe. my mother left me with one shining legacy a sense of social responsibility, that i cant just live for myself and those i see everyday but to extend myself to others. i have donated over 5000 hours of charity work and i am 53. it can be done and sometimes as a family so your kids learn as well as you can spend time with them. anyway good luck to you and anything you can do. peace!!!

[Pema]

12:30 PM on 11/11/2011

another thing you can do is work the phone banks from your computer, you need not go into a building many groups have sites you can log into a a vol get tele numbers to all to help enact laws or many times you can email a company etc. find the group you are interested in and go for it. i hope i havent spoken out of turn. you seem like a good person and i just want to help you. you are not helpless to help . even my avatar can save a doggys or kitties life. its that easy.

[mooklyn]

11:35 AM on 11/04/2011

We shouldn't rush to judgment on law enforcement- they are restricted by due processes, as they should be. It unfair to accuse investigators of being indifferent to this problem- most have kids, too, you know. The legitimate question would to be to see how much resources they are being given to this work, and the permitted scope by law. Also, I think what we are witnessing is not an uptick in CP activity, but an uptick in awareness through high profile arrests and news reports.

I do support the idea of Anon going after the servers and exposing their owners, but the real and difficult problem is the creators of the images. They hide in plain sight, and shame and fear keeps their victims quiet. That's the work of real police, and we should support them, not blame them.

[Adam Story]

10:32 AM on 11/04/2011

I find it weird that Anon is going after CP when most it originated from the /b/ boards, which has a reputation of being full of it.

[mooklyn]

11:25 AM on 11/04/2011

Would you find it odd that community members in poor areas go after gang crime? They want to clean up their own neighborhood.

[Anthony Nogales]

12:43 PM on 11/04/2011

Have you ever been on /b/? Or just listen to what Faux News says? o.O

[snoozyqz]

02:17 AM on 11/04/2011

Thank God for groups like Anonymous! The article states...." Anonymous said it has received global praise for its cyberwar against child porn, some have said the group should leave this work to authorities." If Anonymous is taking them down and the 'authorities" aren't, more power to Anonymous! They deserve our praises! Keep it up, Anonymous!!!!

[hackitoff]

01:08 AM on 11/04/2011

I'll bet some countries do not have laws banning child pornography. As to the web sites, they're probably already known to US authorities but they can't do anything about it because they are located in foreign countries.

[PaulaMV]

11:33 PM on 11/03/2011

How do I join Anonymous? Way to take action. Public humiliation works.

[Eris23]

01:39 AM on 11/04/2011

We are all Anonymous. Find an operation that you are down with and contribute or start your own. It's that easy. It's not a gang. You don't get jumped in or accepted. You simply have to act.

[snoozyqz]

02:19 AM on 11/04/2011

I was going to ask the same thing. If they need my help, I'm right here!

[Geri Cizmar]

10:56 PM on 11/03/2011

I cannot be more incensed at the moment. Too many comments by obnoxious people that don't realize that our government is not doing their job to protect the innocent.

[snoozyqz]

02:22 AM on 11/04/2011

I haven't gone through all the comments, yet, but if Anonymous is bringing them down, obviously our government isn't moving fast enough and needs their help!

[WonderingNThinking]

02:22 AM on 11/09/2011

True, but I don't think it needs to be the government. If we can peacefully self-regulate crimes, more power to us - and less to the government.

[mrscro]

10:29 PM on 11/03/2011

hmmm yes lets leave it to the authorites since thye've done such a good job(sarcasm) .you know the authorities won't let these monsters adresses known ,wich i feel they should be public,noone who has used thier privacy to watch a child be raped deserves to have privacy EVER again,i think i stand with a large majority on that.way to go anonymous if i was any good with a computer i wouold help you guys ,but unfortuantly i a not.

[Geri Cizmar]

10:29 PM on 11/03/2011

It's time to WAKE UP AMERICA. Too many children in the US are victims of pedophilia in every degree. It ranges in degree from the kid next door who gets molested by the family friend to the kid down the block who disappears and get sold into child trafficking. If this state and this country as a whole, had done enough to stop abuse of children, this wouldn't be happening
I applaud ANONYMOUS. They're probably scaring the pedos more than the feds.

[mistakesk8er]

10:56 PM on 11/03/2011

I think thats the problem, They are scaring the Feds, into thinking they might have to get off their butts and do something worthwhile. It wouldn't suprise me abit if the g-men do their best to make this whole thing disappear without having to spend any time i.e. money on looking into this.

[mooklyn]

11:27 AM on 11/04/2011

Exposure has got to be a pedo's worst fear.

[Geri Cizmar]

10:19 PM on 11/03/2011

Um duh... the authorities are not working fast enough. Kudos to this group for taking on a job that helps put away freaks. Right now, this government seems to be focusing on making money and not on the welfare of children.
I hope a lot of lawyers who work pro bono and have a conscience are paying attention to this cause can focus because I'll bet you anything that many of the people who want to expose the predators are going to be charged as criminals...if found.

[vidmagic]

12:10 PM on 11/04/2011

Using your same logic someone can justify the actions of the Minutemen in Arizona. What you are saying is that if the legal system works too slow then it is alright to take matters into your own hands. Be careful here...you are walking on a slippery slope.

[missjennyk93]

10:16 PM on 11/03/2011

good job!

[Alicia Sonshine Fort]

10:12 PM on 11/03/2011

How exactly does shutting down child pornography put more children at risk? *crickets* It doesn't? Ok then Anonymous, carry on. . .

[thereisonlyoneparty]

01:12 AM on 11/06/2011

It stops investigations and other ongoing actions. It would be like a vigilante group "stropping" the movement of slave labor by kicking them out of a building. The flow has not stopped. They have just moved it from one known/suspected location to something more underground.