LECENing places to hide: Geo-mapping child exploitation material

Abstract

The advent of the internet has unfortunately increased the scale and complexity of child exploitation material (CEM) with content increasingly moving online, forming online CEM networks through a series of websites that are hyperlinked to each other and lead consumers from one website to another. Extending on prior research focusing on examining network structure and network disruption strategies it was prudent to expand avenues to increase attack strategies. Geolocation and Whois data were utilized to map the prevalence of CEM globally. Differences in the Geolocation and Whois data were observed, suggesting both are critical pieces of information in generating accurate geo-mapping of CEM. These maps show how multi-jurisdictional attack strategies may be employed to attack these networks and remove this content.