Your PC May Be Rife With Kid Porn

Pedophiles troll the darkest corners of the Internet for abhorrent images—images that PC viruses let them download, store, and access on your computer until the police come knocking on your door. Lives and reputations are being ruined as unwitting users take the fall for images they were unaware of, and numerous people have emptied their life savings in the tricky process of proving their innocence, an AP investigation finds.

The viruses come from pedophiles seeking to store child porn where it can be accessed remotely, pranksters, and from people seeking to frame others. The problems for innocent victims of the viruses are compounded by the fact that real downloaders of child porn often blame viruses when they are caught by law enforcement. "It's an example of the old 'dog ate my homework' excuse," one cyberlaw expert says. "The problem is, sometimes the dog does eat your homework." (More antivirus stories.)