
“Having a 'hunch' that someone might be involved in child pornography is not a justifiable reason to infect and hack into their PC,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.
“Two wrongs do not make a right, and hackers should not take the law into their own hands.”
Last week, a 66-year-old former judge from California, was convicted for possessing child pornography on the basis of evidence obtained by a hacker.
Ronald C Kline was brought to the attention of the US authorities after his computer was infected with a Trojan horse by Canadian hacker Brad Willman.
He posted child pornography images on an internet newsgroup visited by paedophiles in 1999. By downloading the pictures, the Trojan was installed onto the suspected abuser’s machines. The hacker was then able to access the infected PCs and gather evidence for the police.