Cybersecurity

FBI ran 23 Dark Web child porn sites to gather visitor info

The FBI was authorized to operate 23 child-porn websites on the Tor network in order to collect data on users via malware, according to unsealed court documents. In January, it was revealed that the FBI had similarly ran a top child porn site for 13 days.

Court documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union show that the FBI was authorized by a Maryland judge to target child porn users of "Websites 1-23." The sites operated in areas of the "Dark Web" on the browser Tor, where IP addresses are hidden.

In January, the FBI said that for 13 days in February last year it had taken over operations of Tor-hidden Playpen, which the agency called "the largest remaining known child pornography hidden service in the world." In the process, the FBI used malware — or "network investigative technique" (NIT) — to infect users' computers until May 4, 2015. More than 4,000 computers worldwide were hacked in this fashion, and 186 people were charged.