sorry i guess that title should read "former".

It is ironic that this ugh should have known better. I thought he did cyber security and not investigating CP in his former job with DHS?

yeah but the first article i read said something about him forgetting or failing to utilize a password. i wish i could find that first article. a couple of the screen names he was using would make your skin crawl! that and the fact that he had more than 1 or 2 screen names.

Here is what happened.

There were three child porn sites in Nebraska being run by a man named McGrath. These sites were on the Hidden Services on the Darknet, which is only accessible with the Tor browser. You cannot access these sites with a normal browser such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome.

The FBI seized the sites in late 2012, after McGrath failed to secure his administrative account with a password. Agents were able to log in and uncover the IP address of the Nebraska server where he was hosting two of them.

Armed with the IP address, they were able to find the location of the servers and they seized them. They then set up their sting.

The federal cybersecurity director was accessing those three sites and his identity was unmasked and he was caught. They got his IP address and traced it back to his physical address and raided his place. He was arrested. I think he was downloading some child porn on his laptop when they entered his house with the warrant.

The names of two of the sites were "PedoBook" and "PedoBoard."

The cybersecurity director was using the screen names "fuckchrist" and "PTasseater." I know, I know, pretty raunchy and graphic, but true.

The person who left the administrative account open without a password was McGrath, the owner of the sites, not the cybersecurity guy.

Hope this helps.

rewdiazepam

@EchoMoon: There is a huge amount of stress in the IT field and more specifically the IT Security field. Part of the problem in the IT security field is that sometimes one comes across CP because someone downloads it at work. In my case, my stress level came from 50% travel on behalf of Uncle Sam and then additional PTSD afer 9/11. Job burnout could be a factor in this instance.

Also, Pornography is very addictive, and after a while the regular "stuff" has less of an effect, consumers of pornography look for the effect--and this generally leads in a downward spiral. In some cases, consumers eventually get into CP. The problem is that stopping the addiction, like any addiction, is extremely hard to do by oneself. It's the same progression with alcohol, drugs, anything addictive.

Very few people (IMHO) start with CP - unless that is what they are looking for in the first place.

Rew i think you must have read the same article as i did!

it's not just the IT field. it just seem like i said the ones who are suppose to be so against CP? the ones whose job it is to combat the problem or preach against it just seem to be caught up in it and end up as guilty as the others.

the only thing i've been addicted to was smoking. that's not much, but it i can somewhat relate.

For some, child pornography is the new crack cocaine.

Some people view that stuff and have a difficult time stopping. I don't know if they are just addicted to vanilla porn and they progress to the illicit stuff in an effort to find something more extreme to excite themselves or if it is just the fact that child porn is taboo and prohibited by society than makes it so appealing.

But you can never make me believe that the majority of people who look at child porn would ever act out and commit a crime against a child. I have talked to too many mothers, wives, and family members of inmates and registrants that insist their loved one would never molest a child and I believe them. Just as watching regular porn does not make someone want to rape a female, I don't think child porn turns a normal guy into a child molester. Yes, child molesters will view child porn, but not all child porn viewers are latent child molesters.

What really bothers me is that, since it is an addiction of sort, it can be treated. The majority of people who view child porn are not crazy, but they are not normal either. Much like drug addiction, they have a void in their life that makes them want to seek out things that society deems as being taboo.

We could treat those people, but what do we do? We send them to prison---for ridiculously long periods of time----where they get no help at all. I was in prison and the treatment programs for any addiction is just a joke.

We don't treat these people. They need help, not years in prison.

We ruin families with the incarceration and subsequent registration.

We take away any chance that a person who has this addiction could ever heal.

We ruin his life for him.

We are so bent on revenge in this country that we have become addicted to it.

Now before someone reads this and says to themselves, "He condones child porn," no, I do not. I do not condone any of that, just as I don't condone cocaine addiction or any other addiction. But it should be treated instead of punished.

If anything, I am realistic and pragmatic. I understand all of this because I came from an education in a medical background.

rewdiazepam

Let me revise or explain my previous statement.

When I said I did not believe the majority of people who look at child porn would never progress to molesting a child, I meant someone who was a casual viewer or had just a few pictures on his or her hard drive.

I was not referring to the hard core collectors or those that surf the Internet 18 hours a day looking for pictures or videos of underage kids.

I was referring to the sons and husbands of the mothers and wives I have talked to over the years, the ones who maybe had images out of curiosity or a very few images.

I know many people who have massive child porn collections, organized and placed in the appropriate folders, most likely ARE molesting a child or WOULD if they got a chance. But that is not the case with the loved one's of most of the moms and wives on this board, who I deal with.

rewdiazepam

I do agree it is an addiction. For most, it will never progress further, but some it does progress because as Brain stated, they don't get the same thrill from viewing porn any longer.

If hubby was given the ability to seek help, our daughter wouldn't have been abused. But like you said Rew, society don't care about treatment, it cares about revenge!

Also, about this director I keep in the back of my mind that it is possible the guy was set up. I know addiction is a powerful drug in itself but this guy would have to be a total idiot to just happen to frequent the sites that his own agency was investigating.

Also about porn addiction leading to physical abuse I think it was the latest report by the federal sentencing group that said there is absolutely no correlation between the 2 (or no statistics to support that) Also, very few people start with an addiction to just child porn it is usually just a porn addiction to begin with.

Just adding to the debate of does viewing lead to victimizing - There are some foreign studies that are showing indications of the opposite, that viewers are less likely to become contact offenders.

I think it is tricky to say if it does or it does not. How can you have a sample size with no control group and get validity one way or the other? I would love to see the methodology of those foreign studies Aladdin.