‘Hactivists’ in all-out attack on child pornography users and hosts

HACTIVIST group, Anonymous, has launched an all-out assault on the users and hosts of websites containing child pornography.

It has temporarily shut down 40 such sites since the start of the month.

Better known for online activism in promoting internet freedom and freedom of speech, it has also published the account details of 1,589 users of one of the world’s most popular child pornography websites, Lolita City.

Since the start of this month Anonymous has been targeting the websites as part of its “Operation Darknet”. It says images of child abuse were being swapped via the Tor network, which affords anonymity to users by routing web browsing queries through a series of servers.

That network is popular with those protesting against political oppression and other forms of censorship but can be exploited by those engaging in illegal activities such as child pornography.

Anonymous said paedophiles were accessing a “darknet” on Tor so they could not be traced.

The “hactivists” removed links to child pornography from one website hosted on the darknet but they were back up soon after. It then stepped up its attack by forcing the website in question offline with a “denial of service” attack.

Anonymous specifically targeted Lolita City because it is regarded as one of the most popular websites among paedophiles. It is understood the hackers infiltrated the members-only board with fake accounts using a particular hacking tool “Chris Hansen” — named after the host of an American show called To Catch a Predator.

They then uploaded clips masquerading as child pornography; leaked a list of more than 1,500 Lolita City usernames who accessed the clips; and crashed Lolita City’s web host. In a web broadcast, Anonymous referred to users of child pornography as “an infestation of abhorrent animals” and said: “We fully intend to make it (the internet) uninhabitable for these disgusting degenerates.”