Battling Increased Child Sexual Abuse Material in the Evolving Digital Age

By Jared Barnhart, Digital Intelligence Specialist, Cellebrite

Parents and law enforcement witnessed a significant shift in the internet habits of children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kids’ screen time increased dramatically as parents sought to ensure their children stayed connected, educated and entertained.

Children switched to online learning while many parents worked from home. Outside school hours, screens became an essential tool to keep children occupied, while parents fulfilled professional duties. This transition, while a necessity, was concerning when parents were unable to fully monitor their children’s online activities.

For parents like me, with pre-teen children, it is a critical time to address online safety. Our children, like my 11-year-old daughter, are transitioning from playing games to engaging in socially connected applications. They’re just beginning to explore the world of communicating through videos, texts, emojis and memes. They enter the online world with the belief that people are inherently good, which can expose them to potential threats. The reality is our children can be in the same room as us, yet could be interacting with a bad actor online.

Consider the scenario of a stranger approaching your child in a physical setting. As parents, our instinct would be to intervene immediately. But the digital sphere does not allow us the same visibility or privilege. Strangers from any corner of the world can engage with our children through their devices–unseen and unchecked.

Law Enforcement Challenges in Protecting Children

While parents face the challenge of not being able to monitor children’s online activities closely, law enforcement agencies face a different set of challenges.  The CyberTipline Data report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) indicates that between 2020 and 2022, the number of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) reports increased by 47% with a staggering 31.9 million total reports in 2022. This rapidly increasing number of cases, combined with budget and staffing constraints, make it a constant uphill battle for law enforcement personnel.

It’s no surprise then that law enforcement units are feeling the strain. Officer retention is a struggle and priority is often given to staffing road patrol units that respond to emergency calls, over specialized units like digital forensics. Even well-funded forensics units struggle to keep up with the influx of cases and the rapid pace of technological changes. There is a mental toll when working on these cases, which can be severe and negatively impact an officer’s personal life.

Investigations related to CSAM can sometimes take years and require an immense amount of inter-organizational support and resources. By the time a criminal is brought to justice, they may have already caused harm to hundreds of children. An example is the investigation of Buster Hernandez, who exploited hundreds of minor-aged victims across the United States for a period of at least five years.

A Brave Voice that Launched the Hunt for Buster Hernandez

Buster Hernandez was a technically savvy criminal who exploited his victims through digital platforms, using what is now popularly called sextortion. His primary target was teenagers, whom he lured, victimized and controlled by threatening to harm them if they did not produce explicit content for him. Once he had the illicit content, he threatened to release the photos and videos online if they didn’t comply with further demands – causing an all-consuming cycle of exploitation for the victims.

This case was especially challenging due to Hernandez’s technical prowess, his use of encrypted platforms such as Linux Tails that veiled his identity and additional resourcing and legal hurdles.

My former agency’s investigation commenced on April 14, 2016, when a complaint was filed by a brave teen, Taylor, who was randomly preyed upon and later became a victim of Hernandez’s sexual exploitation. The case took numerous turns, with Hernandez repeatedly victimizing Taylor and making violent threats. After the initial report, the local FBI connected us to Facebook Trust and Safety, who connected us to FBI in Indianapolis. This was not an isolated case. By October 2016, we had identified 18 other victims in the US.

Challenges in the Investigations

Hernandez utilized hundreds of thousands of anonymous IP addresses, and he regularly deleted the content. This meant we were constantly chasing new accounts and trying to gather evidence that would lead us to identify him.

Additionally, some tech platforms did not immediately view this as an emergency and thus denied information requests. Agencies working on the case had volumes of data to go through, including varying data structures, which added to the complexity.

Besides reviewing data, agencies were manually collecting open-source intelligence– leveraging accounts and usernames to try and find leads – an incredibly time-consuming task.

Team Effort and a Lucky Break

A significant breakthrough came in 2017 when investigative teams discovered an opportunity to conduct a technical operation against Hernandez. A vulnerability in Linux Tails was discovered and when exploited, revealed the subject’s true IP address. This operation marked a turning point in the investigation.

Getting to this moment involved extensive coordination of law enforcement officers serving legal process to internet service providers, social media companies such as Twitter (now X) and Facebook, as well as email and cloud storage providers. The collective efforts of these individuals, despite limited resources and complex legal and technical hurdles, led to the successful capture of Hernandez on August 3rd, 2017. He was charged federally on 41 counts and finally in 2021, was found guilty and sentenced to 75 years in federal prison.

The Buster Hernandez case highlights the unique challenges that come with investigating such cases, especially if law enforcement agencies do not have sufficient resources and access to digital intelligence technology. The fight against internet crimes is ongoing and this case serves as a reminder of the importance of vigilance in the digital age, the need for robust legislative measures and law enforcement agencies prioritizing the protection of children from these sordid crimes.

Still – it serves as a beacon of hope. No matter how “impossible” a case may seem; justice can be achieved and perhaps more brave survivors like Taylor will speak up and reach out.

About the author

Jared Barnhart is a Digital Intelligence Specialist at Cellebrite, a global leader in Digital Intelligence (DI) solutions for the public and private sectors. A former detective and mobile forensics engineer, Jared is highly specialized in digital forensics, regularly training law enforcement and lending his expertise, since more than two-thirds of criminal cases have a digital component.

Source: www.lawofficer.com