14 DAY TRIAL // The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) warns that hackers are using hijacked websites to host images of children subjected to abuse.
According to the organization, the hackers publish the images in a folder on the compromised site. Then, they place links to these images on adult websites.
Neither the owner of the legitimate hacked site nor the owner of the adult website are aware of what’s going on.
“We hadn’t seen significant numbers of hacked websites for around two years, and then suddenly in June we started seeing this happening more and more,” IWF Technical Researcher Sarah Smith noted.
“It shows how someone, not looking for child [molestation] images, can stumble across it. The original adult content the internet user is viewing is far removed from anything related to young people or children,” she added.
“We’ve received reports from people distressed about what they’ve seen. Our reporters have been extremely diligent in explaining exactly what happened, enabling our analysts to re-trace their steps and take action against the child [molestation] images.”
Security expert Graham Cluley believes this might be the work of rival adult websites that try to damage their competitors. Websites caught linking to such illegal content could get in a whole lot of trouble.
On the other hand, the child molestation images posted on hijacked websites could also be the work of hackers who have something against the adult industry.
Another possibility, according to Cluley, is that the child abuse images are accompanied by ransomware, which locks up computers and threatens victims that they must pay a fine for visiting illegal websites.
“Wouldn’t it be an altogether more convincing and successful scam if the victims *had* been visiting adult websites, and found themselves unexpectedly looking at child abuse images?” the expert noted.