Computer Viruses Could Download Porn As Well

According to an investigation by Associated Press (AP), several instances have emerged in which innocent people have been acknowledged as pedophiles after their relatives or colleagues fell for child porn which some virus had plotted on their PCs, as reported by ABC News on November 8, 2009.

Actually, pedophiles can exploit these viruses in a number of ways; the easiest one being compelling another person's PC to browse child porn websites, gathering images during the process. Thus, someone else's PC could be forced to store videos and pictures, which could be accessed from a remote location when the computer connects to the Internet, security specialists explained. This could cost heavily to the innocent people who have been tricked by actual culprits.

According to AP, all the alleged pedophiles who were accused and prosecuted claimed that they were innocent and that the entire problem had arisen because of certain PC virus. However, the key issue is that at times, actual pedophiles come up with the same explanation, making it difficult for law enforcement to judge the real culprits.

Apparently in one instance, employers at a Massachusetts state agency sacked employee Michael Fiola after they discovered that child pornographic content was stored on his work laptop. For the same reason, Fiola's friends abandoned him and he received threats from various people.

However, Fiola along with his wife had to fight the case to prove his innocence, for which he had to spend $250,000 that he obtained from borrowings against their home and from withdrawing money they saved. However, when investigators discovered that Fiola's laptop had the virus, he was freed of the charges.

Describing the malware, security researchers said that the virus was tactically designed to visit a good 40 child porn websites every 60-seconds, a really callous achivement. Actually, one night when the Fiolas were out, someone remotely accessed the laptop and porn got downloaded for about 90-minutes.

States F-Secure Corp., a security software developer that at any point of time, from an expected one billion Internet-connected computers globally, around 20 Million get contaminated with viruses, which apparently allows hackers to compromise and control those systems.

Related article: Computer Virus Writers Adopt New Strategy

» SPAMfighter News - 11/19/2009