Hacked Websites Used to Serve Disturbing Child Abuse Images Laced with Malware

Recently, security researchers at the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) have gotten wind of hundreds of complaints involving compromised websites linking to child abuse images and malware. In such cases, hackers are literally breaking into several legal adult websites and inserting links to other hacked websites to download folders full of child sex abuse images accompanied by malware when accessed.

Child Abuse undoubtedly is a never-ending issue many countries face on an unprecedented scale each and every day. It is never a good story to hear about how hackers are making matters worse by spreading an abundance of grotesque child abuse images throughout the internet using hacked sites.

We get reminded just about every day on how the Internet can be such a cruel place if you end up in the wrong corners. In the recent rash of compromised sites used to spread child abuse images in an effort to infect systems with malware, it was discovered by IWF that the images are the 'worst of worst'. It is almost difficult to even express some of the findings of the disturbing images featuring children succumbing to sexual abuse and some of them barely know how to walk yet.

This latest discovery is a harsh reality that proves to be difficult to swallow for any sound-minded person. For hackers to conduct themselves in such a manner really underlies how low they will stoop just for the benefit of potentially earning money or spreading aggressive computer viruses.

The researchers at IWF believe that the hackers behind this child abuse exploitation really do not want to distribute images of child sexual abuse to ’normal’ people. It is possible that the hackers thrive on demented individuals or those who might belong locked up in a padded room for the rest of their natural life on this earth.

Pornography sites have long been a harbor for malware and one of the main culprits of spreading malicious content on the internet. Aside from partaking of the fleshly nature of pornographic sites, computer users find themselves having a 50 percent chance of getting infected with some form of malware by visiting such sites. Having some of the porn sites attacked and laced with malicious links to child abuse sites really crosses the lines and law enforcement will naturally involve themselves in the quest to identify the perpetrators.

As far as the specific intent of the hackers spreading malware on hacked sites laced with sexually explicit child abuse images, researchers and law enforcement have not made a definitive determination. Some researchers, such as Sean Sullivan at F-Secure, suggested that the suspects could ramp up ransomware efforts by using the images to ’shakedown targets.’

This child abuse exploitation discovery serves as a reminder to all of us how ruthless hackers can be and how they will not stop at anything for the quest to spread malware. Basically, they just want to see the world burn but our collective forces at hand will continue on our relentless pursuit to put the fires out.