The Usenet

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The Usenet

• Redteam Presentation for Law Enforcement

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Introduction

• The Usenet is a Internet service accesable by
  anyone with a connection to the Internet it may
  also be available to BBS users.
• This presentation will attempt to familiarize you
  with the Usenet its uses.
• This presentation is under continual development
  by REDTEAM. send feedback to redteam_at_vrhome.com

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What is the USENET?

• The Usenet consists of over 30,000 Internet
  discussion groups, often called "newsgroups." The
  groups are organized by topic, and if you can
  think of an interest shared by at least a few
  people, there is likely already a newsgroup
  devoted to it. Over 250,000 new messages are
  posted to newsgroups each day, containing
  Gigabytes of information.

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What is the USENET? (cont)

• The Usenet is a great source of information on
  any subject, from criminal law to falconry.
  Unfortunately, it is also used by some as a
  medium for distributing images of child
  pornography and for advertising services
  involving the exploitation of children.

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How is it used?

• Using newsgroups is very similar to using email.
  Basically, you send a message, like an email
  message, to a computer that stores your message
  and makes it available for many other people to
  read. Similarly, you may access and read all of
  the messages other people have posted. Usenet
  began in the early 1980's as an electronic
  bulletin board system, but is now much vaster.

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How is it used? (cont)

• Most people who use the newsgroups use a type of
  program called a newsreader, which is a lot like
  your standard email client. There are many brands
  of newsreaders most of the better ones are free.
  To use a newsreader you will have to have the
  Internet address of a newsserver. There are some
  free newsservers, but they are limited. A good
  free view of Usenet can be found at
  www.dejanews.com

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Criminals and the USENET

• While Usenet does not have nearly as many people
  involved in uploading child pornography as are
  active uploading on the preteen channels of IRC,
  the relatively few images that are posted to
  newsgroups are downloaded by thousands of other
  people who frequent those newsgroups. We estimate
  that more people download images of child
  pornography from newsgroups than from anywhere
  else on the Internet.

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Criminals and the USENET

• Additionally, some people post advertisements for
  services involving the exploitation and sexual
  victimization of children. These messages reach a
  large audience, but worse, they reach a large
  audience of specifically those individuals who
  are interested in activities detrimental to
  children.

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Who controls USENET?

• No one organization controls Usenet. Discussion
  group messages are stored on many newservers
  around the globe. These servers pass content back
  and forth, insuring that all of it is accessible
  to everyone who has a newsreader or is using one
  of the web-based services. Most providers store
  the images for a period varying from 2 to 30 days.

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Where are the illegal images?

• Illegal child pornography is posted to many
  groups, most of which were not set up to have
  anything to do with child pornography. Usually
  they do involve sex discussion or erotica. The
  groups with the most such illegal material
  generally have words such as "pedophilia",
  "child", or "teen" in the title illegal
  material, however, could be anywhere.

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How can you catch them?

• Contrary to common misconception, the individuals
  who post illegal material to the Usenet
  discussion groups may indeed be traced, arrested,
  and convicted. The means are not necessarily
  easy, but a child pornographer can almost always
  be positively identified using the proper means.

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Where to get more information

• Other training sessions, including those by
  REDTEAM
• Computing professionals
• www.vrhome.com/icapo
• www.pedowatch.org
• The U.S. Customs Service