The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction

could later bediscovered by lawenforcement. 41Predators also relyon “throw-away”free e-mailaccounts, “secure”e-mail accountssuch as hush mail,and countersurveillancemethods.Predators are alsoengaging in specificcounter-surveillanceactivities such asresearching cases inthe news and topicspresented by lawenforcement at lawenforcement onlyconferences. Tofurther shield theiridentities, offendersoccasionally willdeviate from thecommon use oftraditional creditcards and rely ondigital currenciesand prepaid creditcards to concealtransactions. Theuse of counterforensic tools suchas proxies andIdentification of a Child Pornography VictimIn January 2006, the FBI and NCMEC began conducting exhaustiveanalysis in an attempt to identify the child victim in a widely circulatedchild pornography series on the Internet. Images in this series began tosurface in 2005 and documented an increasing level of sexualmolestation to the minor victim as she aged over at least 4 years. Aprominent clue that produced the strongest lead for law enforcementauthorities was found in the background of one of the images. It was adecorative plate bearing a birth date and a girl’s name hung on a wall.This information was used to obtain a court order directing the SocialSecurity Administration in coordination with the Internal RevenueService to provide information on all filers in the tax year 2006 whoclaimed a dependent child matching the girl’s name from the wall orany variation of it.The information received resulted in the dissemination of action leadsto 29 field offices that directed them to compare the dependentchildren residing in their territory to sanitized images depicting thegirl. On March 18, 2009, the FBI sent an immediate lead to one of thefield divisions to follow up on two children residing within theirterritory who had pedigree information consistent with the girl in theimages. On March 25, 2009, the FBI received confirmation from thefield division that a child residing in its area was the child depicted inthe series. On March 30, 2009, the victim was interviewed, and sheidentified the subject and disclosed the activity that had taken place.The field division also obtained items of evidentiary value that werevisible in the explicit images. From the investigation, an immediatelead regarding the subject was disseminated to another field division.In turn, this second field division conducted surveillance on thesubject’s home. During surveillance, the subject was observed exitinghis residence. Agents were able to obtain written consent to search hishome, car, and shed. Jewelry visible in the explicit images was seizedfrom the shed during the consent search. The subject was arrested,confessed, and provided a signed sworn statement to FBI agents.onion routers 42 byonline predators to remain anonymous when accessing the Internet also has increased. Wheneffective methods of countering law enforcement efforts are developed, the information typicallyis shared among predators—including the suspected law enforcement officers screen name—often enabling even inexperienced offenders to operate undetected.41See Appendix A, Operation Achilles and Operation Joint Hammer. 42Standard routers are networking devices that forward traffic on the Internet onto an effective path for finding aparticular server; however, Onion Routers (anonymity networks) direct that Internet activity along complex circuitous routes in a network designed to completely obscure its origins.24