The former Californian judge has been sentenced to 27 months in
jail.
Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have reported
that an internet child abuser has been sentenced to jail following
a lengthy case involving evidence gathered by illegal hacking.
66-year-old Ronald C Kline, a former senior judge from
California, has been sentenced to 27 months in jail for possessing
child pornography. Kline was initially brought to the attention of
the authorities after his computer was infected by a Trojan horse
planted by Canadian hacker Brad Willman.
Willman planted the Trojan horse, disguised as images of child
abuse, on an internet newsgroup visited by pedophiles in 1999. The
hacker (who used the handle Omni-Potent) broke into the PCs of
those he infected, focusing on those he suspected of being involved
in child abuse.
"Ronald Kline's conviction has brought to the end six years of
legal arguments about whether evidence gathered by the Trojan horse
was admissible," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "Few will shed tears over Kline
going to prison, but the case does raise interesting questions over
whether illegal hacking and the distribution of malware can ever be
justified. Some may worry that this case will be viewed as a green
light for other hackers to infect computers with their malicious
code."
A Sophos
poll has revealed that 64% of those surveyed believe it is not
acceptable to hack a PC, even if you think its owner might be
involved in child abuse.
Sophos notes that malware has played its part in the successful
conviction of other child abusers in the past.
In December 2005, a German man turned himself
into the police after believing that an email sent to him by
the Sober worm was really a warning from the authorities
investigating customers of illegal websites. In 2003, a judge said he
was uncomfortable that the FBI had not told an anonymous hacker
to stop his illegal activities because of information he was
passing onto them.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.