Vigilante Group Targets Child Pornography Sites

A new group of online activists is raising questions about just how far information technology people should go to stop illegal activity online.
In mid-December, some 30 seasoned information security professionals, "white hat" hackers and technologists formed Condemned.org, an activist group dedicated to "eradicat(ing) the existence of child pornography, pedophilia and exploitation on the Internet."
As of its 10th day of operation, Dec. 21, Condemned.org claimed to have "eradicated" more than 20 child pornography servers through proper legal channels, according to Kent Browne, a 40-year-old systems architect for an East Coast consulting firm and a spokesman for Condemned.org.
Browne also claimed that members have hacked into more than 13 servers overseas and erased their hard drives.
Even as some legal experts condemn the attacks, Browne claimed that technologists are lining up to join the fight.
"Everyone that I have spoken to is so anti-child-pornography that they literally beg me to find something for them to do to help," said Ben Bidner, a security administrator for a Web server group in Australia who founded and runs the Condemned.org server.
Condemned also got support from a half-dozen Internet service providers, as well as Web development and security companies in Australia and the U.S., such as Geoday Pty., DuFunk and Ion12 Web Development.
"Condemned.org is striving not only to rid these servers from the Internet, but to make the public aware that we are here actively opposing child pornography," Bidner said.
Comstar.net, a corporate Internet service provider in Atlanta, has joined the cause, offering the group a free mirror site and connectivity. "It's the best cause I've ever come across on the Internet," said Jerry Zepp, Comstar's chief security officer.
Condemned.org aims to make it simple for "normal Internet users" to report offending Web addresses by filling out a simple template located at www.condemned.org.
Condemned.org pushes the information forward to law enforcement agencies — local field offices of the FBI when servers are discovered in the U.S., and the Western Australian Police Web server.
But Condemned also takes action of its own, Zepp said.
First, Condemned.org volunteers notify server administrators of the illegal material stored on their machines' hard drives. Most are responsive, especially administrators at free e-mail services and Internet service providers who are unaware of the material at first, Browne said.
America Online Inc., for example, said it has a general policy of terminating an account, then notifying law enforcement if it's made aware of illegal images or child-porn-related screen names.
But when neither administrators nor law enforcement officials respond, Condemned.org