A secret cyber surveillance programme codenamed “P-Hunt” helped the Kerala Police identify the shadowy administrator of an encrypted instant messaging group that swapped child pornography.
The police identified the suspect as Sharaf Ali, 25, a computer-savvy post-graduate and resident of Vandanoor in Malappuram. They have indicted him for child pornography and he is in judicial custody.
An operative of the Kerala Police Cyberdome, the law enforcement's cyber-forensic research wing, patiently insinuated himself into an adult porn group, one of the many, run by the elusive administrator.
Through a deft act of social engineering, the investigator convinced the administrator that he was seriously interested in child porn. In time, he got an invite to join a highly exclusive niche-group that peddled prurient child videos and images.
The police found that members of the group, including the administrator, were known to each other only by their false, virtual identities. The secret chat group enabled the members to conceal their mobile phone numbers from each other. Moreover, the platform would immediately alert the administrator if any member attempted to take a screenshot.
They learned that most of the candid camera shots and videos of children posted on the group were ones furtively captured on mobile phone cameras from schools, homes, beaches, resorts and water theme parks. The content displayed on the forum was configured to self destruct after single viewing, further flummoxing the police and leaving them no digital trail to pursue.
IG Manoj Abraham, who heads Cyberdome, told The Hindu that the police used some ingenious methods to ferret out the administrator’s mobile phone number and real-world identity. The operative tipped-off the Malappuram police, who arrested the suspect from his home on Thursday.
Sub Inspector P. Chandran of Vandanoor said the police were verifying whether the accused profited from the many porn groups he operated. An effort was on to identify the porn images to help the victimised children. Circle Inspector Babu Raj supervised the local operation.
