30-Year Prison Sentence to Creator of Child Porn Site Used by FBI to Hack Visitors' Computers
Steven Chase, who the FBI said was the creator and lead administrator of the child porn website Playpen hosted on the Tor network, was sentenced to 30 years in prison, DOJ announced. The 58-year-old Chase -- found guilty in September…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise and advertising, transporting and possessing child pornography -- also was given a lifetime term of supervised release and ordered to forfeit his residence in Naples, Florida, the Monday release said. After Chase was arrested in February 2015, the FBI seized the website and deployed a "network investigative technique," which some experts said is a euphemism for malware, to hack into website visitors' computers and over about two weeks get information such as their IP addresses. Some privacy organizations said the FBI's action were illegal because the government used a search warrant that illegally permitted extraterritorial searches and seizures (see 1702100005 and 1610250049). "As a result of the ongoing investigation, at least 350 U.S.-based individuals have been arrested, 25 producers of child pornography have been prosecuted, 51 alleged hands-on abusers have been prosecuted and 55 American children who were subjected to sexual abuse have been successfully identified or rescued," said DOJ. Chase's two co-defendants each were sentenced to 20 years in prison earlier this year, added Justice.