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Canadian coppers find mega child porn network

by on03 March 2015


1.2 petabytes of data

Canadian police say they’ve uncovered a massive online file sharing network made up of 1.2 petabytes of data—more than four times the amount of data in the US Library of Co?ngress.

The porn was found on a data center responsible for storing the material. Scott Tod, Deputy Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) the coppers are looking at charging the datacentre operators because they store the material and provide a secure website that you can log into, much like people do with illegal online gaming sites.

According to Tod, targeting data centers and their corporate directors is an “innovative” method that police are considering in the fight to end the sharing of child porn—but charges will likely hinge on the degree to which employees knew such activity was taking place.

Coppers traced users to a file sharing service, which was hosted by an Ontario company with millions of dollars in profits. Police seized over 1.2 petabytes of data which was so big that, police had to purchase storage hardware similar to what was used by Canadian military forces in Afghanistan so they could analyse it.

To access the files, many of which are password protected, the cops developed password-cracking software in-house that is slowly sifting through the mountain of information.

It's too soon for police to know how many people, or even who, will be charged. But if Tod’s operation is ultimately a success, it could set a new precedent for how police go after those who share child pornography, and the companies that enable its distribution.

 

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