The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) warns that hackers are using hacked websites to host child sexual abuse images.
According to the organization, hackers upload the photos to a folder on the hacked site and then publish them on adult websites.
So neither the owner of the compromised website knows what is happening nor does the owner of the porn website.
“We hadn’t noticed anything suspicious for two years, but suddenly in June we started to see this happening and we saw it happening more and more often,” said Sarah Smith, a researcher at IWF.
“We’ve had a number of reports from people who were very upset by what they’d seen. They explained to us exactly what was happening and our analysts started to trace the hackers’ footsteps.”
Security expert Graham Cluley believes this could be the work of rival pornographic websites trying to harm their competitors.
Another possibility, according to Cluley, is that the child sexual abuse images are accompanied by ransomware, which locks down computers and extorts victims to pay a fine for visiting illegal websites.
“The blackmail would be more successful if someone were to be exposed to child sexual abuse images.”
