Police have arrested over a dozen Israelis from across the country they say are suspected of conspiring to trade child pornography, using the “Dark Net” to cover their tracks.
According to police, the suspects were arrested in raids on 17 houses in several different police districts across the country, following an investigation led by the cyber-crimes unit of the police investigations branch, with the assistance of a number of law enforcement agencies abroad.
Like in previous cyber investigations, police said the suspects carried out their operations using the “Dark Net,” the online network popular for illegal activities, where IP addresses aren’t shared.
The case resembles one from April of last year, in which the cyber unit arrested several suspects – including two aged 15 and 17 – suspected of trading in child pornography. During the raids, they also seized computers holding some 100 Gigabytes of child pornography
The cybercrimes unit was founded by the Israel Police in 2012, and focuses on finding hackers, pedophiles operating online, and more and more often, the trade of drugs through the use of the Dark Net and the online currency Bitcoins.
In possibly their largest investigation to date, in July the unit took part in an FBI-lead case against a hacking forum called
www.Darkode.com, which included law enforcement agencies from 18 countries. The member’s only forum served as a meeting place for hackers to share information and collaborate with one another, and was used extensively for the buying and selling of stolen data.
The Israeli suspects arrested in that case included an Arab man accused of aiding a terrorist group and two brothers from central Israel.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Police-Dark-Net-child-pornography-ring-busted-415381
