 file-sharing sites pose a particular challenge to law enforcement. After the initial pieces of a file transfer from a )
P2P: Peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing sites pose a particular challenge to law enforcement. After the initial pieces of a file transfer from a "seed" server (large system at the bottom), the pieces are individually transferred from client to client. The original seeder only needs to send out one copy of the file for all the clients to receive a copy.
Image: Courtesy of Wikiadd, via Wikimedia Commons
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Evidence of child abuse, including child pornography, is often readily available via the Web thanks to peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing sites. BitTorrent software poses a particular problem for stopping the trade of these illicit images because it breaks the files into pieces and sends them from one computer to the next via different paths without passing through any centralized servers. This has for the most part rendered cops and security experts powerless to trace the origins of the files and catch the predators.
Recently, however, engineers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have developed promising new software to automate the tracking of BitTorrent content and hopefully help law-enforcement officials solve this puzzle. The key is locating the images quickly by focusing on new files coming out of RSS feeds and entering P2P networks, before they can be widely distributed.
The more times a file has been downloaded via a P2P network the more widely distributed the contents of that file are, making it much more difficult to track, says Robert Patton, an applied software engineering researcher at Oak Ridge who is developing the software with Thomas Potok, head of the lab's Applied Software Engineering Research Group.
Child predators can share images, videos or other content by first creating a small descriptor file, or "torrent," that can be distributed via the Web or e-mail. The torrent file will tell anyone interested in downloading this content how to contact a "tracker" computer that coordinates the matching of consumers with suppliers. Because of the way BitTorrent works, the consumer ends up getting different pieces of content from multiple computers with different IP (Internet Protocol) addresses.
Oak Ridge's software grabs the torrent file and immediately investigates the IP addresses of the different computers from which pieces of the file are stored. Based on data-traffic patterns, the software then prioritizes IP addresses to be investigated, creating a short list of suspects for cops to investigate.
The federal government estimates that more than five children die every day as a result of child abuse. As it is, law enforcement has the resources to work on less then 1 percent of the caseload, says Grier Weeks, executive director of the National Association to Protect Children, a nonprofit based in Knoxville, Tenn. Oak Ridge's automated winnowing of suspects is expected to be a valuable time-saver for law enforcement hunting down those computers and their owners. Currently cops have too many IP addresses, most of them dead ends, to investigate.
Oak Ridge's work on the BitTorrent tool began in early 2010 when the association asked researchers at Oak Ridge and law enforcement officials from Tennessee and Virginia to educate them on the pervasiveness of child abuse and exploitation, much of it shared on the Internet. The idea was for the association to connect Oak Ridge's scientists with law enforcement overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem and hindered by technical challenges. The Knoxville Police Department, home of the Tennessee Internet Crimes against Children Task Force, expressed interest in Oak Ridge's work soon after meeting the researchers.
Oak Ridge's software means that sophisticated methods of data analysis may soon be in the hands of law enforcement officials. Two police departments are now testing it, although Weeks declined to identify them. "This is a Geiger counter for locating predatory pedophiles," he says. "Instead of radiation, it finds the presence of child abuse images."
The biggest concern about the software at this point is whether its use will hold up in court or allow potential offenders to get off on some technicality. If the software does prove successful, however, "there will be one less excuse for inaction, which is what we have now," says Weeks, who adds that he has brought the software to the attention of top law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. "This is an entirely new field really, what we would call child-rescue technology, and it uses the same sorts of tools and methods as are used in counterterrorism."
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12 Comments
Add CommentIt might just be me, but doesn't this sounds like the same method the law use to catch drug manufacturers, and with this method, we still have tons of drugs on the street? Wouldn't it make more sense to target the source instead of going after the billions of users? That's like walking into a bee's nest and killing all the drones and leaving the queen to hatch more drones...kill the queen and there will be no need for the drones and they will die out and disappear.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis sounds like a method, that I am sure, the manufacturer has already build an immunity against just like the drug manufacturers have against the drug task force.
To be honest, I am afraid of the consequences from this technology. I understand that its original intent is to catch child predators, but couldn't this technology be theoretically used to track ANY type of image/video/document/application? If this software is highly accurate at pinpointing the IP addresses of whatever it's trying to track for, then isn't the privacy of the daily user of Bittorrent at stake here? Bittorrent isn't only used to share illegal stuff, like child pornography or pirated videos (I understand that this article doesn't mention piracy, but this software could technically be used to target people who spread pirated materials)...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe users have to know that by viewing and assisting in the distribution of this content, they are putting themselves at risk. It is not enough to only go after the suppliers as pedophiles would just find another source for their content.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have no issue with technology to combat Chils Porn. My only complaint is this article is very poorly written. The article combines the relatively few cases of CP with a larger number of child maltreatment cases that have nothing to do with CP cases. The article is written in a way to suggest that five kids are killed daily by sex offenders, and that is simply untrue. The NISMART-2 has determined only about 40 are murdered in "stereotypical kidnappings" each year, which has nothing to do with possession cases. It causes people to equate possession with child rape/murder cases you see on Nancy Grace.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is another area of concern neglected in this article-- the instances of those computers infected with viruses and Trojans that contain embedded CP puts you at rish of a false arrest.
"The federal government estimates that more than five children die every day as a result of child abuse." Notice how this does not say, "as a result of sexual abuse." This statistic is not really relevant to this story. How many die due to sexual abuse? That would be of relevance to this story. Not every child who is abused is also sexually abused. Something tells me the numbers that are relevant to the story are very dissimilar to the numbers quoted.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthis article mixes up so many different behaviors related to harming children as to make it unintelligible. for instance stating that "The federal government estimates that more than five children die every day as a result of child abuse" as if these deaths are caused by sex offenders is misleading. virtually all of these deaths are caused by neglect or physical violence concerning which this bizarre technology will have no impact.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes, it is deliberately misleading and in error. The five children who die daily almost without exception die at the hands of their parents or caregivers, either through violence or neglect. This should put it into perspective:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBased on a report from the U.S. Department of Justice, National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Throwaway Children, for the year 2002, 40 children nationwide were taken and killed by definite or probable sex offenders, some registered, some not. 40 is 40 too many, but that same year
1296 children were shot by someone else
145 were stabbed to death
89 were strangled
37 were burned alive
17 were poisoned.
The greatest majority of the above deaths were committed by family, usually parents.
603 shot themselves
559 hanged themselves
6132 were killed in traffic accidents.
So, in 2002,
Your child was 1500% more likely to shoot himself than be killed by a sex offender.
Your child was 3200% more likely to be murdered by firearm by you than by a sex offender.
Your child was 15,300% more likely to be killed in a car crash than snatched and killed by a sex offender.
( http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/comments/view?f=/c/a/2010/08/01/MNGO1EM09T.DTL#ixzz0wJlEPL9G)
If I understand the technology correctly, this technology does indeed seek to get at sources of child porn and associated images. While I have no argument with ShellyStow's numbers, I do wonder about the motivation. While the article isn't terribly well written, are you saying that such software is a waste of time? Really, I can't help but wonder about the agenda(s) of some of the commentors. I'm sure that it is probably most likely that none of them have evil intent, but such a vociferous voice against such a positive advancement (that I, as an East Tennesseean, am particularly proud of) makes me question some of my fellow SciAm readers' position on this horrible problem.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt seems that the electronic labels attached to products, that would make feasible that you enter the market and the system automatically makes the addition of all prices and issues a bill when you go to the exit door, have the feature of being traceable by radiofrequency. What's the difficulty in every child wearing some type of this traceable labels, in order that he/she is located everywhere / everytime ?.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't speak about some kind of body implant of chips like the ones used for dogs and other animals, even when extremely low, the risk of having some adverse event or unexpected side effect, for example, an infection that may have serious consequences, precludes the use in humans of dog-like chips. May be for criminals having to stay away from a person or a place ?. Salut +
In Europe, some thousands kids dissapear every year, most of them are lost forever. The info above by Shelly Stow can give some comfort for the families involved in this cases, but the true may be that in most cases, simply nobody knows the final fate of missing kids. Once upon a time in 1988, I was travelling by train from Kalamazoo, MI, to Chicago, IL. In the same wagon, two young teen girls were travelling too, and a couple of men in their 30's approached them, and started a conversation, I past the whole travel thinking that the girls were in danger, but was unable to imagine an acceptable way to influence on it. 1) No kid under 18 must be allowed to travel without an adult chaperone. 2) The warning of "Never talk to strangers" must be repeatedly given and reinforced to kids, even adults are at risk sometimes with this kind of social contact, that seems very common everywhere, probably more in the USA.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo far you have only identified criminals as those at risk. Why are you worried about criminals getting privacy to commit crimes? Many ISPs already track and throttle torrents. This is simply the next logical step.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPerhaps the 2 men in their 30s started the conversation to stay close to the 2 girls and keep them safe from predators.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this