Tag: child porn

Child Porn Darknet Sites Surge with Crypto-Payments as Korean Police Hunt "Nth Room" Clientele

The use of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum has become the preferred payment for internet based human trafficking and sexual exploitation services, which include blackmail porn and the sexual assault of minors and children, according to forensics firm Chainalysis.

In a blog post on April 21, Chainalysis reported an alarming and rising trend of cryptocurrency transactions being linked to coin wallets that are connected to human trafficking and slavery as well as Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).

The forensics firm reveals that over the course of 2019 they were able to track nearly $1 million dollars worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum payments to addresses associated with CSAM providers which represent a, “32% increase over 2018, which in turn saw a 212% increase over 2017.”

Although a horrific increase, these transactions actually represent an incredibly small portion of the cryptocurrency market and Chainalysis attributes most of the increase to the rise of cryptocurrency adoption rather than an increased demand for child and blackmail porn.

Child Sexploitation and Cryptocurrency

The rise in CSAM transacted material has occurred despite global crackdowns by lay enforcement agencies. The report highlights the takedown of the Welcome to Video child porn operation which had been operating on the darknet and had collected over 400 bitcoins during its three-year operation.

The sexual assault of children is considered vile almost unananimously and even on the darknet, CSAM sites and the sale of such material is explicitly banned by the majority of markets.

Source: Chainalysis Insights

While cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether are untraceable to more than a random wallet address, in the case of Welcome to Video darknet site, many users paying for CSAM made the initial purchase for the crypto used via fiat and credit-card on ramps which allowed law enforcement to track and catch up with them.

South Korean Nth Room and CSAM transactions

Making national headlines in South Korea last month was the arrest and public exhibition of “Nth Rooms” blackmail porn site ringleader Cho Ju-bin.

The sexual exploitation of underage school-going girls in South Korea has been happening for years in the “Nth Rooms” incident. Notably, they would be filmed undertaking violent self-harm and sexual acts, and the videos taken were made available via Telegram chat rooms after members made crypto payments. The South Korean national community was so reviled they demanded Cho Ju-bin be named and paraded through the streets to face the public.

The police are now on the hunt for the site’s users and are being aided by the four primary crypto exchanges in South Korea, namely Coinone, Korbit, Bithumb, and Upbit. 

Source: Chainalysis Insight

On a review of payments to CSAM sites in a single South Korea region across a 7 year span, Chainalysis identified that most payments were made via exchanges during the late hours of the night and would usually transfer payments in small amounts of less than $50 USD to not raise attention

New York Times Square Billboard Demands Release of Silk Road Darknet Drug Trafficker

A billboard in Times Square has been hired by the ‘Free Ross’ movement as part of a campaign to release Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road contraband marketplace on the darknet.

Ross Ulbricht is currently serving a double life sentence for his role as a darknet marketplace entrepreneur. He is in the seventh year of his sentence and it would appear that he is unlikely to ever be released without a pardon. He is 36 years old.

According to a tweet from the account ‘Clemency for Ross’, the billboard has been rented for several months. The post also claims the campaign message was paid for by a single ‘generous supporter’ and was not funded by any donations that they have received.

Ulbricht Double Life Sentence

Ulbricht was arrested and imprisoned in 2013 for setting up the ‘Silk Road’ darknet marketplace. He operated the site under the alias, ‘Dread Pirate Roberts’ an obvious homage to the staple character in the Princess Bride.

The Silk Road online darknet market place reached the height of its popularity in 2011, and it was a pioneer in postal order drugs and other contraband, and unfortunately, the use of cryptocurrency and Bitcoin for trade on the black market.

Court documents from that time show that the darknet site facilitated around 1,229,465 transactions over its two-year operation. Ulbricht took a percentage of all proceeds. 

Child Porn Solution From Prison

Despite having no access to the internet, Ulbricht has been able to remain active in the crypto community via his friends and supporters who will publish his contributions online.

Last month on May 20, one of his followers published on Ulbricht’s Medium account on his behalf. The article is on Ulbricht’s proposed automated solution called ‘ZKANN’ which the Silk Road founder believes would be an effective measure against the spread of child pornography and pedophilia on encrypted platforms.

Unfortunately, the use of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum has become the preferred payment for internet-based human trafficking and sexual exploitation services, which include blackmail porn and the sexual assault of minors and children.

Ulbricht states that as many large platforms already deploy algorithms such as to automatically moderate content. He goes on to recommend that the operators of encrypted platforms should combine zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) in conjunction with artificial neural networks (ANN)s to identify content depicting child abuse.

Ulbricht also advises that law enforcement data be used to train the ZKANN (ZKP + ANN) to identify the child porn and other inappropriate content and stop it from being launched on public systems.

Like the namesake of his alias, “Dread Pirate Roberts” it appears that Ulbricht is also more than what he appears. Despite his reputation as a criminal among the public, it seems underneath the guise of this notorious drug trafficker image is a man with some virtues worth respect which is perhaps why, even now, he finds himself with strong support for clemency.

South Korean Court Apprehends Crypto Assets of “Nth Room” Ringleader

A South Korean court has frozen 15 cryptocurrency wallets belonging to Cho Ju-bin, the orchestrator of the “Nth Rooms” scandal. The twisted Telegram chat rooms dubbed the Nth Rooms came to the light following a national outcry at the deviant sexual exploitation of underage girls and children by Cho Ju-bin and his team in exchange for bitcoin and ether payments. South Korean citizens have demanded justice and consider the events a national shame. Nth Room administrator, Cho Ju-bin was named and paraded through the Korean streets to face the public in March where he was met with disgust, taunted, and had to be shielded from the furious crowd.

Prosecutors’ plea granted

The Seoul Central District Court Criminal Settlement Division 30 decided to apprehend the crypto wallets following requests by prosecutors that they held crime proceeds gained from child pornography.

These wallets were obtained from Cho Ju-bin last month as he has been under heavy scrutiny about his role in circulating explicit underage girls content in the Telegram chat rooms dubbed Nth Rooms. The court noted that bag preservation and confiscation was a crucial procedure of temporarily deterring the disposition of criminal proceeds. 

Reportedly, the “Nth Rooms” incident had been happening for years as underage school-going girls were sexually exploited after being coerced to do inhumane acts. More than 10,000 people used these chatrooms after paying between $200 and $1,200.

Last month, Kim Reece, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) criminal analyst, was honored for her role in exposing this scandal.

Watertight case

Investigators are continuing coming up with concrete evidence in the “Nth Rooms” scandal needed to pin down the culprits because it is linked to cybersex trafficking, blackmail, and sexually exploitative videos and images. 

The court also mentioned the unearthing of 130 million won, approximately $106,000 at Cho Ju-bin’s home in April and this is also being used as evidence in the case. 

The Korean police have rolled up their sleeves as they are hunting down the clientele involved in the incident. They are being aided by crypto exchanges, such as Upbit, Bithumb, Korbit, and Coinone in the probe. 

Image via Shutterstock

Deutsche Bank Ignored Suspicious Activity of Child Sex Trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Bitcoin Community Screams Hypocrisy

As the NY State Department of Financial Services has slapped Deutsche Bank with a $150 million dollar fine, Bitcoin Community has been quick to call out the institutional bank’s shortcomings in funding the international child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Epstein Child Sex Scandal

Jeffrey Epstein, the recently deceased American socialite and sex offender, was apprehended back in 2019 for prostitution and sex trafficking charges. Convicted of prostitution trade and for sexually assaulting girls as young as 14 years old, Epstein appears to have laundered his money through financial institutions such as Deutsche Bank.

Deutsche Bank and Jeffrey Epstein – Partners?

CNBC reported, the financial banking institution is being fined $150M dollars for their “significant compliance failures,” and for conducting business with Epstein, though they were well aware of his previous indictments. According to the Financial Services Department of New York, the bank had processed hundreds of million-dollar transactions that were questionable, and that should have prompted the German central bank to investigate further into Epstein’s history.

The transactions that were processed by the bank included payments to Epstein’s business partners, who were alleged to have been co-conspirators in Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring. Settlements and payouts to legal firms totaling approximately $13M dollars were uncovered. Cash withdrawals amounting to more than $800, 000 over a span of 4 years also came to light, and the Financial Services Department of NY were quick to call out Deutsche Bank’s failure in addressing and flagging these suspicious financial activities.

Bitcoin Community Blasts Deutsche Bank

The Bitcoin Community was quick to point out Deutsche Bank’s lack of judgment. They indicated on social media platforms such as Reddit that financial bankers on Wall Street are generally quick to dismiss Bitcoin as simply a facilitator of payments for terrorism activities, illicit criminal behavior, and drug trades, but that “douche bank” — Deutsche Bank — just settled for a $150 million dollar fine for helping Epstein finance child sex slaves.

Bitcoin advocates stipulate that there is a lot of money laundering ongoing with traditional financial services. According to Chainalysis, more than $1 trillion cryptocurrency transactions took place in 2019, but only 1.1% of them were found to be illicit. 

Dark Web Sucks in Bitcoin Payments From Viewers Paying to See Livestream Murder

Two 17-year-old Italians have been detained under the Delirium operation for instigating child pornography and live torture viewings on the dark web. 

One of the teens uncovered encrypted websites that would enable his counterpart and him to witness live torture of children as well as sexual abuse of the minors. The two Italians paid Bitcoin (BTC) to a dark site address in order to unlock explicit footage of children being sexually abused. Some were reported to be tortured to the point of dying. All this happened on live stream. 

The deep-web website also had a feature linked to it that incited viewers to pay extra cryptocurrency in exchange for deciding what kind of torture and what level of it would be carried out next on the minors. 

Operation Delirium Taskforce 

Delirium, an operation launched in Siena, Italy, with the help of the Prosecutor’s Office of Florence, is an organization that was founded with the objective of instigating and eradicating child pornography and trafficking rings. Launched last October, operation “Delirium” has recorded 25 suspects (19 minors and 6 adults) residing in 13 Italian provinces, and that are being investigated for instigating crime against minors through their part in disseminating and detaining child pornography. Local Italian law enforcement officials explained: 

“Users that were able to reach those kinds of obscure environments are allowed to take part in acts of sexual violence and torture on minors, performed live by adults.” 

Crypto for Sex 

Child pornography rings and sexual abuse of minors is a more common crime than one might think, and with cryptocurrency payments on the rise, many cybercriminals have resorted to these means in order to gain crypto funds. Investigators all around the globe are actively working to crack down and eradicate illegal child porn websites. 

Earlier this month, Spanish authorities have also arrested several individuals that were tampering with illicit crypto-driven child porn activities. Several users of a platform located in the TOR network were offering its users access to child pornography in exchange for Bitcoin payouts. 

Putting an End to Illicit Child Abuse 

While cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether can be untraceable to more than one random wallet address, users sometimes make the initial purchase for crypto tokens using fiat money and credit card, and an alarming amount of crypto transactions are directed towards Child Sexual Abuse Material purchases. This enables law enforcement to track and catch up with them. Is it effective? Authorities are still working on more innovative and efficient methods to crack down on pedophiles and child sex traffickers. 

DOJ Wants to Bypass End-to-End Encryption to Fight Child Sexual Exploitation – Cause for Concern for Tech?

While end-to-end encryption has long been leveraged to deliver privacy and data protection to tech users, US government officials are attempting to find a way to bypass it, under the pretext that illicit activity revolving around child sexual abuse run unmonitored on strongly encrypted platforms.

DOJ on why it wishes to monitor content

The US Department of Justice (DOJ), along with the Home Department of the United Kingdom, the Australian Minister for Home Affairs, India, Japan, and other government officials have come together to assess encryption – a process in cryptography used to secure sensitive data and protect it from being intercepted by unauthorized viewers.

US lawmakers are saying that although “encryption is an existential anchor of trust in the digital world,” certain aspects of this technology may pose a threat to the public, in particular to “sexually exploited children.” The DOJ alleges that since encryption inhibits legal and government bodies to assess content and review it, criminals, terrorists, and child exploitation rings use platforms with strong encryption to further their illicit activities. The international statement reads:

“We urge industry (encryption technology) to address our serious concerns where encryption is applied in a way that wholly precludes any legal access to content.”

The DOJ also said that tech companies should be responsible for unlawful content that leveraged their services, as it alleges that social media and communications platforms are often used to “groom children online.” DOJ cited an example from 2018, where statistics found that Facebook Messenger was leveraged in many instances to further child sexual abuse material. US government officials stated:

“In 2018, Facebook Messenger was responsible for nearly 12 million of the 18.4 million worldwide reports of CSAM (child sexual abuse material). These reports risk disappearing if end-to-end encryption is implemented by default, since current tools used to detect CSAM do not work in end-to-end encrypted environments.”

EARN IT Act – the quest to up web surveillance

The international statement backed by many law enforcement and government officials echo the sentiments of the attorney general of the United States, William Barr, who has been actively working on getting the EARN IT Act approved in the United States.

The bill targets encryption protection and decrees that government entities and law officials should have the right to assess user content on encrypted sites, to monitor activity, and put an end to child pornography and child abuse. If passed, it would hold platform providers and website owners accountable for content published on their network.

Blockchain and tech community bite back

Cryptography and industry experts have shunned the bill, criticizing it as a direct threat to privacy. As some blockchain and cryptocurrency platforms leverage encryption for digital transactions, the bill may hinder the crypto industry. Furthermore, internet-regulating bills would hold technology companies and website hosts accountable for content on their platforms. This may subsequently result in censorship and website surveillance being amped up on platforms, with website hosts avoiding legal complications.

DOJ wants to ramp up cyber security

However, direct implications of encryption technology proposals such as the EARN IT Act still remain unclear, as the DOJ is still assessing the tradeoff of circumventing end-to-end encryption platforms at the expense of user privacy to annihilate threats to public safety, such as child sexual exploitation. The US Department of Justice said:  

“While encryption is vital and privacy and cyber security must be protected, that should not come at the expense of wholly precluding law enforcement, and the tech industry itself, from being able to act against the most serious illegal content and activity online.”

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