Feds bust P2P-based kiddie porn ring

Federal law enforcement officials arrested seven men on Tuesday on charges related to child pornography, the latest arrests in an investigation of peer-to-peer networks that has led to 52 California residents charged or indicted this year.

The investigation, spearheaded by the FBI's Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement (SAFE) team and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), used unspecified "sophisticated computer programs" to identify child pornography stored in folders shared through peer-to-peer applications, such as Limewire, according to a statement released by the office of Thomas O'Brien, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. Law enforcement officers have previously used pattern-matching programs, similar to antivirus scanners, to quickly scan Usenet groups for images that match a list of known images of child abuse.