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Framing people through computers - image filtering problems

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Renegade:

Luke Rudowski came across an attempt to frame him for kiddie porn. He deleted the email, and made a video to quickly report on it. Since then, a couple other guys have been targeted with (slightly) more sophisticated attempts.



http://www.activistpost.com/2013/07/warning-prominent-activists-being.html



A disturbing trend is unfolding where some entity is attempting to frame prominent anti-establishment activists and alternative media organizations with child pornography.



These activists are being sent emails with malicious attachments containing images of child porn in a seeming attempt to discredit them or set them up for arrest.



Two weeks ago Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange.org was sent an email from a @tormail domain with attachments containing child porn.

--- End quote ---



But the vectors there are pretty easy to detect. In the second case, the fellow was already aware of Luke's video, so was wary.



But these kinds of frame-ups are really really easy to manage. I wrote up a quick example here:



http://cynic.me/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/entrapped-kiddie-porn.html



There's no kiddie porn there, but it demonstrates a trivially simple way to slip kiddie porn onto someone's computer. Here's the actual code:





--- Code: HTML ---I'm calling the line below a horizontal rule. It's not. <br /> <img src="images/Whitehousepetition_01.jpg" height="1" width="400" style="position: relative; left: -40px;" /> <br /> And the period at the end of this sentence isn't a period<img src="GDTBuyNow.jpg" height="2" width="2" /> <br /> Now, you have at least 1+ images on your computer that you didn't even "see". What are they? Could you go to prison for them?

Click through to see.



It's really just too easy to do. I could have linked to darn near anything there. There are many, many more ways to do exactly that, but obfuscated one way or another.



It makes me wonder if there's a market for some kind of an image filter that can block that (e.g. AV companies). Years ago it was far too expensive CPU-wise to do, but it is probably practical now. I've not even looked into image filters in years, so I don't know what's out there. But you'd think that you'd hear about something like that... A question on Stack Exchange turns up to be a non-answer.



It's a pretty difficult problem. You need to detect if an image is porn, and then the age. Pretty tough stuff if not impossible.



Stoic Joker:

the problem isn't really the pictures themselves...it's the intent behind them. A single image or even a small group of images in Temporary Internet Files - especially without a damning content page/demonstrate-able pattern of activity - isn't really enough to be worth prosecution. Unless of course the prosecution is in on the frame-up...in which case it wouldn't really matter if the machine actually was clean ... Something would "get found".



Kinda like the good old days when a shady copy would stroll up to the car, lean in the window, say something to distract you while dropping a bag of weed, and then looking down with mock surprise saying what's that?? (you is busted)

Renegade:

the problem isn't really the pictures themselves...it's the intent behind them.

-Stoic Joker (July 26, 2013, 11:29 AM)

--- End quote ---



That's the thing. I don't have enough faith in any kind of "justice" to not see it perverted there. Judges regularly lie to juries. If you end up with a few pictures on your hard drive, the judge can instruct a jury to only decide on guilt/innocence there and steer them away from any "intent".



Here's a scenario...



You hack some site through some old exploit, then set up kiddie porn there similar to my example above. You check the site logs a bit later, then go after everyone that visited the site. POOF! You have X number of people set up and ready for convictions to go into private prisons. If you ran a private prison, this would be an excellent way to get extra business.



From a business perspective, it makes perfect sense. e.g. Haliburton was recently convicted of destroying evidence in an oil spill - $200,000 was their penalty. Pretty much a drop in the bucket there, and easily dismissed as a cost of doing business. They saved TRUCKLOADS of money there and have no serious penalty.



What's to stop that kind of thing in the privately run prison system? They could make a killing there.



Dunno... I just don't have any faith in our current system.

Tinman57:



You know the criminal justice system is making millions when there are companies running private prisons. The small town I live close to just built a jail facility that houses 107 inmates. Why would a small town need that much space? They take in prisoners from other counties, and even other states for profit. They get paid something like $34 a day per inmate. That's $3,638 a day profit. There's big money to be made in the criminal justice system..... Also, the county I live in has 5 state prisons!...... Texas has the 2nd largest prison system in the U.S. So the saying goes for this state, "Go on vacation, leave on probation".....

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