Hackers Target PCs to Store Child Porn

By WISDOM MARTIN/myfoxdc

WASHINGTON, D.C. - It's the latest threat to your PC. Normally credit cards and your identity are at risk, but now your reputation could be on the line.

"The reason people put viruses on computers is either to steal stuff from you or make your computer do things," said Marc Zwillinger, an attorney with Sonnenschein, Nath, and Rosenthal, a firm that defends companies who have been hacked.

Under this new threat, hackers have gotten into PCs storing child porn images. Since it's your IP address, you could end up in trouble-- not the hacker.

"The key is the bad guy has to get you to click on something in order to download malware, or malicious software, to your computer," said Zwillinger.

Zwillinger spent three years as a prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting internet and computer crimes.

"The way they do it is to get you to click on a link. That forces you to get a Trojan, or virus. Then the virus runs when you're not paying attention. and downloads things to your computer you don't want there," Zwilinger says.

And just like that, you're exposed.

"If you click on e-mails you don't recognize and links and you don't know where they go, and it seems like nothing happens. It could be you have clicked on a link that runs a program on your computer,"

Zwillinger says you won't know until it's too late. The only way to prove your innocence is through a computer forensics examination.

"For example, a forensic exam can tell whether a computer was visiting 40 web sites a second-- something a human can't do. What time in the day they are visiting the sites. It it's the same sites over and over again," he said.

The only way to protect your computer from this type of threat is to use anti- virus programs.