A number of digital techniques, known as "masking" and "breadcrumbing", are being used by pedophiles on the Internet to hide illegal material from "normal" users - while allowing others, experts in these methods, to find the images and videos in question, following some hidden instructions and indications.
This trend is the subject of the annual report of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), as reported by huffingtonpost.gr, which provides information on how to "host", distribute and locate such images and videos on the Internet. In essence, these are methods used by cybercriminals to conceal illegal material in public view.
"If you go directly to the site, you see legal material," Sarah Smith, an IWF technical researcher, told the Independent. "If you follow the 'path' through links from other pages, then the images of child sexual abuse are unlocked. It is stored in the browser, and puts a cookie in the browser so that it can see the path you followed to enter the site. When you have followed it, then you can see the pictures ".
This content may be hidden behind seemingly "innocent" blogs, news pages or even fake error pages (404). The IWF first discovered this approach in 2011, stating that it makes it more difficult to locate and remove this material - while increasing its use. In 2016, about 1.572 pages were found to use this method to hide child abuse images, an increase of 112% compared to 2015.
According to Smith, when a report is made, users / researchers enter the page to find this content, to evaluate and download it, but do not see it directly, so the material remains online more.
The majority of pages with child sexual abuse material are in Europe (60%), followed by North America (37%) - which seems to be due to the fact that large providers maintain their data centers there.
IWF also notes that "cyberlockers" or remote file sharing services and image hosting images are increasingly being used by other online services to store and conceal illegal material monitored by pedophiles.
"A secondary reason why we believe criminals use masking and breadcrumbing is that these websites are essentially commercial businesses," Smith said. "They market the material commercially, and the way they do it also affects relevant material from legitimate providers."
At the same time, he points out that criminals who distribute such material tend to discuss their activities relatively openly on forums on the dark web, which provides anonymity, but the largest volume of this content is available on the "open" web, and accessible through "normal" web browsers such as Google Chrome and Safari.
Also, according to the IWF report, codes and keywords are used by pedophiles. "At IWF we have a list of search terms. Some are very direct, others are highly specialized, and can be used to locate such material online, "he said, adding that some of these codes, which may be of a transfer nature, could go so far as to be used more widely.
Source: Sigma Live